a magazine for video and filmmakers

THE

Jan/Feb 2006

0 "7^70"801U' 6

A Publication of The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers

www.aivf.org

|M x

\-

SONV

H0V

* -

MORE DEFINITION FOR THE DOLLAR.

Thinking HD is too expensive is over. Getting more definition for the dollar is the new way of high definition. With Sony HDV'" 1080i recording, you can shoot in SD or HD, so you can migrate into HD at your own pace and leverage your existing infrastructure.

Sony's new, smaller, even more affordable HVR-A1U CMOS camcorder fits comfortably in one hand, yet still retains professional HDV features like SMPTE Time Code. XLR audio inputs, plus DVCAM" and DV recording capabilities. It joins Sony's highly acclaimed HVR-Z1U three-CCD camcorder and the HVR-M10U portable deck. Bring HDV into the studio with Sony's HD SDI-to-i.LINK8- converter, the HFU-X310. And choose from a wide variety of the industry's leading NLEs to edit your HDV projects.

HD quality at SD prices... that's the new way of HD.

SONY

Jfr**0*?

AtLk

THE NEW WAY

of H Q

Get a S400 mail-in cash rebate, a full version of the Vegas * 6 nonlinear editing software, and a copy of the ProductionBlox HDV-Unit 01 animated backdrops software— a S1300 incentive (based on product MSRPs) — when you purchase a Sony HVR-M10U portable deck between 10/1/05 and 03/31/06. Details at WWW.SONY.COM/HDV.

HE NEW WAY OF BUSINESS iM

Wireless Networking Video Over IP AV/IT 16X9 Multi-Format HD SNMP | Proxy Ed;

HDV 1080i

Sony El '■■ nic righl 'r

without notice. Sony. DVCAM and i LINK are ■ ■ . ■■ I Sony Corpoi

red Re| id iction in whol*

• of Sony Vegas i; ;*.;ir and Victor Companv ol

hat a ■ ' i lams an :EEF 1394 conned >i -•■■■■.. ■ \

h r. Please refer to ttv locumenl ; with any d i havingai for

•Ill*

?s

( )

MfMAM-"»

►►

ifc.com/medialab

to n?T\cm^

if C. COM

Volume 29 Number i

Cover: Johnny Physical is the subject of Physical Therapy, a short film by Joshua Neuman (photo courtesy of Joshua Neuman)

Contents

Upfront

5 EDITOR'S LETTER

6 CONTRIBUTORS

8 NEWS

The Center for Social Media's fair use report; Vision Test and AT&T; Independence MovieFest By Fiona Ng and Erica Berenstein

14 UTILIZE IT

Tools and news you can use By David Aim

1 5 ON DVD

Reviews of films now available on DVD By Shana Liebman

17 DOC DOCTOR

How to stretch your film beyond a short; Can a fundraising trailer become a short? By Fernanda Rossi

19 ON THE SCENE

NAATA celebrates 25 years of supporting Asian Pacific American filmmaking By April Elkjer

24 PRODUCTION JOURNAL

Making Physical Therapy — the life and death of Johnny Physical By Joshua Neuman

28 BOOK REVIEW

The Mind of the Modern Moviemaker: 20 Conversations with the New Generation of Filmmakers

Bv Ethan Alter

Features

32 THE SHORT STORY AT SUNDANCE

Behind the scenes with Sundance's short film programmers

By Nick Schager

36 WITNESS TO CHANGE

Peter Gabriel's organization harnesses the power of putting human rights coverage on film By Elizabeth Angell

40 UTOPIC MACDOWELL

Filmmakers find a creative retreat at the New Hampshire artists' colony Bv Katherine Dykstra

44 POLICY

Expanding broadband: the legislative battle By Matt Dunne

Listings

46 FESTIVALS 55 CLASSIFIEDS 57 NOTICES 61 WORK WANTED

63 THANKS

64 THE LIST

www. aivf.org

January-February 2

le Independent 3

June 17-24 2006 at Vassar College Poughkeepsie, New York

Register Online at www.flahertyseminar.org

creative demolition

the 52nd Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

GUEST CURATORS: ARIELLA BEN-DOV & STEVE SEID

Tke& ROBERT

FLAHERTY

FILM SEMINAR

212448-0457 ifs@flahertyseminar.org

/AND VIDEO W

Publisher: Bienvenida Matias

(publisher@aivf org]

Editor-in-Chief: Rebecca Carroll

leditor@aivf.org]

Managing Editor: Shana Liebman

[independent@aivf.org]

Associate Editor: Katherine Dykstra

|fact@aivf org]

Designer: R. Benjamin Brown

[benbrowngraphic@msn.com]

Production Associate: Timothy Schmidt

[graphics@aivf.org]

Editorial Associate: Erica Berenstein

[notices@aivf.org]

Contributing Editors:

Sherman Alexie, David Aim, Pat Aufderheide,

Monique Cormier, Bo Mehrad, Cara Mertes, Kate Turtle

Contributing Writers:

Elizabeth Angell, Margaret Coble, Lisa Selin Davis,

Matt Dunne, Gadi Harel, Rick Harrison

Advertising Representative: Veronica Shea

(212) 807-1400 x232; [veronica@aivf.orgl

Advertising Representative: Michael Tierno

(212) 807-1400 x234; [mike@aivf.org]

Classified Advertising: Michael Tierno

(212) 807-1400 x241; [classifieds@aivf.org]

•

National Distribution:

Ingram Periodicals (800) 627-6247

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:

The Independent 304 Hudson St.. 6 fl„ New York, NY 10013

The Independent (ISSN 1077-8918) is published monthly (except combined issues January/February and July/August) by the Foundation for Independent Video and Film (FIVF), a 501 (c)(3) ded- icated to the advancement of media arts and artists. Subscription to the magazine is included in annual membership dues ($70/yr individual; $40/yr student; $200/yr nonprofit/school, $200-700/yr business/industry) paid to the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers (AIVF), the national professional association of individuals involved in moving image media. Library subscriptions are $75/yr. Contact: AIVF 304 Hudson St., 6 fl., New York, NY 10013, (212) 807-1400, fax: (212) 463-8519; info@aivf.org.

Periodical Postage paid at New York, New York and at additional mailing offices.

Printed In the USA by Cadmus Specialty Publications

Publication of The Independent made possible in ^P part with public funds from the New York State :.v.:;,'.: Council on the Arts, a state agency, and the '• National Endowment for the Arts, a federal

agency.

Publication of any ad in The Independent does not consti- tute an endorsement. AIVF/FIVF are not responsible for any claims made in an ad. All contents are copyright of the Foundation for Independent Video and Film, Inc. Reprints require written permission and acknowledgement of the article's previous appearance in The Independent. The Independent is indexed in the Alternative Press Index and is a member of the Independent Press Association.

AIVF/FIVF staff: Bienvenida Matias, executive director; Sean Shodahl, program director; Priscilla Grim, member- ship director; Katie Amslie, information services director; Web Services US, Taishon Black, technology consultant; David Diez, Claro de los Reyes, Benu Laniry, interns; AIVF/FIVF legal counsel: Robert I. Freedman, Esq., Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard.

AIVF Board of Directors: Paula Manley (Secretary), Bienvenida Matias (ex oficio), Simon Tarr (Chair/Treasurer), Elizabeth Thompson (President), Bart Weiss.

© Foundation for Independent Video & Film, Inc. 2005 Visit The Independent online at: www.aivf.org

4 The Independent I January-February 2006

EDITOR'S LETTER

Dear Readers,

This issue is kind of a mixed bag. Id meant for it to be about shorts, and there is one fine piece here that falls under that rubric — about the smart, dedicated folks who program the shorts at Sundance each year, "The Short Story at Sundance" by Nick Schager (pg 36). But for the most part, because this is my last issue and I allowed myself a little creative indulgence (OK, more so than usual), I ended up going a bit flippy-floppy with the content.

I decided to run a piece on the MacDowell artists' colony, because as both a writer who has benefited from artist and writer residency programs and a New Hampshire native (where the MacDowell colony is located), it provides a great opportunity to introduce film- makers to a really valuable alternative (to begging and borrowing from your par- ents or going into credit card debt) in a very beautiful place (what New Hampshire lacks in diversity it makes up for in its scenic splendor). So The Independents associate editor, Katherine Dykstra, went to work and delivered the goods (pg40).

I'm always interested and amazed by people and organizations that mean well and do well. WITNESS is one such organization, and there was no one better to write about them than regular contrib- utor Elizabeth Angell, who has managed to consistently deliver pitch-perfect, gen- erous, and literary work with each piece I've assigned her over the past two years.

Her story on WITNESS is clearly no exception, as evidenced through the pas- sion and candor she elicited from the organization's program manager, Sam Gregory: "We stress that you are not making a video about an issue, but rather for a purpose, for an audience. You want to persuade and shame and move that audience.'' (pg 36)

Also in this issue: a review of a timely and interesting book, The Mind of the Modern Filmmaker, by Josh Horowitz; our policy columnist Matt Dunne on broadband; Asian American organization NAATA turns 25 and celebrates by changing its name; and Heeb magazine's Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Joshua Neuman offers a poignant and unsenti- mental account of his experience docu- menting the life and death of his younger brother.

There are lots of things I will miss about this job, but more than anything else I will miss my staff (all five of them), and especially Shana Liebman, who I am happy to report will succeed me this month as editor-in-chief. Shana and I enjoyed that rare working relationship in which we could pretty much communi- cate without really saying anything — a shared sensibility, sense of humor, and work ethic made the challenge and grind of getting this magazine out each month if not always a complete joy, at least well worth it.

I put a lot of heart into this magazine, and I'm indebted to you, the readers, for appreciating my vision, and for keeping me on my toes.

Thank you, and thanks for reading

The Independent,

Rebecca Carroll

Editor-in-Chief

V*-

Pay only $168 for 52 issues* of Variety and with your subscription you will receive 24/7 access to Variety.com

To take advantage of this offer call:

1-800-323-4345

and mention The Independent.

(new subscriptions only) * Including regular and special issues

January-February 2P The Independent 5

FILM ATA WHOLE

LEVEL

Elevate your appreciation for cinema at the 38th annual Worldfest Houston International Film and Video Festival. Enjoy 60 feature premieres, 104 shorts and 9 seminars at Houston's AMC Meyer Park 16. The festival is open to the public and series passes are available. Come see the art of film taken to the next level.

WORLDFEST-HOUSTON THE 39TH ANNUAL HOUSTON INTERNATIONAL FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL APRIL 21 -20, 2006

WWW.WORLDFEST.ORG

INFO@WORLDFEST.ORG or PO BOX 56566 HOUSTON, TEXAS 77256

ra *™ %

.!? Bs*E O

l>

Wellness Center

CONTRIB

DAVID ALM teaches film history and writing at two colleges in Chicago. His writing has appeared in ArtByte, Camerawork, RES, Silicon Alley Reporter, SOMA, and The Utne Reader. He's also contributed to books on web design and digital filmmaking, and assisted in mak- ing documentaries about architecture and garbage.

ETHAN ALTER is a New York-based film critic and journalist whose work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, and FHM. He regularly reviews movies for Film Journal International and Cineman Syndicate, as well as on his web- site, www.nycfilmcritic.com.

ELIZABETH ANGELL is a freelance writer living in New York. She recently received an MFA in creative writing from Columbia and is at work on her first book.

MATT DUNNE is the Democratic state senator of Vermont and founder of the Vermont Film Commission. Previously, he served two and a half years as National Director of AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) and four terms as a Vermont state representative.

KATHERINE DYKSTRA, The

Independents associate editor, is also a contributor at The New York Post and a freelance writer and editor. Her work has appeared in Time Out New York, Fodor's travel guides, Allure, Redbook, and Ironminds.com. She is a recent graduate of The New School University's nonfic- tion MFA program. And she spends Wednesday afternoons teaching creative writing to the coolest kids in Harlem.

APRIL ELKJER is a producer for Pacific Fusion TV, an Asian Pacific American magazine-style TV show. She also serves on the board of Access San Francisco, cable channel 29, public access television for the city and county of San Francisco, www.pacificfusiontv.com

ERICA BERENSTEIN is The

Independents editorial associate. She is

working on becoming a freelance writer

and a documentary filmmaker. She

recently produced two documentary JOSHUA NEUMAN is the editor

videos in Zambia and is in the process of and publisher of Heeb Magazine. He is a

editing a third. graduate of Brown University and the

6 The Independent I January-February 2006

JTORS

Harvard Divinity School. He has taught philosophy courses at NYU, consulted for Comedy Central, appeared on VH1, Court TV, and NPR and is the co- author of The Big Book of Jewish Conspiracies (St Martins Press, 2005). The Los Angeles Times called him "one part scholar and one part Beastie Boy." He lives in downtown Manhattan in a building his father could have bought for $12 in 1974.

FIONA NG lives in Los Angeles. She has written about film for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Nerve.com and other publications.

FERNANDA ROSSI is a filmmaker and script/documentary doctor. She also leads the nationwide Documentary Dialogues discussions offered by AIVF. For more info, visit www.documentary doctor.com.

NICK SCFIAGER is a freelance jour- nalist and film critic whose writing has appeared in The Village Voice, Complex magazine, Slant magazine, and other print and online publications. He recently received a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, and his work can be found at www.nickschager.com.

Production Insurance, Errors & Omissions, etc.

Debra Kozee

Uo>

ozee (uJcsins.com

19 Fulton Street, Suite 308A, New York, NY 10038

Tel: 800.257.088 3 Fax: 212.406.7584

www.ttocumentary-insiiraiice.com

January-February 2006 I The Independent 7

NEWS

Best Practices for Fair Use

A new report from

The Center for Social Media

By Fiona Ng

The "Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices on Fair Use" was released by The Center for Social Media last November, with the intention of providing clear and set guide- lines to the controversial issue of "fair use" in documentary filmmaking. Drawn up by five film and media organizations (among them, this magazine's parent organization, the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers), the statement takes on the semantic fuzziness of fair use by outlining four different non- exhaustive but commonly occurring con- ditions in which it could be justifiably applied.

Amorphous and highly subjective, fair use is the part of copyright law that allows documentary filmmakers to cite, quote, or use copyrighted material without clear- ance for specific purposes. Because there are no hard and last rules on what qualifies as fair use, the problem, says Pat Aufderheide, a professor and the director ol the Center for social media at American University, is that many filmmakers are either uninformed or discouraged from using it. "Everyday journalists use fair use and don't think about it, everyday histori- ans use fair use and don't think about it," says Aufderheide, who co-spearheaded the project with American University law pro- fessor Peter Jaszi. "Documentarians have not really realized it's their right, because everyone's been telling them it's dangerous to use this right."

Pat Aufderheide, a professor and the director of the Center for Social Media at American University [photo courtesy American University]

The impetus for the statement stemmed from a 2004 study Aufderheide and Jaszi conducted called "Untold Stories," which detailed how rights clear- ance issues impede free speech in docu- mentary film work. What also emerged from these findings was that fair use was largely an obscure notion to many film- makers.

For the next year, Aufderheide and Jaszi began to work on a set of standards for its application by tapping into the experi- ences of documentarians from the partici- pating organizations. The deliberation process took place over more than 10 meetings, characterized by an air of con- scientiousness. "The [filmmakers] want to ensure their own work is not exploited, so they have chosen to be extremely con- scious in what they believe to be best prac- tices. They were really remarkably in con- sensus, and we heard the same thing every- where we went," Aufderheide says. "The thing that most impressed me is the deep concern to maintain integrity of this use all the way through. People were terribly wor- ried that they would abuse it and exploit it. And they weren't just worried that someone might exploit their material, but they have a profound sense what fair is."

The next step, Aufderheide says, is dis- semination: passing the word to films, programmers, and insurers, while devel- oping more educational material. Part ol the plan also includes establishing a net- work of legal clinics across the country

able to answer questions about fair use.

One person that knows a thing or rwo about exercising this right is Brave New Films' Jim Gilliam, who co-produced Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004) with director-producer Robert Greenwald. The expose is among the best-known recent examples of fair use in a documentary, having drawn media and public attention (and the vitriol of Bill O'Reilly) to the use of Fox news footage in lambasting the channel for its Right-lean- ing agenda.

Gilliam said that they were deliberate in using the Fox videos as fair use. Using the master's tools to bring down the master's house, so to speak. "For us, it was a lot about trying to make sure we didn't claim fair use for something that wasn't airtight. We wanted to keep it for [the] very specif- ic stuff [about which] we were being criti- cal of Fox for, as a sort of slam dunk," he says, adding that they did also try to clear as much footage as possible for all their films.

Although Gilliam felt confident about his fair use implementation, he also said that if need be, he and his team were pre- pared to go to court to defend it. Surprisingly, Fox didn't sue. "By them not [suing us], it did set a precedent in a way. Maybe not a legal precedent, but look, if you use news footage to criticize someone, something that they would never give you permission to use, in the most severe case, fair use gives you the power to challenge

8 The Independent I January-February 2006

Membership Includes

-National Workshops -On-Line Resources

-10 Issues of The Independent -Discounts on Business Essentials*

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

BECOME A MEMBER OF AIVF GET 2 MONTHS

□ YES, payment enclosed

□ YES, but bill me later

[J No thanks, but sign me up to the tree newsletter SPLICE! RATES

Individual D $70/1 yr. D $130/2 yrs. For more information and rates visit WWW. 3 i vf . 0 fg Name

*{includes health and insurance programs)

Organization
Address
City
State ZIP Weekday tel. Email	Country fax
Please bill my [~] Visa Acct #	^| Mastercard ~^ AmX
Exp. date: / / Signature

www.aivf.org

BUSINESS REPLY MAIL

FIRST-CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 6990 NEW YORK NY

POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

AVIF

304 HUDSON ST FL 6

■*""*-'" ! NEW YORK NY 10013-1015

NO POSTAGE

NECESSARY

IF MAILED

IN THE

UNITED STATES

i. ..mi. ..n II..M.. ..mi ii.i.i.i..i.i

SB

■

Award-winning director REBECCA CAMMISA

Rebecca Cammisa documents without dropouts.

SONY

For Professional Use A usage professional

MOV

DVCAM

Thinking all digital video tape is the same is the old approach. Sundance Film Festival award-winning director Rebecca Cammisa has a new way of thinking.

Cammisa is documenting the plight of Latin American children looking to reunite with parents residing in the U.S. "We only get one chance to shoot our subjects; we rarely get a second take" she says. "In Mexico, we'd be in the cold at night and the next day in 90-plus degrees; yet we had no problem with the tape. It's fulfilled every need I had with no dropouts. That has been an issue in the past with other tape. But with DigitalMaster '" tape, not at all."

The smaller tape and narrower tracks of Mini-DV, DVCAM" and HDV " actually increase your risk of errors. Sony DigitalMaster video tape's dual layer of active magnetic material protects you, reducing dropouts by 60% and errors by 95%, versus consumer DV tape. Measurably more robust and reliable media... that's the new way to capture.

Learn more at WWW.SONY.COM/DIGITALMASTER

DigitalMaster

THE NEW WAY OF BUSINESS

RECORDER CO-DEVELOPMENT 50+ YEAR LEGACY EXPERT TECHNICAL SERVICE REWARDING RECORDING" PROGRAM I DIGITALMASTER TAPE

1 1 2006 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved Features and specifications are subject to change without notice. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. c" DVCAM logo are trademarks of Sony The New Way of Business and Rewarding Recording are service marks of Sony. HDV and the HDV logo are trademarks of Sony Corporation and the Victor Photo of Rebecca Cammisa by Andrew Holbrooke. '2002 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award.

the powers that be," Gilliam says.

But before that challenge can happen, filmmakers must get the go-ahead from their legal people. "What it comes down to is what your lawyers are going to let you use. Would insurance [companies] let you release a film with footage you didn't clear? That's where it hits the rope," says Gilliam.

Risk assessment, says Joy Butler, an entertainment and business attorney in Washington DC who specializes in clear- ance rights for independent film and music, is exactly what filmmakers should consider before they claim a usage is fair. Butler's book, The Permission Seekers Guide Through the Legal Jungle, focuses almost entirely on this issue. "[I]f you are using copyrighted material, there is always some level of risk. You have to evaluate if you want to take that risk," Butler says. These risks include being sued and losing, in which case the defendants either have to pay monetary damages or pull their films from distribution. In the end, only a judge can decide whether fair use is in proper practice. Still, Butler applauds the release of the Center's statement. "I believe it's a good effort to draft something like that. It

is not conclusive but it is a very good start," she says. "A huge step forward would be if a court looking at copyright infringement cites this statement."

Vision Test and AT&T

"Ideally you're making films for other people to see and however that actually happens. . ." Wes Kim first responded after hearing that his short film Vision Test had been screened by Lois Baaumerich, the director of corporate equal opportunity/ affirmative action at AT&T.

In Kim's smart six-minute film, a series of blurry seeing-eye charts are replaced with pairs of juxtaposed photographs; a white woman and a black man, an Asian man and a white man, an Asian family and a Jewish family gathered around a Menorah. An eye doctor asks questions about each pair of images: "Who would you be more comfortable with as president of the United States? Who would you be more comfortable with as your new neigh- bors?" While simple in both concept and production, Vision Test has now become widely recognized as a valuable teaching tool by teachers and other professionals,

some of whom have adopted it as part of their employee training programs.

So how did this small film from a novice filmmaker make its way onto AT&T's radar? Kim submitted Vision Test to a few traveling film festivals, such as the Microcinema International in San Francisco and the Media That Matters Film Festival based in New York, the latter annually showcases 16 independent social impact short films around the country and awarded Vision Test with the 2002 jury prize. And when Baumerich came across the Media That Matters festival online in February 2004, she was impressed by the creative way Vision Test addresses salient workplace issues such as racism, tolerance, and prejudice.

This kind of recognition is great news for Media That Matters, suggesting that both the audience and the scope of the fes- tival are growing. "One of the things we are always trying to do," says Shira Golding, director of education and out- reach at MediaRights.org, the organiza- tion that organizes the festival, "is not just preach to the converted but reach people who don't traditionally see this kind of

Movie Magic's Newest Releases: EP Budgeting and EP Scheduling Global Vista • Vista Accounting • Vista Exchange • Petty Cash Card Virtual Production Office • Production Payroll • Music Payroll • Residual Payments Talent Payments • Commercial Payroll • The Paymaster • Central Casting

Entertainment

Owned Company

Los Angeles: 81 8.955.6000

New York: 646.473.9000

Orlando: 407.354.5900

www.entertainmentpartners.com

10 The Independent I January-February 2006

A still from Vision Test [photo by Wes Kim]

media... Having media infiltrating the work place, especially in a big corporation like [AT&T], that has not happened very much in the past. To have this kind of work seen there and discussed and reviewed and hopefully impacting the way people think about themselves and their colleagues is very exciting."

Kim, who made the film in response to a call for works in which artists consider what it means to be American, says he is "kind of floored that this particular film, made with such small means and also with so little intent for it to get out there, has become this thing where I keep hearing that somebody knows a teacher who is using [the film]. Or somebody knows somebody working at a company who saw it somehow and is using it."

Inspired by the attention surrounding Vision Test, MediaRights.org is currently working on a partnership with the Society for Human Resources Management, one tenet of which would include screening the Media That Matters Film Festival at the society's yearly conference, with the hope of encouraging HR professionals to get online and access the MediaRights.org database and its extensive collection of social impact films. "All the films are very powerful to educate employees about issues in the community," says Golding.

The case of Vision Test, while unique, clearly indicates that regardless of budget or resources, an insightful piece that

speaks to compelling social issues can have an impact, helping others pursue goals of awareness and education while giving the filmmaker exposure. "It's kind of wild," says Kim. "If you're lucky enough to make something that has an impact on people, it will develop its own legs. Whether you capitalize on that or not is up to you."

— Erica Berenstein

Independence MovieFest

Sick of hustling to get your film shown? Try Independence MovieFest (iMF), an online festival that guarantees a 100 per- cent acceptance rate showing all submitted entries, regardless of length, in crisp DVD quality.

The festival, a joint effort by digital entertainment companies Kaneva and Ideas United (the founders of Campus MovieFest), is open for submissions until May 15, 2006 in the genres of drama, comedy, and documentary in both short and long formats. Within each category online audiences get to vote for their favorite 25, out of which a panel of judges will then choose the final winners. The "Best of iMF" and "Audience Choice" awards will be unveiled on July 4, 2006, the last day of the festival.

To post your film you need a media launcher, the backbone of the festival, which is downloadable from its website. Alternately, there is the option of submit- ting your film offline via snail-mail (there's

an entry fee in either case). Once uploaded, audiences with a purchased fes- tival pass [less than $10] can download films directly onto their desktops or watch shorts — 30 minutes and less — via real- time streaming.

The event, which couples unlimited entries with the unlimited potential of the web, is stretching the bounds of the film festival. "With the internet you don't have a restriction of audience, you don't have a restriction of the number of theatres," says Chris Klaus, Kaneva's CEO. "One reason why festivals accept only 100, 200 films is because they only have so many screens or so much time. But if audiences look at [films] on the computer, they can watch an unlimited number of films."

And unlimited audiences means unlim- ited exposure. "We brainstormed on how to come up with an online film festival. [Campus MovieFest] has experience doing red-carpet festivals at a school level. Their events have always been: Let's meet at this theater and show movies," says Klaus, explaining how festivals with a physical address are by nature restrictive. "This is a common issue with any festivals — how [much of an] audience can you build up with a geographical limit?"

The benefits of iMF don't stop when the festival is over. Filmmakers are invited to leave their films on Kaneva's web site (www.kaneva.com) and sell them online. All you have to do is set a price on your labor of love, and Kaneva will press your film on DVD, then package, and send out each online order. You get a non-exclusive deal (meaning you can show or sell your film at other festivals or venues) and up to 70 percent of the profit contingent on the amount sold.

There are only two kinds of films iMF doesn't accept: those you do not own the rights to — like, says Klaus, Spiderman — and any containing pornography. Other than that, Klaus says the festival is ideo- logically impartial and non-judgmental. "We are not sitting there like, 'We don't like this film so we won't put it on.' We don't want to limit the filmmaker in mak- ing what he or she wants to make."

— Fiona Ng ~k

January-February 2006 I The Independent 11

NEW YORK		j^S^Bm ^k^*
■ 1 1		v. ■'■
	¥ # 1
SYD FIELD rp	i 'Mini '*t* \

^

• 1

€

ff

lind4 seger

JOH^TRUBY

SCREENWRITERS'

A A m A A

THE SUMMIT COMES TO N.Y.C.!

The writing event of the year comes to New York City the weekend of April 29-30, 2006! Four of the most respected and world-renowned teachers on the art and craft of writing - SYD FIELD, LINDA SEGER, MICHAEL HAUGE & JOHN TRUBY - come together for what promises to be an extraordinary weekend for screenwriters.

And, as a Special Guest, famed Hollywood producer and "King of the Pitch" ROBERT KOSBERG joins the NY Screenwriters' Summit for a class on how to pitch your story ideas to Hollywood, followed by a pitchfest on Saturday night when you will have the opportunity to pitch your ideas to Kosberg live on stage!

Overall, it's almost TWENTY HOURS of instruction by five world-class speakers all in a single weekend in the city that never sleeps. We hope you can join us for this very special event.

Ideal for: Screenwriters, TV Writers, Producers, Directors, Novelists, Creative Executives and more!

For information:

www.ScreenwritersSummit.com or 800-814-0544

"Steve Kaplan is a comedy genius/'

THELOSANGELESTIMES

About- ^f eve k<*pW

For almost 15 years, Steve Kaplan has been the industry's most sought-after expert on comedy. In addition to having taught at UCLA, NYU, Yale and other top univer- sities, Steve Kaplan created the HBO Workspace, the HBO New Writers Program and was co-founder and Artistic Director of Manhattan's Punch Line Theatre. He has served as a consultant to HBO, Dreamworks and other top production companies.

From the industry's top stars (Jack Black, Nathan Lane, Nia Vardalos, etc.) to first time comedy writers, produc- ers, directors and performers, Kaplan has worked with and coached the best. His Comedy Intensive offers proven and practical methods and principles that help you reveal and understand comedy from the inside out: How do you write funny? How do you act funny? How do you direct funny? How do you be funny?

Whether you're writing a comedy screenplay, working on sitcom script or directing a comedy, Steve Kaplan's Comedy Intensive is a must for any serious professional. From LA to NY, Singapore to London, find out why the top writers, producers and directors from ABC, Disney, Dreamworks, NBC, Touchstone Television and others

attend his famed class.

Course oi

• Funny vs. Comic

• The Comic Point of View

• The Comic Equation

• Comedy Structure • Writing for Film vs. TV

The 6 Hidden Tools of Comedy

• Putting Emotion into your

Comic Characters

• Commedia and Archetypes Comedy Writing & the Comic Premise

• Straight Line/Wavy Line

• Our Greatest Flaw

• Comedy Perception • Clips from some of the funnie

comedy films and TV shows

MiacU

\Ae.<A Fov. Scveenwnf evs, TV Wvlf evs, Pvo^Aucevs, Dlv-ecfovs, Developi*\ev\f & Cveovttve E>ceciAHves

LOS ANGELES : March 4-5, 2006 NEW YORK : April 1-2, 2006

And don't miss Steve's Actors Intensive the weekend of February 25-26, 2006 in LA.

For information or to register:

www.KaplanComedy.com

or call 800-814-0544

Steve Kaplan's

COMEDY

INTENSIVE

The Industry's #7 Course on Comedy

UTILIZE IT

Tools

You Can Use

By David Aim

Keep a Low Profile

This fall, SL Cine, a Los Angeles film magazine manufacturer, introduced its latest low-profile magazine designed specifically for the ARRlflex 235 camera (one of the multi-city equipment rental firms most popular and versatile cam- eras). The new SL-235LP displacement- style magazine features an extended throat for horizontal film load. With its compact, low profile, the SL-235LP is especially suited for remote, handheld, or super low-profile applications. Made of ultra-lightweight aircraft-grade alu- minum, the SL-235LP weighs just 3.9 pounds and measures 15" x 7.5" x 2".

The Coco-DVL Power Converter [photo courtesy of 16x9 Inc.]

Features include a manual footage count- er built into the door and a speed range

of 0-150 fps. For more information visit www.slcine.com.

Camcorder Accoutrements

If you don't have a Sony camcorder, now could be a good time to buy one. In November, the Burbank-based camera accessories firm 16x9 Inc. introduced the latest in ever lighter and more efficient power sources: the Coco-DVL Power Converter. Compact and reasonably priced, the Coco-DVL draws voltage from Sony NPF970 series batteries to simultaneously power your camera and such 12V accessories as lights, on-board LCD monitors, and audio receivers. The converter can replace your camera's 7.2V NPF battery and can transfer 7.2V of power and Info-Lithium data from the battery directly to the camera while con- verting 7.2V to 12V for its accessories. Run time in record mode: 135 minutes. For a special introductory price of $300 (suggested retail price is $335), 16x9 Inc. will throw in its ultra-lightweight cam- era light, the Lux-DV

Lest you think we're getting kick- backs from Sony, allow us to plug another offering from 16x9 Inc. for JVC camcorders. The Chrosziel Mattebox System and 4x4 Clamp-on Sunshade System is specifically designed for the JVC GY-HD100 (though it also works with other JVC models). With 16:9 housing and a snap-in 16:9 insert mask, the system offers precise shading capa- bilities for any setting. Features include a full-size French flag, filterstage for 2 fil- ter holders, one 4x4 rotating and one 4x4/4x5.65 fixed combination filter

holder, a pivot mechanism (for optional side wings), and a 1 10:85mm insert ring. The system also includes a center brack- et and lightweight support system with 15mm rods to ensure secure mounting. For cine-style feel and function, extra options include the Chrosziel DV Studio rig follow focus and Focus Gear Drive. The introductory price of $1566 will soon hike up to $1800; the optional fea- tures are also on sale. For more informa- tion on either the Coco-DVL or the Chrosziel Mattebox System and shade system, visit www.l6x9inc.com.

Editing on the Fly

For the on-the-go editor, Matrox released what it claims is the world's first external upgrade designed to deliver multi-display support to compatible lap- tops. The palm-sized box connects to the VGA output of a laptop, and allows you to attach two external displays to your system and run Windows at a resolution up to 2560x1024 across both displays. The system can also deliver multi-display options, thus maximizing your editing application's usability. DualHead2Go can even be used in conjunction with your laptop's built-in display, thereby giving you three displays at once. Moreover, sound professionals can extend tracks and place mixers across all three displays, while graphics designers can view photo editing and desktop pub- lishing applications simultaneously. On the market since mid-November, DualHead2Go currently runs $169. For more, visit www.matrox.com. "&

14 The Independent I January-February 2006

on DVD

Reviews of films now available on DVD

By Shana Liebman

HIGH POWERED

SLaM

NantN

THE SPORT OF SPOKEN WORD

' ^.MBYPAULOEVUN

Awful Normal

There is a helluva lot of crying in this movie — which isn't surprising as it is the story of two sisters who confront the man (their father's friend, Alan) who sexually abused them 25 years ago. Awful Normal, one of seven films that IndieWIRE chose for their 2005 Undiscovered Gems Film Festival, has a tremendous starting point with a natural arc, and the family dynam- ics yield some very rich material. It's a lit- tle surreal watching the sisters and their mother explain to Alan's now-grown chil- dren— whom they were friendly with as kids — that their father asked a five-year- old to give him a blowjob. The climactic scene in which the women confront Alan — most of which is an audio record- ing played against a black screen cut with home video clips of the girls as kids — is incredible. "I remember you were holding a Popsicle as I molested you," Alan says in full confession. There are other moving moments and it's heartening to see how satisfying a journey it is for the filmmak- ers— particularly for younger sister Celesta Davis, who made the film. But unlike Capturing the Friedmans,

there's no mystery or subtly or outsider perspective on this horror, so all the emotional outpouring and self-question- ing make the film feel too much like a family therapy session, www.cineque ston- line.org

SlamNation

It's amazing that poetry slams — an oxy- moronic barroom sport that started in Chicago in 1986 — blossomed into a national grassroots art movement with such a large following. And it's certainly worth taking a look at how that happened. Paul Devlin's film, released in 1998 and just delivered to DVD with additional footage and filmmaker commentary, doc- uments the 1996 National Poetry Slam held in Portland, Oregon with 27 teams democratically competing for the title. The documentary follows the New York team, including Saul Williams, who stars in the fictional Slam, and Mums the Schemer, who plays "Poet" on HBO's "Oz." With a sports-journalism perspec- tive, Devlin offers interviews with com- petitors and clips of the contests. Aside from the occasional overindulgence in

insider slang, it's a lively, fun, educational introduction to this movement. Fierce and adrenaline-fueled performances deliver palpably the conflict for competitors between the desire to win and the desire for artistic and genuine self-expression. www.docurama.com

Dancing for Dollars

Paul Borghese's documentary, which won several film festival awards, is a com- pelling glimpse into the lives of Canadian erotic dancers, who claim they are nothing like their American counterparts (or as they disparagingly refer to them: "strip- pers.") ''Showgirls was the most ridiculous thing ever," says one dancer about Paul Verhoeven's 1995 film (about which she is not alone in her thinking — the film was roundly panned). After watching their elaborate costume- and prop-filled rou- tines, it's easy to see why these Canadians dancers deserve credit for the "show" in showgirl. A series of interviews reveal some interesting personal stories, the business aspects of the industry (i.e. how posing for nudie magazines raises their "show price"), the extent of the individual planning and

January-February 2006 I The Independent 15

ANN ARBOR

FILM FESTIVAL

44th

Annual

Ann Arbor

Film

Festival

MARCH 21-26 2006

Burning minds with

the brightest talent in

experimental film

For more information please visit

www.aafilmfest.org

IQQQQ!

FACTORYI

the bc/t of

creativity that goes into each performance, how these women deal with family mem- bers who disapprove of their career choice and men who treat them as whores. The women, who seem to have been inter- viewed at generic, rural locations, are artic- ulate and the clips of their performances spliced with their confessions makes for a rich and entertaining film, www.imd films.com

The Best of The Electric Company

"The Electric Company" was such a brilliant show — and is, amazingly, still beloved by its fans. Even 30 years later (and even though IVe already mastered the differences between griddle and girdle), the hip '70s cast makes reading as much fun as doing flips on your bed when your mom is downstairs. There's such great energy and spirit behind the show's bright colors and funky music — and there's Morgan Freeman in a paisley headband and bellbottoms shaking his hips and singing "Easy Reader." You remember why you loved this show as a kid. I'm not sure if anyone over five will want to sit through all 20 episodes (again) or if a five-year-old today would still dig the vibe of this dated fantasyland. But the 4-disk set, which also includes interviews with Rita Moreno and

creator Joan Ganz Cooney, and a 28-page booklet with essays by, among others, Dave Eggers, is a serious testament to the series' lasting success, www.shoutfactory.com

Rize

Only David LaChappelle, a music video director cum fashion photographer, could have figured out how to sustain the energy and rhythm that propels this film. His debut feature Rize, which was a hit at Sundance last year, documents krumping, an offshoot of hip-hop made up of fast, convulsive moves, which became an expression of anger, need, competition, and sex in southern California shortly after the Rodney King riots. Krumping arose from clowning, another hip-hop subculture, which involves pantomime and face-paint, and the conflict between the two groups provides what little story structure there is in this film. Although the political insight into how dance became a community-strengthening tac- tic for a desperate LA subculture is inter- esting and important, the film lacks enough personal details and stories about the dancers. Rize succeeds most as an amazingly vivid visual show of vibrant gyrations and glistening bodies. http://rizemovie.com/rize.php "k

16 The Independent I January-February 2006

the Documentary Doctor

By Fernanda Rossi

Dear Doc Doctor:

I'm in my first week of editing, and I have this horrible feeling that my 100 hours of footage won't be enough even for a short. How can I stretch my film beyond the short format?

Most likely you are suffering first week editing jitters rather than a real short ver- sus long format dilemma. Sometimes we wonder: "Do I have enough to tell the story?" Other times: "Oh my God I have so much amazing material, I need a six- part series." Neither reflects the reality of the situation but more a projection of what the story structure could be.

The decision between short and long format shouldn't be based on how much footage you've shot but rather on the story elements evident in that footage. Some questions to ask yourself, prefer- ably much earlier than the first day of editing, are: How many characters do I have? How many of those characters have a story arc? And how many aspects of that arc can I explore? How many of those aspects can be expanded and revis- ited? Many characters with strong story arcs call for long format, while portraits with fewer angles are generally better suited for shorts.

You might have gone into your project with the intention of shooting a long for- mat film, and the topic or character wore thin. Although the opposite scenario is more common, going from long to short can be tough to accept and even tougher to explain to investors. Maybe you can wait and shoot more, or just embrace the great possibilities and rewards of a short.

Cynthia Close, executive director of Documentary Educational Resources, a non-profit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes ethnographic and documentary films from around the world, assures us, "Length has never been

a deciding factor for us in evaluating any film for distribution. The defining factor is the content. Festivals, our marketing platform, welcome shorts of various lengths, and we got awarded with both short shorts, Suckerfish (8 min) by Lisa Jackson and longer shorts, Cheerleader (24 min) by Kimberlee Bassford."

She also sees a bright future for shorts on the smallest screens: "With digital technology making it possible to deliver content to hand-held devices — cell phone, iPod, Palm Pilot — short films are reaching new venues and markets as audiences hang by a strap on the subway on their way to work." In the very near future, jitters over whether or not you have enough footage will be replaced by the question of how all the footage you do have can be streamlined and down- loaded to a million cell phones.

Dear Doc Doctor:

People tell me the fundraising trail- er for my feature length doc is more like a short film. Should I submit it to festivals as a short to start a buzz for the feature length?

Maybe you made a short film and decided to make a feature length film on the same topic. Rather than use your short to create a buzz for your longer film, I strongly suggest you spend a few days re-cutting that short into a real

January-February 2006 I The Independent 17

AVF

get it made.

(

AIVF and BVR present

THE GET IT MADE

PACKAGE

open call for entries for AIVF members* DEADLINE: March 3, 2006

■ Go to www.aivf.org for complete details and entry forms

■ Project recipient announced in the April 2006 issue

of THE INDEPENDENT with details on upcoming entries

Become a member of AIVF at

The Get It Made Package recipient for Fall 2005

Jeffrey Stanley, writer/director and Mathew Myers, producer of "Lady in a Box", a short narrative

week video package will goto a selected video projei

courtesy of Broadcast Video Rentals '

)

onic DVX 100A 24 frame Digital Camcorder -Shade FX matte box

-DC Power 5

l wide angle

n

WWW.BVR.COM

-Saehtler or Bogan 503 Tripod -Lithium Ion f

' Broadcast Video Rentals Ltd reserves the nght to substitute equipment

Broadcast Video Rentals

Artistry + Technology -I- Craft = BVR* People Ano Equipment That Work5

CAMERA SYSTEMS HDCAM Z4P VARICAM DVC PRO 5D DIGITAL BETACAM HDV DVCAM MINI DV NTSC'PAL AUDIO LIGHTING GRIP

355 WEST 52 ND ST NEW YORK, NY 1 OO 1 <B p 2 1 2.541 .5390 DR BOD. 797.42B7 F 2 1 2.54 1 .575 1 e-mail: vidcd@bvd.com

fundraising trailer, which is not very hard to do. After getting rid of the cred- its, cut the definitive end and replace it with something that hints at what you will explore in the long format film. That hint is called a cliffhanger or a hook.

If you don't change the ending, investors and grant organizations will ponder, and with good reason: Why invest in or finance something that works already as a short? What is the point in making it longer? Even if your proposal explains ad infinitum all the details that were left out of the short, it's hard to counteract in writing what a film conveys in imagery.

If you set out to do a trailer and ended up with a short, don't let your enthusi- asm to attend festivals override market- ing common sense. After a successful run at festivals, it would be hard to convince audiences of a longer encore. Besides, your trailer can take you on the road too. Virgilio Bravo and Loira Limbal makers of Estilo Hip Hop gave wings to their demo: "We visited over 20 colleges and universities with our fundraising trailer and a presentation on the topic of the film — hip hop in Latin America as a grassroots organizing tool. That started a buzz among our target audience. We raised enough money to start the editing, and now we are expected back in all those places with the finished film."

So embrace your trailer; it's not wasted time or money if you know how to use it. Although cross-pollination between shorts and fundraising trailers is some- times possible, it is hardly ever advisable. The financial and marketing risks are not worth whatever little you save in re-edit- ing one to create the other, -k

Fernanda Rossi is a filmmaker and story consultant, and the author of Trailer Mechanics: A Guide to Making your Documentary Fundraising Trailer.

18 The Independent I January-February 2006

ON THE SCENE

ryr>^

By April Elkjer

In the heart of San Francisco's Japantown at the Radisson Miyako Hotel, a roomful of filmmakers and community activists celebrated the 25th anniversary of a not-for-profit organiza- tion that funds, exhibits, and distributes Asian Pacific American film.

The National Asian American Telecommunications Association or NAATA has much to celebrate: It has lit- erally changed the face of public televi- sion by presenting hundreds of programs that have reached millions of viewers nationwide. It is the largest distributor of Asian American media in the world with over 200 titles making their way into schools, libraries, museums, and commu- nity screening rooms. They host the world's biggest Asian American film festi- val with an audience of 25,000 that watches over 125 movies each year. Notable directors such as Ang Lee, M. Night Shyamalan, Mira Nair, Gurinder Chadha, Steven Okazaki, and Wayne Wang have all shown their early work at NAATA festivals.

The event also marked the unveiling of a new name: The Center for Asian American Media.

25th

Celebrating Asian Pacific American film

"We've outlived our name," explains Eddie Wong, executive director. "I think in the 1980s, when the word 'telecom- munications' meant satellite broadcast, it meant a new era for communications. Today telecommunications means cell phones, PDAs; it just doesn't mean the same thing anymore, so we decided to go with a streamlined name that actually goes with what we do."

Ever at the forefront, the Center's birth can be traced back to 1980 at the University of California at Berkeley where Asian American media-makers, activists, and non-profit representatives gathered to discuss the state of Asian American media at the National Conference of Asian Pacific Producers in Public Broadcasting.

"There was a lot of enthusiasm for the

January-February 2006 \ The Independent 19

Compact, Versatile, Portable.

Hi-def. Digital. It means working smaller and lighter. With an even higher premium on quality. That's why Lowel, the world leader in location lighting, has a whole range of easy-to-carry digital- friendly kits. Their ease of use and versatility are the perfect match for your new way of shooting.

The kits feature a variety of compact, light-weight lights and accessories, many with our Rifa collapsible soft-light that sets up in less than a minute.

Speed. Reliability. Value. It all goes together.

800-334-3426 www.lowel.com

Spencer Nakasako and Gene Cajayon at NAATA's 25th anniversary celebration [Photo by Albert Chau]

idea; the time was right and when the time is right, people come in there [and] they set their egos aside. There's a lot of healthy thinking," says Felicia Lowe, filmmaker and co-founder. "A collective sense of saying, 'Let's put our energies together; let's not compete but let's make something better' and that's what really formed the growth and creativity and the beginning of NAATA."

The Center was formed to combat the lack of representation that many of those original conference-goers saw at the time in nationwide programming. In main- stream media, Asian American images ranged from overplayed stereotypes or worse, to actors in "yellow-face" — Breakfast at Tiffany's (Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi), The Good Earth (Paul Muni as Want Lung), or John Wayne as a yellow-faced Genghis Khan in The Conqueror. Ultimately, it seemed like no one knew what Asian Americans really looked like and what kinds of stories they had to tell.

The founders of the Center for Asian American Media felt a great need to

recast the Asian American image of "per- petual foreigner," so it crafted a mission to present stories that convey the richness and diversity of the Asian American expe- rience to the broadest audience possible.

Twenty-five years later, many of the award-winning founders and friends of the Center were in attendance at the anniversary celebration, among them Loni Ding, who has produced over 250 broadcasts including Ancestors in the Americas, a PBS series that explores the history and legacy of Asian Americans, and Spencer Nakasako, best known for his films dealing with Southeast Asian refugee youth — A.K.A. Don Bonus (1995) and Refugee (2005).

Master of Ceremonies Nguyen Qui Due, host of KQED public radio's national program "Pacific Time," kept things lively as filmmakers, board mem- bers, and staff from various media groups, including the Asian American Journalists Association and Independent Television Service, mingled. Greg Chew, the San Francisco Film Commissioner, showed up to say a few words rounding out the

www.downtownavid.com 212.614.7304

Avid Meridien & 7.2 Systems Avid XpressDV • Final Cut Pro 1:1 • Film Composer • 3D FX Full-Time Technical Support 24-Hour Access

AUDIO & VIDEO POST £tegrated services for

.NDEPENDENT PROJECTS !■■■■■■■■■■■■"■

CITYSOUND

X^ I I I PRODUCTIONS

www.citysound.com 212.477.3250

636 BROADWAY, NYC

January-February 2006 I The Independent 21

I I

NBPC

National Black Programming Consortium

Chisholm '72:

Unb ought and

Unbossed

hrother to Erotber

A Place of Our Own

FLAG WARS

This Far By Faith

A Huey P. Newton Story

FUNDING FILMMAKERS SINCE 1979

The National Black

Programming Consortium

(NBPC) is devoted to the

production, distribution

and promotion of diverse

film and videos about

African Americans and

the experiences of the

African Diaspora.

V '

For more information

about:

•Grants

•Workshops

•Acquisitions

•Distributions

visit www.nbpc.tv or write to:

NBPC

68 East 131st Street

7th Floor New York, NY 10037

212-234-8200

info@nbpc.tv

RFP Applications now

available!

Submission Deadline

June 2, 2006

Independent Film Center, which began in 1983 when it moved into 346 Ninth Street with the Film Arts Foundation, the Bay Area's leading membership organiza- tion of independent filmmakers. Frameline, long at the forefront of LGBT media, joined in 1991, followed by the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in

The original poster from the founding conference [photo courtesy of Nancy Horn]

able to talk about who we are with humor versus the earnestness we felt was required at that time to set that basic library of standards."

The Center also gives between $30,0000 and $50,000 seed money each year to independent filmmakers. All told, they've given a total of $3 million.

"I think that over the last 25 years there is a greater appre- ciation for Asian Amer- ican history and stories of the Japanese American internment have gone deep in the schools," says Wong. "So I think there

1995. Together this consortium of has been progress made at the same time media-makers decided to buy the build- there's many more Asian ethnicities in the ing at 145 Ninth Street (two blocks from US now than before, and those stories are its original location.) just beginning to be told — stories of the

The Center for Asian American Media Mien people, the Hmong, and the is definitely here to stay, and with 25 Cambodians. So there's a lot more to do." years of perspective, its members and As the lights at the Miyako Hotel went

staff can't help commenting on its dim, the crowd watched a selection of remarkable contributions to the Asian film clips from filmmakers who have American media landscape. benefited from the Center, starting with

"I think the big change is the number the touching and gritty Who 1 Became by of films that are being made," says Wong. Mike Siv, which first aired on the PBS "[The number] increases every year, and series "Matters of Race" in fall 2003. The that's just a reflection [of the work the film tells the story of a young Khmer Center is doing]. The work is really get- American man, Pounloeu Chea — his ting good and getting diverse." years living on the streets, his trouble

with the law, his pregnant girlfriend, and The Center funds and presents films, finally, his transformation into becoming documentaries, shorts, and experimental a father. Other notable films were The works, although it wasn't always as Grace Lee Project by Grace Lee, Halving diverse. "As one of the earlier pioneers in the Bonesby Ruth Ozeki Counsbury, and the business, I think many of us felt this My America ...or Honk if You Love really deep desire to create a basic Buddha by Renee Tajima-Pena. library," says Lowe. "A basic fundamental After that, it was lights on and time for

history starting with things we didn't cake and champagne, have in terms of how we got here and "It's great, but I feel old," laughed

who we are. To see the kinds of works Wayne Wang. "That means I'm way over that are available now, such as comedy 25!" "& and drama and narratives, is so different. It's an outgrowth of being able to laugh at ourselves and have the confidence to be

22 The Independent I January-February 2006

it..." -SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

SILVERDOCS

AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival

JUNE 13-18, 2006 |

CALL FOR ENTRIES / Documentary Features and Shorts 2006 DEADLINES / Early: January 27 | Regular: March 3 | Late: March 24

- SILVERDOCS filmmakers participate in the International Documentary Conference June 15-17, 2006,

with access to top industry executives

- Over $35,000 in cash and prizes to filmmakers

, Proposals now being accepted for ACE's (Animal Content

(^\^y in Entertainment) $10,000 grant. ACE is a division of __ The Humane Society of the United States.

More Info: SILVERDOCS.com or Ace-tvfilm.com

Apply now at SILVERDOCS.com or Withoutabox.com

PRODUCTION JOURNAL

PHYSICAL THERAPY

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JOHNNY PHYSICAL

By Joshua Neuman

In October of 2000, my then 20-year- old brother Jonathan was sent to the oncology unit of Massachusetts General Hospital from the Tufts University campus infirmary after a month of persistent head and neck aches and a "suspicious" blood test. While in the waiting room, he stopped a nurse to ask what the word "oncology" meant. Less than 24 hours later he was diagnosed with leukemia.

At the time, I was an adjunct professor at New York University teaching under- graduate courses in philosophy. But, when I picked up my SONY DX-1000,

pointed it at Jonathan, and pressed record, I felt like a filmmaker. When I wasn't at NYU, I was filming Jonathan in Paramus, NJ in our childhood home, in a hospital room (where he spent about half of his time), or at my apartment in Manhattan. I wasn't capturing him on video because I thought he would die. Although today I am grateful to have so much footage of my brother, when the camera was recording, it never crossed our minds that we were creating an archive for posterity's sake. In our minds, we were creating a narrative for art's sake. A little background: Jonathan was a

musician, a punk rocker to be more spe- cific. He founded a garage rock band in 1999 called "The Physicals," started call- ing himself "Johnny Physical," and bap- tized the other members of the band: "Nick Fiction," "Danny Animal," and "Frankie Lines." The Physicals were voted the best band on campus at Tufts University in the spring of 2000, and the members' monikers were soon used more than their real names. So, long before my brother was the subject of my film narra- tive, he was the subject of his own narra- tive, one in which the line between life and art had already been blurred.

24 The Independent I January-February 2006

Jonathan Neuman (top) at WMFO in Medford, MA (Spring 2000); (bottom) with Danny Animal (Spring 2000)

It felt perfectly natural to capture Jonathan's crisis on camera. He was used to being the center of attention and, more importantly, to performing a par- ticular part of himself for the sake of art. At first it was odd how Johnny Physical adapted to his new stage. Less than two weeks after he started chemotherapy treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, when his blood counts were still perilously low, he performed an acoustic show for the other patients, which was advertised on the hospital bulletin boards as "Johnny Physical Plugged." I was in the front row with my video camera as he wheeled his I.V. machine into the day room and

broke into a new song he had written called "Chemotherapy." His hair shaved close, he was somewhere between Iggy Pop and Pee Wee Herman as he roared: "Chemotherapy, chemotherapy, it's what they're telling me."

A few months into his treatment, Jonathan developed a strange ringing in his ears and lost sensation in the tips of his fingers, but this didn't discourage him from taking up the piano. He practiced into the wee hours of the night, falling in love with the instrument as well as with the works of the German romantic com- posers Schubert and Schumann. I shot a recital that he gave less than a year later.

The Physicals' first record had been

Do you want an

attorney who

watches movies,

or an attorney who

makes them?

It's 4 AM... you're worrying if the script is tight enough... if your casting director can find a last-minute replacement.... if you've violated any SAG rules... if you have enough cash.

Been there, done that

Mark Costello, Esq.

Wrote, produced and sold a feature length comedy.

Film production counsel to independent filmmakers.

Municipal counsel on Woodstock '99.

Member of the Executive Committee of Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Attorneys.

m ■( BOYLAN, BROWN,

« K Code. Vigdor & Wilson, llp

I ATTORNEYS AT LAW

Office (585) 232-5300

Fax (585) 238-9055 mac@boylanbrown.com

January-February 2006 I The Independent 25

M* \ March 2 - 12, 2006

lih

"The festival that brings independent

culture to Washington, DC"

(Washington Post)

See the best in indie films (features, shorts,

animation, docs), attend professional seminars,

participate in the leading industry Advocacy Forum.

and best of all, meet filmmakers from around

the world in our nation's capital.

www. dciff . org

Support

the organization that supports you.

Since 1973, the Association of Independent Video

and Filmmakers has worked tirelessly to support independent vision. Our achievements have preserved opportunities for producers working outside the mainstream.

For just $70/yr. add your voice to ours, and let's see what we can do together.

visit us at www.aivf.org

or call 212/ 807-1400

TOTALLY INDEPtNDEHT

called "Get Physical With the Physicals." In this spirit, Jonathan and I planned to turn the footage we were capturing into a concert video called "Physical Therapy." In it, we would include footage from his acoustic show, from his jam session with Art Garfunkel (who heard about Johnny Physical and paid him a surprise visit in the hospital), and from his appearance as the "pinhead" at Joey Ramone's annual birthday bash at CBGB (a hero of Jonathan's since he was a teenager, Joey died of lymphoma in 2001). Slowly but surely, the legend of Johnny Physical grew. APvI-UP of the influential '70s punk band The Slits, also paid him a sur- prise visit in the hospital and Johnny would soon count 2001 Miss USA Candice Kruger and Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover girl Yamila among his legion of admirers.

Jonathan's prognosis deteriorated but shooting of the film continued. Jonathan recorded an album of Johnny Cash covers when he could barely speak. He com- posed songs on an OmniChord OM-300 when he couldn't hold a guitar. When even that became impossible, he simply made sounds into a tape recorder he kept at his bedside — a kind of verbal note- book. I captured all of it on video.

A week before Jonathan's last visit to the intensive care unit, he was paid a visit by Albert Maysles, who at the time was shooting footage for a Bill Moyers docu- mentary about death. Albert planned to interview Jonathan for 20 minutes. He left after he ran out of tape, two and a half hours later. Albert noticed a newspa- per item from the Tufts Daily of Jonathan making out with "groupie 36,000." Jonathan tried to explain Johnny Physical to Albert, but told him that he'd have to see our film to fully understand.

26 The Independent I January-February 2006

Johnny Physical's alter ego. El Conquistador (Spring 2000)

Jonathan passed away in June of 2002, over three years ago. At first, all I could do was stare at the stacks of digital tapes as they collected dust on my desk. Then, slowly but surely I started watching the raw footage, tape by tape, logging time code, and mapping out sequences on a yellow legal pad. I realized that in addi- tion to being about the power of music to transfigure experience, they were also about the camera's power. Looking at his arm for a clean vein for the next syringe, he was Sid Vicious searching for an angry fix. When the chemo started to make its way through his arm, he was Lou Reed rushing on a run. And, yes, on a very (very) rare occasion he was Joey Ramone meeting a nurse that he could go for. The Physicals had performed for crowds of hundreds when Jonathan was healthy, but the camera gave him an audience of infinite possibility. For the last year and a half of his life, in cold examining rooms, miserable waiting rooms, lonely hospital rooms, he was never just a patient. He was a rock 'n' roll legend.

Albert Maysles was kind enough to grant me permission to use the tapes he had captured of Jonathan. My good friend Edet Belzberg agreed to executive produce. And in February, I will enter an editing studio to start working on my first short film. I want the film to unfold like a Physical song: fast, urgent, darkly comic, and fiercely unsentimental. Until someone discovers a cure for cancer, films about the disease will inevitably be sad. But this film, as you might have guessed by now, isn't really about cancer at all. *

For more information about Johnny Physical, check out www.johnnyphysical.com.

/{,./. ... //, ■■ /y.y

/./...,../, ./.. ,- //. ,,/,...... wain

James A. Michener Center for Writers

MFA IN WRITING

Screenwriting • Fiction • Poetry • Playwriting

% < V

Combine SCREENWRITING with playwriting, fiction,

or poetry in our unique interdisciplinary program in Austin, Texas: the country's

third coast for film arts.

* »

f i

V

*****

Fellowships of $20,000 annually for three years. 512/471.1601 • www.utexas.edu/academic/mcw

©

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

Independent Narrative

Filmmakers and Their Films

On the beautiful Kohala Coast of Hawaii! !

Big

Island

Film

Festival

• Independent Narrative Films

• Filmmaker Symposiums

• Parties

• Beautiful Beaches

• World Class Resorts

• Great Weather

• Spirit of Aloha

Call for entries - deadline: March i, 2006 www.BigIslandFilmFestival.com

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ 1 ■

January-February 2006 I The Independent 27

BOOK REVIEW

By Ethan Alter

Warning: If you're the kind of filmgoer (or, for that matter, film- maker) that's wary of all things mainstream, then the new book The Mind of the Modern Moviemaker will probably cause you to run screaming to your local art house cinema for a 10- hour Bela Tarr retrospective. Almost every one of the 20 direc- tors profiled has helmed a studio picture and several of them freely admit to being a proud part of the Hollywood system. As Rush Hour director Brett Ratner bold- ly states, "I don't ask for [final cut]. Why do I need [it]? Final cut is for 'artistes' quote unquote — directors who don't make a lot of money"

In other words, don't pick up this book expecting to read about the next Bergman, Fellini, or even John Sayles. Still, author Josh Horowitz does present us with an interesting cross section of the generation of filmmakers currently making their presence felt in La-La Land. In addition to avowed company men like Ratner, Luke Greenfield, and Todd Phillips, the book also includes Q&A interviews with a few cult favorites (Kevin Smith, Richard Kelly), critical darlings (David Gordon Green, Neil LaBute), first-timers (Kerry Conran, Patty Jenkins), self-styled out- siders (Joe Carnahan, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone) and reliable journeymen (Jon Favreau, Chris and Paul Weitz). Horowitz even makes room for a universally reviled director like McG, who uses this oppor- tunity to insist that he's a deeper film- maker than the Charlie's Angels films sug- gest. "I wanted to do more with [Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle] than I was ultimate- ly able to do," he tells Horowitz with a

Mind

Over

Matter

THE MIND

OF THE

MODERN

MOVIEMAKER

20

Conversations

with the

New Generation

of Filmmakers

Josh Horowitz

INCLUDING KEVIN SMITH: Clerks. Chasing Amy McG: Charlie s Angels CHRIS i PAUL WEITZ: American Pie. Ahonl a Boy DOUGLIMAN: Wingers. The Bourne Identity MICHEL G0N0RY Eternal Sunshine ol the Spotless Mind TRET PARKER & MATT STONE: South Park. Team America NEIL LABUTE: hi the Company of Men. Horse Betty BRETT RATNER: nh Hour. X-Men 3

TODD PHILLIPS: Old School ION FAVREAU: ■He.CII PATTY JENKINS: Monster

straight face. What, was he planning on giving Cameron Diaz's booty its own sub- plot?

In his introduction, Horowitz, a televi- sion producer and contributor to such magazines as Entertainment Weekly and Us Weekly, outlines his reasons for writing the book. "Countless books have been written about the seminal filmmakers of the 1970s. ..but the book I always wanted to read. ..was the one written then. As fas- cinating as it is today to hear someone like Spielberg or Scorsese or Coppola or De Palma reflect on the past, what were they thinking at the time and in the moment?" Rather than wait for the current crop of directors to grow older and perhaps wiser, Horowitz decided to capture some of

them on the record right now. "The filmmakers in this book are still developing," he writes. "For many, their best work is yet to come and that is perhaps what is most exciting about them."

While it's debatable whether McG or Luke Greenfield (whose credits include the Rob Schneider comedy The Animal and the mediocre Risky Business knock-off The Girl Next Door) are truly directors to get excited about, Horowitz's reasoning behind the book is sound. It's fun to hunt down old interviews with Spielberg and Scorsese before they became institutions. There's an immediacy and excitement in their responses that reflective career-spanning books such as Scorsese on Scorsese, as comprehen- sive as they are, can't replicate. One can imagine some of the directors profiled in The Mind of the Modem Moviemaker picking up the book 20 years from now and groaning at their naivete. But it might also spur them to recon- nect with why they fell in love with movies in the first place. And after two decades in Hollywood, anyone could use that kind of reminder.

Describing his methodology for choos- ing which directors to speak with, Horowitz writes: "I had no hard and fast criteria for the filmmakers in this book other than talent and significant and promising contributions to American filmmaking." Given the book's grab-bag assortment of personalities though, it's safe to assume that the line-up was large- ly determined by which directors agreed to speak with him. One would be hard- pressed to argue, for example, that John Hamburg (director of Safe Men and Along Came Polly) has made more significant

28 The Independent I January-February 2006

contributions to American filmmaking than, say, Kimberly Pierce or Paul Thomas Anderson. In fact, Anderson is cited by many of the filmmakers in the book as an important contemporary influence, along with other usual suspects like David Fincher and Quentin Tarantino. Horowitz owns up to the absence of some of these heavy-hitters by writing, "Perhaps the greatest testament to the breadth of talent that exists today is that 20 more filmmakers could have added to this book without any diminish- ment of talent."

Horowitz's introduction also acknowl- edges another element that's missing from the book's cast of characters: diversity. Of the 20 directors the author interviewed only two are women (Patty Jenkins and Karyn Kusama) and only one is African- American (F. Gary Gray). "The reality remains that Hollywood filmmaking is still dominated by one gender and race," Horowitz explains, adding vaguely that, "the playing field today is undeniably shifting and will, no doubt, continue to do so." While it's true that the pool of minority filmmakers in Hollywood remains limited, it's a shame that Horowitz only included three in his book when there are definitely more out there to choose from. Take Justin Lin, director of the Asian-American crime picture Better Luck Tomorrow, who helmed Disney's upcoming military-themed drama Annapolis and is currently shooting the third entry in Sony's Fast and the Furious franchise. Or what about Tim Story, the African-American director who leapt from Barbershop to Fox's summer blockbuster Fantastic Four*. You've also got Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy), Malcolm D. Lee {Undercover Brother), Catherine Hardwicke ( Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown)... the list goes on. Surely any of these filmmakers would have a more interesting perspective on breaking into the industry than McG. At least Karyn Kusama is on hand to talk about going from the low-budget Girlfight to Paramount's December 2005 tentpole release Aeon Flux. Her ambivalence about the experience ("I'm not sure studios are necessarily the most instructive places for filmmakers to be," she tells Horowitz) is a telling change of pace from the gung-ho

M

ia

BOSTON

UNIVERSITY

Th# Cvdv F« DigJjImagiRgA'b

i*w rrr

i

CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS IN:

Digital Filmmaking

Intensive nine-month programs for the skills and tools you need to turn your ideas into reality, including our new program RECORDING ARTS. Financial assistance and career services available. APPLY NOW.

CONTACT US: 800.808.2342 • info@cdiabu.com • www.cdiabu.com

Second Annual

am ml

28-29

A TUUL Y INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL m

Shorts / Feature Length / Documentaries Music Videos / Experimental /Animation

Myrtle Beach International Film Festival

PUoxSUI Myrtle Beach. SC 29571 www. myrtlebeach film festival, com

200S Results

Overall Winner & Best Short "ARC" Steve Gelder LA, CA First Place Winners

feature £eagih "S'etfect Potion" $%an& Sciwt&a, Jam flaafiam Afa&eotu££e, Vd

Documentary "Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea" Chris Metzler, Jeff Springer San Fransisco, CA Animation Handshake' Patrick Smith. Barbara Jean Kennedy NY, NY

mc wio *mcm raj mv mc mm mrm mm, Patrick ms wmxx. oims, w

January-February 2006 I The Independent 29

	3rd ANNUAL TRENTON FILM FESTIVAL
CALL FOR ENTRIES The Trenton Film Festival asks filmmakers from around the world to submit films for the 3rd Annual Trenton Film Festival, May 5 - May 7, 2006, in New Jersey's capital city Over ninety films were screened last year at our multi-venue, three-day event Win cash prizes and the
Cateqories: ♦ Narrative Feature ♦ Narrative Short ♦ Documentary Feature ♦ Documentary Short ♦ Foreign Feature ♦ Foreign Short ♦ Experimental ♦ Animation ♦ Family Short	"Ernie" l-Beam trophy. Filmmakers can submit via Withoutabox or with a pdf submission form available at www.TRENTONFILMFESTIVAL.org. ALL ENTRIES MUST BE POSTMARKED BY FEBRUARY 1. 2006
Submission Fees: S45 Feature; S35 Short: S25 Student Disc (w/ID) Submit Form & check to: Trenton Film Festival Submissions. PO Box 22430, Trenton, NJ 08607 For info, visit www.TrentonFilmFestival.orq or call 609-396-6966

ft.

On location in New York

The New School is pleased to introduce the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies, one year of full-time graduate study in the heart of New York City. The dynamic curriculum integrates the history of documentary filmmaking, the social and artistic implications of the form and the digital video techniques you'll utilize to produce, direct and edit your own 30-minute documentary. Now accepting applications for fall 2006.

"An exciting and vibrant new program." - D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus

MEDIA STUDIES THE NEW SCHOO

mediastudies.newschool.edu/doc

I opportunity rnstitution

attitude of someone like Brett Ratner who comes across as the poster child for the modern studio filmmaker.

As an interviewer, Horowitz peppers his subjects with genial questions that elicit entertaining, if not always insight- ful, responses. Each interview follows a similar format with the author first inquiring about the subject's childhood and early years before moving on to his or her experiences as a director. At the end of every chapter, the filmmakers answer an "Inside the Actors Studio"-like question- naire, which includes such brainteasers as "What is the first film you ever saw?" and "What's your favorite movie snack food?" Despite their vastly different back- grounds, these 20 individuals do, it turns out, share some things in common. For starters, most of them attended film school, if only in some cases for a few semesters. Names like Spielberg, Coppola and Zemeckis keep popping up as early influences. (Believe it or not, hipster favorite Michel Gondry cites Back to the Future as his favorite film of all time). Many also took strikingly similar paths on the road to directing their first feature. David Gordon Green, Joe Carnahan, and Kevin Smith all financed their debuts largely on their own dime, while Brett Ratner, McG, and F. Gary Gray used music videos as their calling card. Others like Dylan Kidd and Patty Jenkins worked on the fringes of the industry for years until they got the chance to direct. Even if you've heard their stories before, reading them again just reinforces the fact that in Hollywood there's no direct route into the director's chair. That's at once both depressing and exciting — depressing because the odds of success are astronom- ical, but exciting because you truly never know where the next great filmmaker is going to come from.

Part of the fun of reading books like The Mind of the Modern Moviemaker is the promise of backstage gossip, but Horowitz doesn't push the directors to share secrets, and most of them are too professional (or, more likely, too worried about any possible repercussions) to say what really happened when the cameras weren't rolling. A few do speak candidly about their experiences in Hollywood. Doug Liman, for example, basically

30 The Independent I January-February 2006

accuses The Bourne Identity producer Frank Marshall of stealing the credit for that films success and later explains why he considers Mr. & Mrs. Smith to be "the most flawed of my movies." (Don't expect to learn any juicy gossip about Brangelina, though). Elsewhere, Kevin Smith remains his reliably sarcastic self, ripping on his pal Ben Affleck and the poor box office receipts of Mallrats and jersey Girl, while Dylan Kidd admits that he botched his follow-up to Roger Dodger with the poorly received P.S. And then there are the "South Park" boys Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who spend most of their interview complaining about how much they despise moviemaking. (Parker's answer to "Who is your favorite actor or actress of all time?" is "I hate them all.") As always with these two, you can never tell how much of their attitude is an act, but it's funny all the same.

While all of the interviews are pleasant to read, they also feel somewhat superfi- cial. Horowitz provides you with a good sense of where these directors came from but not necessarily what makes them tick. In some cases, that's due to the subject's own guarded self-analysis, but other times the author simply declines to ask more probing follow-up questions. It would have been interesting to know, for exam- ple, why exactly Michel Gondry pays such close attention to reviews of his work or what impact Neil LaBute's conversion to Mormonism had on his writing. To his credit, Horowitz does try to get each of the directors to weigh in on at least one long-running argument, such as whether music videos can be a good training ground for feature filmmakers (Kusama says no; McG says yes) or if art and com- merce can co-exist in a big-budget block- buster. This line of questioning yields some of the book's more intriguing responses; it's too bad Horowitz wasn't able to organize a roundtable discussion so the filmmakers could talk about these different topics in more detail. Ultimately, The Mind of the Modern Moviemaker pro- vides you with a broad overview of 20 directors currently working in Hollywood, but if you really want to learn more about them, you'll have to watch their movies. And maybe that's the way it should be. "&

EARIY: JANUARY*9TZ066 L FINAL: MARCH lj2006

T— >T

lk*zr

••••••;

mmm m » • •

lis:*:

SbjH -ANNUAL

ANTELOPE VALLEY

I

ENTRIES

INDEPENDENT

FILM FESTIVAL

AF>RRf2l;23S2006

IVI^ITjIWWlAVffKCOMiFORlMOREIIWFO

TALES

FROM A

SMALL

ISLAND,

11TH ANNUAL NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL

June 14-18, 2006

Call for Entries!

Film and screenplay submission deadline March 1, 2006

www.nantucketfilmfestival.org 212-708-1278

NANTUCKET

FILM FESTIVAL

January-February 2006 I The Independent 31

THE SHORT STORY AT SUNDANCE

Behind the scenes with the short film programmers

BY NICK SCHAGER

Watching 2,000 short films in four months isn't something you take on in your free time. It requires a finely honed system. For Roberta Munroe, one of the Sundance Film Festival's two short film programmers, that system resembles an assembly line of video playback equipment. Since 2001, Munroe has spent an enor- mous chunk of her time from August to November ensconced in her LA apartment, situated amidst a television on a wheeling cart, her DVD-enabled laptop, two DVD players (one all- region, one region 1), and two VCRs (one PAL, one NTSC).

She fills each machine with a different festival submission, watches one after the other, and then repeats the process, sifting through thousands of diverse films in an effort to prepare for Sundance's showcase of domestic and international shorts. Some days, this routine might last only six hours, other days — espe- cially during the deadline-looming month of November — it can go on for 14 or more hours. It's not an exaggeration to say that, along with fellow programmer Mike Plante, Munroe likely watches as many (if not more) short films in a given year than anyone else in the world.

Perhaps no film festival outside of France's esteemed

32 The Independent I January-February 2006

Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival lavishes as much attention and holds such a lofty industry position as Sundance's annual Short Film Festival. Launched in 1982 as a component of the United States Film and Video Festival (which would merge in 1985 with Robert Redford's Sundance Institute to become the Sundance Film Festival), the program started as a peripheral part of the overall festival but has nevertheless, over the past two decades, become one of the premier destinations for short films. Expanded to include international films, the festival has award- ed two jury prizes since 2004 (for best American and interna- tional shorts), both of which are chosen from the 4,000-plus submissions sent to Sundance — and, specifically, to Munroe and Plante — each year from around the globe (roughly 25 percent come from locales outside the US). To put into perspective the phenomenal growth of the short film festival, submission num- bers were closer to 2,000 per year as recently as 200 1 .

With regards to their moviewatching careers, Munroe often tells Plante, "I think that we're kind of insane," a sentiment that

Top: The Egyptian Theater at Sundance; bottom: Park City, Utah [photos by Fred Hayes/Wireimage]

world thinks that they'd shoot themselves in the head if they had to watch 2,000 short films." Though she admits that slogging

most people who hear about their colossal workload generally through such an overwhelming number of films can be daunting concur with. "Anybody we talk to outside of the programming and, at times, exhausting, Munroe views her job not as a chore

January-February 2006 I The Independent 33

but as a rare opportunity to introduce exciting films and film- makers to the world that, without a place like Sundance, might never receive such a chance. "What really drives me is the hope that the next film I watch is going to be a really good film and that we're going to have another film to show up in Park City the likes of which has never been seen before," she says.

Such optimism is the guiding force for both Munroe and Plante, who forged separate (but similar) paths to Sundance after years of filmmaking and festival work. A Toronto native with a lifelong passion for film ("It's sort of a cliche, but film is just one of my greatest loves," she says), Munroe started her festival career in the early '90s as co-director of the Inside/Out Lesbian & Gay Film Festival in Toronto. From there, she moved on to the Toronto International Film Festival and, in 1999 and 2000, worked as the administrative manager of the New York Film Festival and as a programmer of New York's IFP Market. Offered a festival manager post at Outfest Los Angeles Lesbian Gay Film Festival in 2001, the self-described "East Coast girl" packed her bags for what she believed would be a six-month stint in sunny California. But shortly after Outfest finished, Munroe, Los Angeles' who was also working on a variety of filmmaking proj- ects, heard that Sundance senior programmer Trevor Groth was looking for someone to help out with the festival's short films. One interview later, the post was hers.

And during her first year, it was all hers. "I literally did every- thing all by myself," she says, recalling her inaugural festival. However, with submissions increasing a whopping 50 percent between the 2001 and 2002 festivals and Munroe admitting that, "I already sort of had tears of blood coming out of my eyes the first year," it became clear that it was impossible for one per- son to handle the avalanche of shorts arriving on Sundance's doorstep. Enter Plante. An aspiring filmmaker who'd cut his teeth working as a projectionist in Tucson, Plante found his way to Sundance after a gig at the Telluride Film Festival led him to Chapin Cutler, the technical director of both Sundance and Telluride. Cutler was looking for someone to work as the pres- entation manager — in essence, a "quality control of projection" job — at the Park City-based festival. Hired for the post, Plante spent his first year troubleshooting technical problems at the fes- tival, acting as "the buffer between filmmaker and projectionist." After helping program the 2002 CineVegas Film Festival with Groth, he was hired the following year to be Munroe's short film programming partner.

Like Munroe, Plante started off as a budding filmmaker with a passion for the medium. "I always liked the idea of film festi- vals being this great [venue for] exposure," he says, especially "since movie theaters have really sort of gone away besides those in mass malls and the arthouses in big cities." His reasons for finding employment in the festival world, however, weren't com- pletely driven by a love of the cinema. "I needed a job," he con- cedes with a chuckle. Upon joining Sundance, he was surprised to find an environment that confounded his expectations. "I

anticipated everybody would be on power trips. . .but it was the exact opposite. Everybody was really cool and down to earth, and everybody knew a lot about film — not just film history, but what was going on today, what was going on in other countries, what was going on in the art film world. It was completely eye- opening."

Programming together lor the past three years, Munroe says that she and Plante consider themselves "essentially married" during the programming process, "even though I'm a lesbian and he has a girlfriend!" Nonetheless, the duo doesn't sort through the pile of submissions all by themselves. A group of "consultants" (who are not official Sundance employees), are the first group of people to view the submissions, with each con- sultant watching and taking notes (called "coverage") on any- where from 100 to 700 tapes. Thus, each film has already been watched in its entirety and commented on critically before it's viewed by one of the two programmers. "Then, if one of us thinks it's even remotely worth showing, we'll give it to the other person," Plante explains. Once Plante and Munroe make it through their respective share of submissions, the two whittle the group down to around 200-250 films, which are then hand- ed off to Groth — who, besides working as a feature film pro- grammer, also collaborates with the two-person programming committee. From that group, the three debate and argue, and ultimately make a decision on which 80-90 films will be entered into competition.

With the exception of 20-25 films that annually screen in front of features, shorts are presented in one of eight programs: five for narrative films, one for documentaries, one for anima- tion, and one (the "Frontier" program) for avant-garde and experimental works. Shorts are generally defined as films run- ning under 50 minutes (for documentaries) and under 70 min- utes (for features). However, as both programmers are quick to note, the majority of shorts that are selected for Sundance run 15 minutes or less. "Usually less," Plante says. And unlike the feature festival, which often places a premium on high-profile premieres, no such demands are made of shorts — the only cri- teria for selection is quality. Given that submissions run the gamut in terms of production value and subject matter, the standards by which each short is judged are, as Plante admits, "pretty vague. Like a [feature-length] film, it's just got to work for itself."

Though a seemingly daunting mission, both programmers admit that narrowing down submissions isn't as tough as it seems. "Most of them are just good films, and then there are the prize few that are just exceptional," says Munroe. "And often they're documentaries, because someone has gotten incredible access to an incredible subject, found an unbelievably talented editor, and made a beautiful documentary." Figuring out which films make the grade, however, is made easier by the fact that so many are wholly unoriginal. Nonfiction films regularly concen- trate on current events for their stories — the past few years' hot

34 The Independent I January-February 2006

"What really drives me is the hope that the next film I watch is going to be a really good film and that we're going to have another film to show up in Park City the likes of which has never been seen before."

— Roberta Monroe

Shorts programmers Roberta Monroe and Mike Plante

topic being soldier stories involving GIs recently home from Iraq — and Munroe says that these shorts usually provide nothing that hasn't already been seen ad nauseam on the national news. When it comes to fiction shorts, Munroe cites cliches and direc- torial plagiarism as the most frequent shortcomings, with rip-offs of current movies and popular directors (Wong Kar Wai and Wes Anderson are the most popular source material for current short filmmakers) a familiar attribute of submissions.

But even more so than those problems, Munroe says that short filmmakers' most consistent failing is their lack of knowl- edge about what other types of films are being produced. "You need to be out there seeing what other people are making," so as to avoid producing stuff that's already been done, she urges. And, if you're interested in actually being accepted by a festival, "you need to go on websites to find out what other festivals are pro- gramming." Learning what types of shorts are being accepted into festival competitions is, she says, a shrewd means of devel- oping a project. "Nobody cares about you and your buddies on a road trip to Vegas where you meet the Devil and have to make a decision between your soul and the million dollars on the table," says Munroe, referencing a variation on one of many sto- ries seen by the programmers each year. "It's like [a shot of some- one] drinking straight from a Jack Daniels bottle. Whoa! I haven't seen that in, like, 15 minutes."

Such shortcomings have become more glaring, in part, because of the sheer volume of shorts now inundating Sundance. Yet even though they wish it were the case, neither Munroe nor Plante believes that the escalating number of annual submissions means that short filmmaking has become more popular; rather, both attribute the situation to budding auteurs' increased access to relatively low-cost, high-tech filmmaking tools. With every wannabe Scorsese able to make a short film with an off-the-shelf digital video camera, Final Cut Pro on their iMac, and many actors willing to work for peanuts, anybody who ever dreamed of making a film now can (and does). The result of this boom is that, "the quality of production has gotten better," says Plante. "People have gotten smarter about shooting, smarter about sound. But it still comes down to the level of writing and edit-

ing— that's what always seems to make the difference. That has not gotten better. Which makes sense, because some people are writers and editors, and some people are not."

Once their programming duties are done, Munroe and Plante have nothing to do with choosing the competition's winners and losers. Yet both are encouraged by the fact that shorts now experience an elongated lifespan after the festival is over. Most shorts still function as calling cards for future work; Munroe says that she thinks, "the number one thing short film- makers are looking for at Sundance is finding an agent or man- ager." And the Sundance Online Film Festival — begun in 2001 as a means of nurturing web-only productions — increasingly prolongs the life of these works (and helps them get seen by a wider audience) by providing directors with the option of offering their films, for free and with reasonably high video quality, on the Web. While roughly half of the filmmakers chose not to participate in the Online Festival in 2005 (likely for reasons involving the web's technical limitations and their own desire to make money off of their movies), the added exposure for films via this online outlet can — along with the networking opportunities afforded by Sundance — greatly aid filmmakers in furthering their careers.

Ultimately, Munroe and Plante agree that their prime man- date is to help shine a spotlight on up-and-coming artists, and they handle each submission with the same attention and care that, were the roles reversed, they'd want their own films to receive. "You try to strike a nice balance between helping peo- ple out that are going to do something and showing shorts that will never have a life any other way, which is especially true of the avant-garde stuff," says Plante. Because, as filmmakers, they know, "what it's like to tough it out [making a movie] with $43 worth of Kraft service and all your friends working for free." Munroe believes one of her chief duties is to give each and every film she watches considerable attention, care, and respect. "This is someone's vision that I'm about to put into my DVD player, and hopefully I'm going to see that it was real- ized," she says. "That's an important thing, and as much as we joke about it, we take [that responsibility] very seriously."

January-February 2006 I The Independent 35

WITNESS to

Peter Gabriels organization harnesses the power of

putting human rights coverage on film

BY ELIZABETH ANGELL

"lystem Failure: Violence, Abuse and Neglect in the California Youth Authority has all the elements you've come to expect from an earnest, well-inten- tioned documentary. There are heartrending interviews with young people who have been incarcerated in California's juvenile prisons, their parents, and the advocates who work with them. These interviews are well lit and seamlessly edited. There is archival footage of the state leg- islature, and clips from local news reports on a savage 2001 beating of several "wards" (as the young inmates are known) at the hands of guards. There is b-roll footage taken inside the prison and at reformers' rallies and demonstrations. There is an opening sequence and a score, chapter headings and even a proper credit sequence.

System Failure, however, is not really a documentary — it was not made by filmmakers who recorded hundreds of hours of footage and then painstakingly assembled a finished product based on their observations. The 31 -minute movie never did the rounds at festivals or crossed the transom at PBS or HBO or any of the other popular outlets for nonfiction film. It doesn't have a theatrical distribution deal. The video was made by Books Not Bars, an advocacy group that works to reform the California Youth Authority (CYA), in partnership with WITNESS, a Brooklyn-based organization dedicated to arming human rights activists with the tools they need to make targeted, savvy media about their causes.

WITNESS does not mind if this distinction is lost upon viewers; in many ways it is probably good if System Failures audience does not feel as if it is watching a tiresome and pedan- tic piece of propaganda, but is instead caught up in the story and persuaded by the film's imagery. But as it has with every one of its partners, WITNESS set out to help Books Not Bars make a film that would have a very specific aim — in this case to aid in the CYA reform effort. "We stress that you are not making a video about an issue, but rather for a purpose, for an audience," says Sam Gregory, WITNESS' program manager. "You want to persuade and shame and move that audience."

The power of video is undeniable. What one person might report — or even what a newspaper might explicate — pales in

H1IIUU.IIF

HO "

comparison to the persuasive power of an image. Decision-mak- ers and even ordinary citizens often feel they must act once they have seen footage of a disaster or a crime. "Powerful images become a source of energy for social change," says Andrew Blau, a media analyst and a member of the WITNESS board. "Once you have seen it, the burden is on you to do something about it."

For its part, Books Not Bars has found its partnership with WITNESS enormously effective. "We wanted decision makers to really understand what it would be like to be in the CYA and how they could reform the system," says Books Not Bars Executive Director Lenore Anderson. "We wanted them to do more than just paint the windows a new color and hire a nicer staff person." Since mounting a campaign to distribute the film to judges, public defenders, district attorneys, and members of the California government, the CYA population has dropped from 5,000 to just 2,300. "The judges who sentence kids understand these issues better, as well as probation officers, and people who make policy. This film has turned people's hearts around and given them a real sense of what it means to send young people to one of these facilities," says Anderson.

WITNESS is the brainchild of the musician Peter Gabriel, who has long been interested in human rights issues and had

36 The Independent I January-February 2006

CHANGE

CO GO

<

<

:>

been affiliated with Amnesty International and other organiza- tions over the years. He founded WITNESS in 1992, in the wake of the Rodney King beating. The now-iconic footage of that incident, in which an African-American motorist was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers, sparked a nation- al— even international — debate about the appropriate use of amateur video footage. The men who beat King were eventual- ly acquitted of any criminal wrongdoing, a verdict that sparked devastating riots, but regardless of what you thought of the guilt

or innocence of those police officers or of Rodney King himself, the power of that grainy footage was undeniable. "People under- stood that if you saw something that was normally hidden, you could change the public discourse," says Blau. "Once you change what can be seen, you change our ability to do some- thing about it."

An average citizen, equipped with a hand-held video camera of the type used to film children's soccer games and family get- togethers, had changed the way Americans view law enforce-

January-February 2006 I The Independent 37

merit and brought attention to the way minorities are treated by police. What was once the exclusive territory of journalists and professional filmmakers had been opened up to anyone with access to a camera.

Gabriel recognized that human rights work would never be the same: Cheap and readily available technology meant that the victims of crimes, both here and abroad, could document their plight through compelling images. But the Rodney King footage also provided a cautionary tale. "Those images sparked a national conversation and real social protest, but there was no conviction, no lasting systematic change," says Blau.

Gabriel hoped WITNESS would help filmmakers harness their images for a purpose and help them follow through on that aim. In 1992, he helped set up the organization under the auspices of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First), and WITNESS'S small staff went to work finding local activists with which they could work. WITNESS acquired hundreds of cameras and some editing equipment and set about making it available.

It was a unique moment in the history of media. Inexpensive cameras could be had by the hundreds and used with little training or expertise; in contrast to film, video was cheap and easy to edit, which required a minimum of training and expertise. The Internet was just beginning to catch on with ordinary civilian users and, over the next decade, would explode as a platform for still and video images, and as a means to spread information and ideas.

The WITNESS staff quickly realized that merely making cameras available was not enough. "In the beginning there was an emphasis on getting the camera out there, but that was never really the biggest added value," says Gillian Caldwell, WIT- NESS' executive director. "The biggest value was always the technical and tactical advice to help them develop a powerful visual vocabulary surrounding their issue."

WITNESS began developing techniques that could be dis- tributed along with the equipment. "At the core of our work is

the principal that you know your objective and goal for change and from there, you work out to the audience you need to reach and from there you move to the video," says Gregory.

Before they could set about making a film, local organiza- tions needed to identify their audiences: Were they legislators or judges, journalists or townspeople isolated in the countryside? What did the film hope to accomplish? Was it designed to pro- mote a specific policy or referendum? Was it designed to edu- cate people about a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or expose an atrocity that had been suppressed? And how would the local organization get its footage: Would it interview people or attempt to film an incident?

"Our distribution strategy is what we call tactical media," says Caldwell. "It's not a focus on maximizing the number of eyeballs or on getting a television broadcast or a big premier. It's very focused on what's the solution and who the media needs to get to in order to ensure that the solution is implemented."

WITNESS wanted to ensure that its grantees understood the power of a film to persuade, took that power seriously and pro- tected themselves against any potential dangers. "We wanted peo- ple to use video in ways that are ethical and effective," says Gregory. "What does it mean to use somebody's voice? What does it mean to edit together two contrasting viewpoints? And what will it mean when your worst enemy can see you talking about human rights violations?"

As it grew, WITNESS realized that in order to implement this strategy, it would need to work more closely with a smaller num- ber of organizations. Instead of scattershot grants, an intense part- nership program was put in place. Each partner was carefully cho- sen based on the strength of their work, the clarity of their mis- sion, and the possibility that a video would help accomplish their goals. In addition to granting permission to equipment and tech- nical training, a WITNESS staff member would travel to meet with a representative of the organization in their home country — from Colombia and the Congo, to Thailand and sights in the US — to help them flesh out their objectives. As filming is com-

38 The Independent I January-February 2006

Gillian Caldwell [photo by Joseph Moran]

pleted, partners spend time in the WITNESS offices editing their video and further honing their strategy.

These partnerships, says Caldwell, are a model for how Western organizations can interact with human rights activists who have close, personal ties to a crisis. Instead of a pedantic "you have the problem, we have the answer" methodology, Caldwell and her staff work to enable local people to help them- selves. "The underlying theory of [our work at WITNESS] is that change really depends on the strength and visibility of local human rights defenders," she says. "Western human rights organizations tend to focus on report writing and on identify- ing trends. And then they make recommendations. That role is important but we want to empower these groups to plot their own solution."

"WITNESS gets that there are people struggling for genera- tions upon generations to change the conditions in which they live," says Anderson. "They get that people have been fighting for their human rights and that if an organization comes in and says 'we're going to do something,' that can be enormously damaging and unhelpful. What most people need are resources and tools, they don't need bosses."

Thanks to its success — and to the galloping pace of digital advancement — WITNESS has flourished. When Caldwell

joined the organization as executive director in 1998 (she had previously been a WITNESS partner herself; her three-year project produced a film that used hidden camera footage to record the trafficking of sex workers in the states of the former Soviet Union, and an extensive advocacy and international awareness campaign), she had a staff of one and a budget of around $100,000. Today, the organization is housed in two floors of an office building behind the Brooklyn Academy of Music, has a staff of 20, and an annual budget of $3 million.

They have more than a dozen active partnerships at a time, plus many other smaller projects. They attracted the de rigueur attention of Angelina Jolie, who traveled with WITNESS staffers to Sierra Leone to observe the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, about which WITNESS produced a video for distribution throughout the countryside. And WITNESS has assembled what is perhaps the largest archive of footage about human rights abuses anywhere in the world. It is a grim but powerful repository, a memory bank for victims of atrocities who would otherwise be forgotten or ignored.

As digital cameras and camera phones proliferate world- wide— and penetrate even the most remote areas — the WIT- NESS' mandate, and the services it provides to activists, promises to grow even more pressing. Last October, WIT- NESS also published a book, Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism, which anyone can download for free off the WITNESS website. Gregory and Caldwell hope it will be an invaluable tool for human rights advocates who cannot be WITNESS partners — or even for ordinary filmmakers interested in making targeted films.

Documentary filmmakers will no doubt want to distinguish their work from WITNESS projects. After all, many self-styled storytellers value the investigative process in which a WITNESS film must by nature eschew as extraneous to a specific strategy. But Caldwell thinks the WITNESS method could benefit ordi- nary filmmakers tremendously. "What often happens in video and documentary filmmaking is there is so little funding and so few opportunities for distribution that people invest themselves heavily in making a movie and then run out of gas and time to invest when it comes to distribution," she says. "A more target- ed set of goals and a broader set of allies committed to distribu- tion could be hugely valuable to them."

For her part, Books Not Bars' Anderson thinks that film- makers could learn an even more important lesson from WIT- NESS: "When I went to law school I remember that only one of my professors said anything about the responsibility of lawyers. He said, 'You're now being given a tool and that is power, and you can either use that to improve the world around you or to maintain the status quo. I think all skilled professionals are faced with that same choice. Filmmakers are a group of people with a tremendous amount of power and the ability to shape the world we live in. You can use that power to continue things the way they are or you can change the world." *

January-February 2006 I The Independent 39

Filmmakers find creative retreat at the

New Hampshire artists' colony

BY KATHERINE DYKSTRA

Deep in the wooded region of Peterborough, New Hampshire exists a sprawling artists' enclave whose 32 studios rest in the shadow of the majestic Mount Monadnock. For nearly a century, the MacDowell Colony has been known for grooming celebrated writers such as James Baldwin, and Willa Cather, and artists like Milton Avery. More recently though, as its list of alumna starts to read more and more like a virtual who's who in contemporary independent film, it seems that MacDowell has deftly cultivated a reputation for having helped turn out filmmakers of a similar high profile variety.

"Oh, Utopia," is how filmmaker Ira Sachs (Forty Shades of Blue; 2005) described it to his peer, Rodney Evans when Evans mentioned his recent stint at MacDowell.

"That's always the response from everyone," explains Evans, whose well-received Brother to Brother won the Sundance Special Jury Prize in 2004, and who has taken two separate sojourns to New Hampshire, his most recent in the summer of 2005. "[MacDowell] really goes above and beyond most of the other colonies in terms of protecting you from outside distrac- tions. They do everything they can to help you focus on your work."

Sachs and Evans are far from alone in their sentiments. It seems that there are artists' colonies — more than 250 in the United States and many more worldwide — and then there is MacDowell, the relative gold standard when it comes to quiet time away for letting creativity flow.

"The field is diverse ... It does not believe in the one size fits all approach," says Deborah Obalil, the executive director the Alliance of Artists Communities, a national service organization for the field of artists' communities, that serves as an informal hub lor those who run them and artists who are searching for them. "No two artists create in the same way, so no two com- munities are created in the same way. But MacDowell is among the largest and the oldest and is, in many ways, held up as the model of what an artists' colony is."

Days at MacDowell stretch out long and unburdened, free from the hassles of everyday life — there is no housework to be done (a housekeeping staff maintains resident rooms), no bills to pay (some residents even get a stipend to subsidize rent or lost wages during their stay), no one to call or email (the rooms are phone- and internet-free, though wireless connections are avail- able upon request), and no meals to prepare (breakfast and din- ner are served communally, lunch is dropped off on resident's

40 The Independent I January-February 2006

doorsteps in rhe signature MacDowell wicker basket). There is only the work.

"MacDowell is a space to write," says filmmaker Joshua Marston, who revised the script for Maria Full of Grace (which earned its rising star an Oscar nomination in 2004) during his first MacDowell residency four years ago, and recently completed his second stay there. "It's not a place to learn; it's not about studying. It's about the space and the support to do one's work."

For every artist, but perhaps especially for independent filmmakers, whose materi- als go beyond pen and paper, this kind of support is invaluable. Exploring character and humanity in visual narrative and documentary form is challenging and important work. But as most filmmakers know, money is continually difficult to find, time ohen allusive, and the necessary support to complete a film often nonexistent. And that's where MacDowell comes in.

Says Student Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Mitch McCabe {Highway 403, Mile 39, This Corrosion), who plans on returning to MacDowell this spring for her third residency: "It is a great place to give people [whose] resources are a problem or anytime finances are a question, a place to concentrate, to do your craft."

And support comes not just in the form of time and money, but also as friendship and camaraderie. Year after year the MacDowell community of artists grows, and although the emphasis is always on the work, community breakfasts and dinners give artists the inherent opportunity to learn from each other, grow artistically, and pro- vide mutual encouragement.

"The dialog between artists is great, a lot of the other artists will ask you what you're working on and then will turn you on to something you didn't know about but will be advantageous to the screenplay," says Evans, noting in particular his provi- dential relationship with fellow colonist, Doug Wright, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright {I Am My Own Wife), who helped Evans to sort out the structure of a par- ticularly complicated screenplay.

The general sorting out of ideas is a common obstacle for filmmakers, perhaps as much so as financial restraints. "MacDowell is an extraordinarily valuable resource

Filmmakers at MacDowell (from top, clockwise): Joshua Marston [photo by Joanna Eldredge Morrissey]; David Petersen [photo by Joanna Eldredge Morrissey]; Rodney Evans [photo by Joanna Eldredge Morrissey]; Jenny Livingston [photo courtesy of Livingston]; Ira Sachs [photo courtesy of Sachs]

January-February 2006 I The Independent 41

Mo/7*

S*f»

/T//VF fcfcrf « ■

We LOKgTTA DU»K£LMhN PA

- ■

l/ttM-'K

sct/*fr.

. MtCHAEt- j. berkowit;

because independent filmmakers are constantly struggling, and part of that struggle is how to carve out the space and the time to work," says Marston. "Plus, by virtue of being independent, you're not being supported by studios or what have you, and MacDowell enables that support. It's just one more pillar of support for the filmmaking community."

A pillar of support for the filmmaking community, and a feather in the cap for the individual filmmaker — having an artists' residency on your resume, especially one as well-respect- ed as MacDowell, lends a whole new shine to your career. Often a residency will extend to further opportunities.

"[Residencies are] beneficial in terms of building a reputation as an emerging artist. It helps to have a residency at MacDowell or Yaddo on your resume for grant applications, and to get into other residency programs, there is respect for the programs and the people who go there," says Evans, citing Yaddo, another of the few US residencies in league with MacDowell.

Although filmmaking at MacDowell has a long history, it wasn't until the mid-'70s that the colony began accepting film- makers as filmmakers. This is not to say that filmmakers didn't attend. They did, but only by restructuring their work to meet the confines of conventional genres; fiction, poetry, composing, etc — screenwriters applied just as writers, film score composers as composers. As Obalil puts it: "Artists are very good at cre- atively fitting in different boxes."

When the board at MacDowell realized how many filmmak- ers were producing work while in residency, work that was end- ing up in movie theaters, they alighted on the notion to create a category specifically for filmmakers.

"MacDowell's whole philosophy was based on the fact that all

the arts have something to say to one another," says Cheryl Young, MacDowell's executive director. "That model means that you would always include new genres and disciplines. When we looked at the writers whose work resulted in pro- duced films, we found 63 filmmakers from 1907 to the mid- 1980s.

"The first female president of the colony," Young continues, "Elodie Osborn, really worked to separate film out from the other disciplines, establishing a film panel, working on a selec- tion process and doing the outreach we were doing with other disciplines." Today, a film fellowship exists in Osborn's name.

In the quarter century since the official film program was instituted, applications for filmmaking residencies have steadi- ly gone up in number. The last decade saw a 50 percent increase in filmmakers applying to MacDowell, with those accepted up from six in 1996 to 21 in 2005.

"When I was there in 2003 — I was there for six to seven weeks — there were no other filmmakers the entire time I was there," says McCabe. "But when I went back in 2004, Rodney [Evans] had just left, and there were actually two or three oth- ers there."

And now, as one of only a small number of artists' colonies that cater to filmmakers — Obalil estimates that 20 percent of American residency programs have separate genres for film- makers and that out of those, MacDowell is one of the only ones that exists outside an urban setting — MacDowell is doing what it can to keep the doors open to filmmakers who have previously attended, and to encourage those who have neither attended nor applied, to do so.

It's not altogether surprising that very few filmmakers know

42 The Independent I January-February 2006

that places such as MacDowell exist — Evans calls it, "Americas best kept secret for artists." But the reasons are varied — from a lack of outreach, to the fact that today's filmmakers are just part of a different generation and cultural vernacular.

"I don't think people are talking about it, even in the film schools. The faculty are old, so you don't have generations of people who've gone through residency programs," Young says. "But the next generation will tell their students that they had this experience when they were starting out."

And then there's also the elitism factor. As Evans diplomati- cally points out, residency programs are, "a very specific cir- cuit— they don't go out of their way to publicize themselves. If you're in that world, and you're trying to make work, then you will have had access to these communities or done research to find out about them."

It's true that artist residency programs often suggest a certain level of insider preciousness. And if it sounds a little cliquey, it is. Artists who are hip to residencies knew a good thing when they found it. But that doesn't mean residencies will forever be off-limits to a self-taught filmmaker from Duluth.

"Places like MacDowell have always been known by a certain artist audience," says Obalil, "which is usually the least likely [community] to spread the word, because the more artists know the harder to get a residency, for that reason some programs don't allow repeat residencies, they spread the support around."

For its part, MacDowell does allow artists to attend residen-

cies (which run up to eight-weeks) as many times as they are accepted. Although one could argue that given the number of repeat residencies, once you're in, you're in.

When it comes to art in the US, there is and probably always will be a primary focus on product, outcome, and commerce — film festivals, art exhibits, readings at bookstores — with less to little focus on the actual creation of that product. And that's what's admirable about artist residency programs. There's an undeniable mandate of artistic integrity within their mission.

"The concept of the residency program is not as widely known as it could be, that's the nature of everything that sup- ports art behind the scenes," says Obalil.

Last summer, MacDowell put up a 32-person film studio with an editing room, as yet to be properly dedicated — "We're looking for someone to put their name on it," says Young — and for years, the colony has had its own steamvac (filmmakers who aren't into analog can bring their iMac with Final Cut Pro or what have you). Young hopes that these efforts will encourage more filmmaker applicants. "The film discipline needs to make itself heard so residency programs can help and adapt."

After all, a lot of creativity can occur in the woods. "In the city there's a finite amount of time to get work done and jug- gling life issues and paying bills and going to social events," says Evans. "I don't give myself the luxury to experiment with radi- cal ideas. But radical things happen naturally in [residency] environments." Thoreau couldn't have said it better himself, ir

o a

© Ol

II

o a.

o ■ — ' <u £

S > .2

B) £

January-February 2006 ! The Independent 43

POLICY

Expanding Broadband

The legislative battle continues

By Matt Dunne

As any politician will tell you, incumbency has ttemendous benefits. The same can be said for the competitive world of telecommu- nications. Existing telephone and cable companies have traditionally had the wires and other physical infrastructure in place to keep upstart providers out. This advantage has led to what is essentially a monopoly (albeit a regulated one) with significant control over the ways new communication technology, such as broadband, is distributed.

Over the last decade, new technologies have offered competitive methods of delivering broadband — including over wireless (Wi-Fi) and existing power lines — without the need for massive infrastructure investment. Furthermore, municipalities who are tired of waiting for broadband to arrive have gone out on their own to negotiate deals with outside providers to blanket their cities with serv- ice. This service is much faster than what cable companies provide currently, and

competitive rates would allow even low- income communities real access. At first, these municipalities were viewed as quixotic. However, once these entrepre- neurs and innovative politicians gained traction, the incumbents, threatened by this new competition, declared war.

The importance of broadband is grow- ing every day. With the advent of Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP), new companies have sprung up to provide cheap telephone service over the internet. Cable companies now offer broadband data services, and traditional phone com- panies, who were the first to offer faster internet connections, are about to start delivering movies over their lines. With data, voice, and video converging onto a single platform, though, the capacity of the network to deliver these services at acceptable speeds becomes crucial to con- sumers and content providers.

The film and video industry has a

unique interest in the expansion of high- speed broadband. The ability to deliver streaming video directly to the home has the potential to drastically reduce the cost of distribution and make studio gate- keepers much less relevant. Filmmakers would be able to use innovative, grass- roots methods of distribution and actual- ly compete with traditional high-cost theater, cable, or television. The tech- nology to make this possible is already here. While the average American inter- net connection is 500 kilobits per second, much too slow for film distribution, Japan is already delivering 100 megabits per second to millions of people, ample speed with which to watch a film on the internet without ever having to down- load it onto your computer.

Municipalities across the country have started to launch their own systems to deliver high-speed access to all of their constituents. Philadelphia has partnered with EarthLink to furnish the city with wireless broadband. Large cities like

44 The Independent I January-February 2006

Chicago and San Francisco are attempt- ing to follow suit, as are smaller commu- nities like Lafayette, LA, Madison, WI, and Burlington, VT. Big companies like Google have gotten into the delivery game, as have small innovative start-ups like Azulstar Networks and Cellnet. The projected cost to consumers is around half what residents pay for much slower delivery.

The backlash from powerful incum- bents has been swift and brutal. In response to the Philadelphia partnership with EarthLink, telecom lobbyists in Pennsylvania pushed through a ban of any future municipal-supported sys- tems. According to an August 2005 Governing magazine story, 14 states have introduced legislation to restrict or actu- ally ban new municipal broadband sys- tems, and a few, including Pennsylvania and Nebraska, have succeeded in passing such prohibitions.

Incumbents make a variety of argu- ments in their case to crush further municipal deployment. The Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank that has taken the lead in opposing municipal broadband, warns that city governments are getting in over their heads by trying to run enterprises in a fast-paced business sector, and, in a series of reports, makes the case that the numbers projected in the government-backed proposals are too optimistic and would lead to significant tax liabilities down the road. Others says that it's unfair for government to com- pete with private industry.

In a CNET News.com story last May, BellSouth spokesman Joe Chandler argued that his industry simply wants to ensure "fair" competition which he believes would include bans on tax subsi- dies for municipal start-ups, equal tax lia- bilities for for-profit carriers, and even requirements that the public vote on new proposals. In the same article, Matthew Spitzer, dean of the University of Southern California Law School, suggests there are further dangers, stating that, "Once a city gets into a business that's directly competitive with private compa- nies, there are temptations to regulate the private companies in ways that disadvan- tage them."

This political battle, however, is not

the typical cut-and-dry fight between public interest lefties and big industry, or even between Republicans and Democrats. Technology corporate giants including Intel, Google, and Microsoft have all weighed in in support of broadband through wireless and municipal systems. Fortune magazine columnist David Kirkpatrick made the case last October that universal high- speed broadband would add $500 bil- lion to the US gross domestic product, due to greater efficiencies and new tech- nologies allowed by enhanced commu- nications super highways. Municipal broadband has also gained passionate backing from Republican defenders of market competition including Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) and Congressman Chris Cannon (R-Utah), who argue that municipal broadband will increase economic development and wealth.

Despite the wholehearted support of these unusual bedfellows, state legisla- tures continue to pass prohibitions of municipal systems. The local telecoms are very powerful forces in the individ- ual state capitals, much more so than larger out-of-state technology corpora- tions. At the federal level, where Intel and Google would have more influence, Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) and McCain have introduced a bill to preempt state efforts to ban municipal networks. However, the 2004 Supreme Court ruling in Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League, which upheld state prohibitions as legal, is expected to be cited as a precedent that such laws are a matter of state's rights.

As a result, for those who believe an expansion of municipal broadband is important, the fight must be taken to the state level and soon. Many of the remaining 35 states that have not yet weighed in on the issue have bills pend- ing for the upcoming legislative year. The Benton Foundation has some excel- lent online resources for heading up your own advocacy efforts. This would be an excellent time for the progressive film community to band together with the emerging new economy technology innovators to ensure that high-speed broadband becomes ubiquitous. *k

Digital /Analog

Film, Video & Web Production

AVID AND FINAL CUT PRO SUITES

POST-PRODUCTION SPECIALISTS

AFTER EFFECTS / MOTION GRAPHICS

EXPERIENCED IN FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARIES AND NARRATIVES

670 BROADWAY SUITE 300, NY, NY 10012

3 3 4-8283

www.americanmontage.com

NON LINEAR /LINEAR OFF LINE /ON LINE BETA SP, DV EDITING DV, HI8, SP, INTERFORMAT CD-ROM OUTPUT

EXCELLENT RATES EXPERIENCED EDITORS

SOHO/CHINATOWN LOCATION MASTER & VISA ACCEPTED

(21 2)-21 9-9240

EMAIL: DFROESE@COMPUSERVE.COM

January-February 2006 I The Independent 45

FESTIVALS

CD rr Q. o q

^i o x; qj

-; c CD zj- (Q

■< D-— CD OJ

m -^co ? -J

3 C

CD 52

=3 H'

CD 00 < CD O-

J CO Q_

c 3

O CD CL CD 3

■2 oo o 3 o

^ o o "' =i

™. O) (fl _h

3 C/> _ ^,

2 - Et£ a o

CD 00 Q. —

< 3 CD o"1 a?

.-*• CU CQ < "O CD (Q

0) Q. C 3

CD ^ O g

.-+ o 3 «

J Ql Qj (D

CD en o '

By Katie Ainslie

ARIZONA INT'L FILM FESTIVAL, April 20-30, AZ. Deadline: Feb. 10. Festival's mission is to showcase independent work (preferably not in distribution) from around the world to Arizona audiences. Works participate in "The Reel Frontier" Film & Video Competition or are invited to non-competitive programs. Founded: 1990. Cats: experimental, feature, doc, short, animation. Awards: Best of Category; Best of Arizona; "Bridging Cultures" Award; Best Chicano Film. Formats: 35mm, Beta SR MiniDV, DVcam, 16mm. Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: $30 (under 45 mm.); $50 (45 mm. & over). Contact: Guilio Scalinger; (520) 628-1737; reelfrontier@azmac.org; www.azmac.org/ festival/index2.html.

ARTIVIST FILM FESTIVAL, July 26-30, CA Deadline: Nov. 15; Dec. 15; Jan. 15; Feb. 3 (final). Seeks to strengthen the voice of int'l activist filmmakers & artists who wish to raise public awareness & funds for global social causes. Cats: doc, feature, experi- mental, animation, music video, musical, photographs, visual art, short. Formats: 16mm, 35mm, Beta SP DVD. VHS or DVD; CD or CD-ROM for photographs & visual art. Entry Fee: $30-$70. Contact: Festival; (310) 712-1222; info@artivistfilmfestival.org; artivistfilmfestival.org.

ARIZONA STATE ART MUSEUM SHORT FILM &

VIDEO FESTIVAL, April 15, AZ. Deadline: Feb. 10. The fest is a free one night outdoor fest. Entries should be no longer than 10-12 min. All entries become a part of the Museum's video library. Founded: 1997 Cats: short, experimental. Awards: Juror's Choice (2), LeBlanc Audience Choice & AZ award (Arizona artists only). Preview on VHS (NTSC). Entry Fee: None. Contact: John D. Spiak, Curatorial Museum Specialist; (480) 965-2787; fax: (480) 965-5254; spiak@asu.edu; asuartmuseum.asu.edu /filmfest/.

ATHENS INT'L FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL. April 28-May 4, OH. Deadline: Jan. 30 . Annual fest celebrating independent, documentary & experimental works. Each entry is pre- screened by a committee of artists. Works w/ high regard for artistic innovation, sensi- tivity to content & personal involvement w/ the medium are welcomed. Cats: feature, doc, short, experimental, animation. Awards: Cash awards. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, 1/2" Beta, Beta SP mmi-DV Preview on VHS (NTSC) or DVD. Entry Fee: $35, plus s.a.s.e./insurance. Contact: Ruth Bradley; (740) 593-1330; fax: 597-2560; bradley@ohiou.edu; www.athensfest.org.

ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL, June 9-17, GA Deadline: Feb. 3. Features premiere screen- ings of independent film & video, informa-

tive seminars, panel discussions & guest appearances by filmmakers, video artists, & media professionals from around the world. Award-winning short narrative/animation experimental works are eligible for Academy Award(s) Nomination. Founded: 1977 Cats: any style or genre, feature, doc, short, animation, experimental, student, youth media. Awards: Over $100,000 in cash & in-kind prizes. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, 1/2", Beta, Beta SP Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: $40 (individual/nonprofit); $30 (IMAGE members/students); $50 (distrib./for profit). Contact: Paul Marchant, Festival Director; (404) 352-4225; fax: 352- 0173; aff@imagefv.org; www.atlantafilmfes tival.com.

BARE BONES INT'L INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL, April 17-13, OK. Deadlme:Jan.26 (final). Projects budgeted for less than a mil- lion dollars are eligible to enter the fest. Seven days of screenings, workshops, screenplay readings, location tour, youth film projects. Cats: feature, doc, short, ani- mation, experimental, script, music video, student, youth media. Awards: Auteur of the Year; Audience Choice Award; Grand Jury Awards. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Most video formats. Entry Fee: $20-$50. Contact: Shiron Butterfly Ray; (918) 616-1335; bare bonesfilmfestival@yahoo.com; www.bare bonesfilmfestival.com.

46 The Independent I January-February 2006

BIG ISLAND FILM FESTIVAL, May 18-21, HI Deadline: Feb. 1; March 1 (final). Fest's mis- sion is to "celebrate independent narrative filmmakers & independent narrative films." Films must be narrative films completed after Jan. 1 of previous yr. & w/out commer- cial exhibition or distribution. Cats: feature, short, animation, family, student, surfing. Formats: DVD, Beta SP Preview on DVD or VHS. Entry Fee: shorts: $25,$30,$40; fea- tures: $25,$40,$50. Contact: Leo W. Sears, Exec Din; (808) 557-5200; entries@bigisland filmfestival.com; www.bigislandfilmfesti val.com.

BROOKLYN INT'L FILM FESTIVAL, June 2-11, NY. Deadline: March 15 (Final). The Brooklyn Int'l Film Festival (BIFF), was established in 1998 as the first int'l competitive film fest in New York. Since 2002, BIFF has been part- nering w/ the Brooklyn Museum. In the effort of consolidating its int'l presence, BIFF has been developing solid ties w/ major overseas film fests & distribution companies as well as successfully pursuing int'l spon- sorship. Founded: 1997 Cats: feature, doc, experimental, short, animation. Awards: Each yr. the festival awards a total of approx. US $50,000 in services & cash. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Beta SP DV, DVD, CD-ROM, DigiBeta, HD cam. Preview on DVD or VHS (non-returnable). Entry Fee: $30; $50 (final). Contact: Marco Ursino; (718) 388-4306; fax: 599-5039; 2006@wbff.org; www.wbff.org.

CRESTED BUTTE REEL FEST, August 9-13, CO Deadline: Feb. 15; March 31 (final). Competitive short film fest focusing on films under 40 mm. & documentary films under 60 min. Founded: 1998. Cats: short, student, doc, animation, experimental. Awards: Juried film, & audience awards incl. Gold ($500) & Silver $250) in each category. The BOB Award ($150) plus handcrafted award) rewards the entry that pushes the envelope the farthest. The Grand Prix Award ($500) is a pre-juned award given to the Best Film of the Festival, which can be from any of the four cats. Formats: 35mm, Beta, 16mm, 3/4", 1/2", DVD. Preview on VHS (NTSC) or DVD. Entry Fee: $40; $50 (final). Contact: Eney Jones, Exec. Dm; (970) 349-2600; fax: 349-1384; info@cbreelfest.com; www.crest edbuttereelfest.com.

OR. Deadline: Jan. 15; Feb. 28; March 30. Fest is looking for original works not exceed- ing 30 min. in length (documentaries can only be a max of 50 min.) Submissions in three main cats: K-12, college & independ- ent. Founded: 1988. Cats: short, any style or genre. Awards: Awards given in each cate- gory. Formats: film, video, digital. Preview on VHS (NTSC only). Entry Fee: college/indie $20, $35, $50; K-12 $10, $15, $20. Contact: Sue Queisser; (541) 752-5584 / 757-6363; fax: (541) 754-7590; davincifilmfest ©aol.com; www.davmcidays.org/filrmfesti- val.

DANCES W/ FILMS, July 21-27 CA. Deadline: early: Jan 2nd; standard: Apr. 24; Late: May 29. All films admitted for screening are selected using only one major criterion: they must have been completed w/out any known director, actors, producers, or monies from known sources (e.g., known production companies). Films must have been completed by Jan. 1 of previous year. Founded: 1998. Cats: family, youth media, feature, doc, short, animation, experimental. Awards: Best of (feature, short); Best Screenplay (feature, short); Audience Award (feature, short). Formats: Beta SR 16mm, 35mm, DV, HD. Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: early deadline $50 feature/$35 short; stan- dard deadline $60 feature/$40 short; late deadline 75 both. Contact: Leslee Scallon; (323) 850-2929; fax: 850-2928; info@dancesw/f ilms.com; www. Dances WithFilms.com.

THE DELTA INT'L FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL, April 21-22. Deadline: March I.The Delta Int'l Film & Video Festival is devoted to showcasing the work of independent film & video mak- ers/artists. We are looking for work that exhibits exceptional artistry, insight, & inno- vation in all cats & genres. Held at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS, the DIFVF unspools in the heart of the Mississippi Delta~a unique, thriving, culturally rich & diverse region of the US. Founded: 2005. Cats: feature, doc, short, experimental, ani- mation, student. Formats: 16mm, DVD, DV. VHS (NTSC). Entry Fee: $25; $15 (students). Contact: Robyn Moore; (662) 846-4731; rmoore@deltastate.edu; www.art. deltas tate.edu.

DA VINCI FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL, July 14 16, DENVER PAN AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL, April

SURVIVAL

ENTERTAINMENT

MOTTO:

mi | I 1 | I

INSURANCE

■ *- * — ■*

D.R. REIFF & ASSOCIATES

ENTERTAINMENT INSURANCE

BROKERS

320 WEST 57 ST

NEW YORK, NY 10019

(212)603-0231 FAX (212) 247-0739

INTRODUCING THE

GLIDECRM

SMOOTH SHOOTER.

from Glidecam Industries, Inc

$1499.00

r.Glidec 1-800-600-2011 1-600-949-2089 1-508-830-1414

The World's most sophi: .ticaleo and affordable Body Mounted Camera Stabilization System des;gned for Cameras weighing up to 6 pounds when used with the

Glidecam 2000 Pro. or for Cameras weighing from 4 to 10 pounds when used with the Glidecam 4000Pro.

Glidecam Is Registered at the Palent and TM office Copyright 2005 Glidecam Industries. Inc. All Rights Reserved.

January-February 2006 I i he Independent 47

Recent Clients:

Wide Awake Alan Berliner

PROGRAM

Post-Production Services

Online Video Editing

AVID Symphony

Final Cut Pro

You Are Not From Here Diane Bonder

Chain Jem Cohen

The Flooded Playground Lisa Crafts

Seeing Red Su Friedrich

Thug

Ceva Patz

Sound Design

ADR £t Voiceover

Mix to Picture

DVD Authoring

Film Processing Telecine

Tape Preservation & Restoration

States of Unbelonging ft Restoration

Lynne Sachs

what I'm Looking For Fiscal Sponsorship Shelly Silver

Technical Consultation

www.standby.org

135 W 26th St 12th Fl

New York, NY 10001

Tel (212) 206 7858

info@standby.org

Your documentary can move audiences to take action for social change. The Independent Producers' Outreach Toolkit shows you how.

WHAT YOU GET

• Interactive Budget

• Resource Binder

• Case Studies

• Sample Proposals

• Interactive Worksheets

• Phone Consultation

uSlvAm

MEMBER DISCOUNT! www.mediarights.org/too: kit email: toolkit i-mediarighfs.org

24-30, CO. Deadline: January 31; late Feb 15. Cats: feature, short, doc, experimental. Contact: Festival; 303-832-3190; fax: 303- 299-9064; palmwine21@hotmail.com; www.panafricanarts.org/.

DENVER PAN AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL, April 24-30, CO. Deadline: January 31; late Feb 15. Cats: feature, short, doc, experimental. Contact: Festival; 303-832-3190; fax: 303- 299-9064; palmwine21@hotmail.com;

www.panafncanarts.org.

HARRY M. WARNER FESTIVAL OF SHORT FILM & VIDEO, April 20-21, PA. Deadline: Jan. 1; Feb. 1 (final). Fest takes place on the cam- pus of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, seeking shorts (under 20 mm.). Harry M. Warner, one of the Warner Bros., established the first Warner Movie Theater in New Castle, PA in 1907. Fest will also occur in conjunction w/ "Kaleidoscope," Slippery Rock University's Annual Arts Festival. Founded: 2005. Cats: any style or genre, doc, feature, experimental, anima- tion, short. Awards: Three renowned judges will determine the top three cash awards ($1,500 first prize, $1,000 second prize, $750 third prize) plus honorable mentions.. Formats: Mini-DV, DVD. preview on VHS or mini-DV Entry Fee: $15; $35 (final). Contact: Jon Shumway; (724) 738-2714; fax: 738- 4485; jon.shumway@sru.edu; http://aca demics.sru.edu/warner/entnes.html.

HI MOM! FILM FESTIVAL, June 9-10, NC. Deadline: Jan. 1 (early); Mar. 1 (final). Festival is accepting short shorts & not-so-short shorts w/ deep thoughts & shallow pockets. Two glorious days, three hot nights, six flam- ing trophies! Cats: short, any style or genre. Awards: Cash & non-cash prizes awarded. Formats: DVD, Beta SR Hi8, CD-ROM, super 8, 35mm, 16mm, 1/2',' Mini-DV. Preview on VHS (PAL or NTSC). Entry Fee: None (early); $15 (final). Contact: Matt Hedt; (919)967- 4338; himomfilmfest@mindspnng.com; www.himomfilmfestival.org.

HIGH-DEF FILM FESTIVAL, WORLD TOUR EVENT.

Deadline: Feb. 1. HDFEST is known as "the world's only high-definition film fest" due to the fact the fest showcases projects in HD which have been shot in HD format exclu- sively. HDFEST works to bring together film- makers & technological innovators from all

over the world. Cats: feature, doc, short, ani- mation, experimental, TV, music video. Awards: World tour screening. Formats: DVD, VHS. Preview on DVD or VHS. Entry Fee: $40 (under 40 mm); $50 (others). Contact: Hdfest Productions; admin ©hdfest.com; www.hdfest.com.

HUMBOLDT INT'L SHORT FILM FESTIVAL, April 1- 8, CA. Deadline: Jan. 27; Feb. 17 (final). The 39th Humboldt Int'l Short Film Festival is the oldest continuous student-run fest in the world. Since its inception in 1967 the Fest continues to support & celebrate film- makers working in experimental & non-tradi- tional ways. Films must be under 45 mm. in length & completed in the last three years. Founded: 1967 Cats: narrative, experimen- tal, animation, doc, & the "you call it" cate- gory, short, any style or genre. Awards: More than $3,000 in cash & prizes. Formats: 16mm, Digital Video. Preview on VHS/DVD. Entry Fee: $10 (under 9 mm.); $20 (10-29 mm.); $30 (30-60 mm); $10 additional for Int'l entries . Contact: Ivy Matheny; (707) 826- 4113; fax: 826-4112; filmfest@hum boldt.edu; www.humboldt.edu/~filmfest.

IOWA CITY INT'L DOC FESTIVAL, Apr 11-15, IA Deadline: Dec. 1 ; Jan 16; final Feb 1. A com- petitive fest showcasing short documen- taries. Length of entries is limited to 30 mm.. Festival seeks short documentaries of 30 min or less. The definition of a "docu- mentary" is open to wide interpretation Founded: 2002. Cats: doc, short. Awards: Cash prizes. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, video. Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: $25; $30 (final). Contact: T. Seeberger; (319) 335-3258; mfo@ICDocs.org; www.icdocs.org.

INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL OF BOSTON,

April 19-24, MA. Deadline: Feb. 10. Fest was created to discover unknown filmmakers, incl. students, first-timers, & int'l directors. Festival specializes in films still seeking dis- tribution. IFFBoston has awarded over $20,000 worth of prizes to winning films dur- ing previous fests, incl. professional servic- es, software packages, & film gear. Cats: feature, doc, short, animation, experimental, New England Focus, any style or genre. Awards: Best Fiction Feature & Short, Best Doc Feature & Short, Festival Filmmaker, & Audience Choice. Formats: 35mm, Beta SR dv-cam. Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee:

48 The Independent I January-February 2006

$10-$45. Contact: Festival; (857) 891-8693; info@iffboston.org; www.iffboston.org.

IIMT'L WILDLIFE FILM FESTIVAL, May 13-20, MI Deadline: Feb. 10. The central focus of fest is to bring awareness to non-domesti- cated wildlife species & natural habitats. Cats: children, doc, feature, TV, music video, news story. Formats: Beta SR DigiBeta. Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: $25- $200. Contact: IWFF; (406)728-9380; fax: 728-2881; iwff@wildlifefilms.org; www.wildlifefilms.org.

LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL, June 16 26, CA.

Deadline: Jan. 14; Feb. 18 (final: shorts, music video); March 1 (final: features). Fest showcases the best of American & int'l inde- pendent cinema. The fest screens over 80 features & 60 shorts. Fest is widely recog- nized as a world-class event, uniting emerg- ing filmmakers w/ critics, scholars, film mas- ters, & the movie-loving public. Founded: 1995. Cats: Feature, Doc, Short, Animation, Music Video, Student. Awards: Narrative Competition receives a $50,000 cash grant, Doc Competition winner receives a $25,000 cash grant, both funded by Target Stores. Formats: 16mm, 35mm, DigiBeta, HD. Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: $50/$65 (features); $35/$45 (shorts); $20/$30 (music videos). Contact: Varky James; (310) 432-1208; lafilmfest@ifp.org; www.lafilm fest.com.

LOWER WEST SIDE FILM FESTIVAL, April 22 27 NY. Deadline: Feb. 15; March 10 (final). An alternative exhibition opportunity for emerg- ing film artists & multimedia artists. The Festival will feature a minimum of eight screenings showcasing more than 50 alternative filmmakers at Collective: Unconscious & other venues in Lower Manhattan. Works 30 mm. or under. Cats: doc, short, animation, experimental, any style or genre. Formats: 1/2", DVD, Mini-DV, 16mm, Super 8. preview VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: $25; $35 (final). Contact: Collective: Unconscious; lwsff@weird.org; www.weird.org/LWSFF

MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL, May 11-14, MD Deadline: Feb. 17 MFF will bring a wildly entertaining mix of films from all over the world. Fest incls. "The Guest Host Program", "Advocating for Movies", "Film

Preservation", film screenings, & panel dis- cussions. Fest strives to have an "experience that is fun-celebrating the whole film cul- ture, w/ no distinction between types of films. ..a great movie is a great movie." Cats: feature, short, doc, experimental, animation, open category. Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: $10-$50. Contact: MFF; (410) 752-8083; fax: (410) 752-8273; info® mdfilmfest.com; mdfilmfest@pcbank.net; www.mdfilmfest.com.

MEDIA THAT MATTERS FILM FESTIVAL, On

going, NY. Deadline: Jan. 6. Seeking films on Food Politics, Criminal Justice, Elections, LGBT Rights, Youth Activism, Health Advocacy, Racial Justice, Human Rights, HIV/AIDS & more Cats: any style or genre, short, doc, experimental, animation, music video, youth media, PSA, Interactive Online Project. Awards: Sixteen winners get an int'l distribution deal- DVD, broadcast, web streaming & hundreds of community screenings. Plus many films get cash awards. Formats: DVD, DigiBeta, Beta SP 8 mm preview. Entry Fee: $20, Students no fee. Contact: Wendy Cohen; (646)230-6288; fax: 230-6328; wendy@artsengine.net; www.MediaThatMattersFest.org.

METHOD FEST INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL,

March 31-Apnl 7 CA. Deadline: Dec. 5; Jan 26 (final). Named for the 'Stanislavski Method,' fest highlights the great perform- ances of independent film. Seeking story driven films w/ outstanding acting perform- ances. Founded: 1999. Cats: Feature, Short, student. Formats: 35mm, Beta SR DV, DigiBeta, DVD. Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: Student: $25; Shorts: $30, $40 (final); Features: $40 , $50 (final). Contact: c/o Franken Enterprises; (310) 535-9230; fax: 535-9128; Don@methodfest.com; www.methodfest.com.

NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS, March 22-Apnl 2, NY. Deadline: Jan. 8. Highly regarded non- competitive series presented by Film Society of Lincoln Center & Museum of Modern Art. Fest presents average of 23 fea- tures & 15 shorts each yr. at MOM A. About 900 entries submitted. No cats; all genres & lengths considered. Shorts presented w/ features. Fest is well publicized; all programs reviewed in New York Times & Village Voice. Entries must have been completed w/in pre-

FILM

PRODUCTION

INSURANCE

DIGITAL

cm

UNTRm

hrs

Emporium

www.filmemporium.com

NY(2 12) 683-2433 LA (323)464-5144

January-February 2006 I The Independent 49

Get Great Sound!

Lectro Digital Wireless

Wireless systems for all your audio needs!

c

Check us out for competitive prices and friendly service!

Proi ESSION \l V^

SOUND)}

N I l< \ I ( I S '^

Call Now at 1.800.883.1033

www.pro-sound.com

Sales ■ Rentals ■ Repair

More Production and More Central

Get it all done at

production central

SHOOT • EDIT • Dt

:ATE • DVD • 24P "AM • MINI-DV

AVID • FT

AL/NTSC

2

CD/DVD D

ATION • PRINT ON DISK

CAMERA -AUDIO • LIGH

FULL PROD

NT SPACE

UNION SQUARE LOCATION

873 broadway, suite 205, new york, ny 10003

tel (212) 631-0435

web: www.prodcentral.com email: david@prodcentral.com

vious yr & be NY premieres w/ no prior pub- lic exhibition. Founded: 1972. Cats: TV, fea- ture, doc, short, animation, experimental, student. Awards: None. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Digital Video. Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: None. Contact: Sara Bensman, Film Coordinator; (212) 875-5638; fax: 875-5636; festival@filmlmc.com; www.filmlinc.com.

NEWARK BLACK FILM FESTIVAL. June 28-Aug 2 , NJ. Deadline: April 1 (Fest deadline); Feb. 20 (Robeson Award, Juried Competition). This fest aims to provide a progressive pub- lic forum for hundreds of emerging writers, directors, producers, performers, & film buffs who enjoy African American & African Diaspora cinema. Screening in the summer months (Wed), the films shown reflect the full diversity of the black experience in America, both past & present. Each film selection encompasses a wide range of cin- ematic forms & formulas, from documen- tary to the avant-garde. Cats: Doc, Experimental, Animation, Feature. Awards: cash awards. Formats: 16mm, 3/4", 1/2". Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: $35 (Robeson competiton) . Contact: Pat Faison; (973) 596- 6493; fax: (973) 642-0459; pfaison ©newarkmuseum.org; www.newarkmuse um.org/nbff/.

NEWFEST: NEW YORK LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, & TRANSGENDER GAY FILM FESTIVAL, June 1-11, NY. Deadline: Dec. 23; Feb. 20 (final). This fest is committed to pre- senting diverse & culturally inclusive pro- grams, & showcases all genres of film & video in the interest of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, or transgendered persons. Founded: 1989. Cats: feature, doc, experi- mental, short, . Awards: Jury awards for Best Narrative Feature, Best Feature Doc & Best Short, Audience Awards. Formats: 35mm, Beta SP DVD, DigiBeta. Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: $20; $25 (final). Contact: Basil Tsiokos; (212) 571-2170; fax: 571-2179; info@newfest.org; www.new fest.org.

OUTFEST: THE LOS ANGELES GAY & LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL, July 6-17 CA. Deadline: Jan. 27 March 10 (final). The mission of Outfest is to "build bridges among audiences, film- makers & the entertainment industry through the exhibition of high-quality gay,

lesbian, bisexual & transgender themed films & videos, highlighted by an annual fest, that enlighten, educate & entertain the diverse communities of Southern California'.' Fest also offers a weekly screening series yr. round, as well as a screenwntmg lab. Lab dates: July 12-14, Lab deadline: Jan. 26 Founded: 1982. Cats: Feature, Doc, Short, Animation, Experimental, script. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Beta SP Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: Features (over 50 min.): $25, $35 (final); Shorts: $15, $25 (final); Screenwriting Lab $25 . Contact: Festival; (213)480-7088; fax: 480-7099; program ming@outfest.org; www.outfest.org.

PALM BEACH INT'L FILM FESTIVAL, April 20-27 FL. Deadline: Feb. 1. Festival showcases over 80 American & Int'l independent fea- tures, shorts & documentaries. Set in Florida's tropical playground, fest gatherings range from stimulating seminars to casual beach parties & a black tie affair hosting some of top names in the film industry. Founded: 1996. Cats: any style or genre, fea- ture, doc, short, experimental. Awards: Audience & Best of awards. Formats: 35mm, Beta, Beta SP DigiBeta. Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: $30-$70. Contact: Festival; (561) 362-0003; fax: 362-0035; info@pbifilmfest.org; www.pbifilmfest.org.

PORTLAND DOC & EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL, April 26-30, OR. Deadline: Dec. 16, Jan. 20 (final). PDX is a five-day exposition dedicated to showcasing new innovative film & video. Focusing on non-narrative works "going against the grain of main- stream entertainment" the PDX Film Festival is looking for "artistic, underground, quirky & challenging work that reflects contemporary culture, documents historic oddities, & is otherwise unclassifiable." Cats: doc, short, experimental, underground. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Beta SP DV Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: $15. Contact: Peripheral Produce/PDX Film Fest; pdxfilmfest® penpheralproduce.com; www.peripheralpro duce.com

SAN FRANCISCO INT'L LGBT FILM FESTIVAL:

Framelme 30, June 15-25, CA. Deadline: Dec. 23; Jan 27 (final). Fest one of the oldest & most respected, is committed to screen- ing the best in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Film. Many works premiered in

50 The Independent I January-February 2006

fest go on to be programmed or distributed nat'lly & int'lly. Rough cuts accepted for pre- view if submitted on 1/2'.' Fest produced by Frameline, nonprofit arts organization dedi- cated to gay & lesbian media arts. Founded: 1976. Cats: any style or genre, feature, doc, short, experimental. Awards: Frameline Award, Audience Award, 1 st Feature Aaward ($10,000), Excellent Doc Award ($10,000). Formats: 35mm, 1/2',' Beta, 16mm, BETA cam SP- NTSC only. VHS- NTSC/PAL. Entry Fee: $15-35. Contact: Program Coordinator; (415) 703-8650; fax: 861-1404; info@frame line.org; www.frameline.org.

SEATTLE INT'L FILM FESTIVAL. May 25-June 18, WA. Deadline: Dec. 1; Jan. 1; Feb. 1 (final). SIFF is the largest film fest in the US, presenting more than 200 features & 80 short films to an audience of over 150,000 filmgoers each year. Fest is one of five N. American film fests in which presentation will qualify a film w/out distribution for sub- mission to the Independent Spirit awards. Founded: 1976. Cats: feature, doc, short, ani- mation. Awards: $22,500 in cash pnzes;Best American Independent Film, Best New Director (Int'l), Best Short Film & audience- based Golden Space Needle, given for fea- ture film, director, actress, actor, doc, & shorts. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Beta, Beta SP DigiBeta. Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: $35-$90. Contact: SIFF; (206) 264-7919; fax: 264-7919; entries@seattlefilm.org; www.seattlefilm.org.

ROCHESTER INT'L FILM FESTIVAL, May 4-6, NY Deadline: Dec. 1 ; Feb. 14 (final). Annnual fest is the longest-running film event dedicated to the art of short film & video (30 min max). Award winners screened at George Eastman House, Int'l Museum of Photography & Film. Founded: 1959. Cats: any style or genre, short, No music videos or installations. Formats: 16mm, 1/2", 35mm, DigiBeta, Beta SP Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: $30; $40 (final). Contact: Movies on a Shoestring, Inc; (585) 234-7411; President@RochesterFilmFest.org; www.RochesterFilmFest.org.

RURAL ROUTE FILM FESTIVAL, July 20-24, NY Deadline: Jan. 15; March 10 (final). Festival has been created to highlight works that deal w/ rural people & places. Works that incl. alternative country, country western &

folk music are encouraged. For the on tour Rural Route Film Festival, please email film- fest@ruralroutefilms.com w/TOUR Request in the subject heading & contact info in the text. Founded: 2002. Cats: feature, doc, short, animation, experimental. Formats: 16mm, 35mm, Beta, mini-DV, DVD. preview on VHS (NTSC). Entry Fee: $30-45 (final)fea- tures (40 mm plus); $10-20 (final) shorts. Contact: Alan Webber; (718) 389-4367; film fest@ruralroutefilms.com; www.ruralroute films.com.

SALT LAKE ASIAN PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL, April 13-16, UT Deadline: Feb. 4. The goal of the SLAP Film Festival is to not only create more awareness of the Asian Pacfic film industry but to also let the public have fun & watch free films. Any genre as long as the film is Asian or Pacific related. Founded: 1999. Cats: any style or genre. Contact: Lansia Wann c/o Karen Kwan; 801-581-8157; slapfilmfesti val@yahoo.com; geocities.com/slapfilmfes tival/.

SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL, July 20- Aug. 7 CA. Deadline: Feb. 14 (final). The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival show- cases new independent American & int'l Jewish-subject cinema. The Festival pres- ents dramatic, documentary, experimental, & animated features & shorts about Jewish history, culture, & identity. Filmmakers need not be Jewish; films selected by subject. Founded: 1981. Cats: doc, experimental, ani- mation, feature, short. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Beta SP Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: $15; $25 (final). Contact: Leo Wong; (415) 621-0556 xt. 302; fax: 621-0568; Jewish film@sfjff.org; leo@sfjff.org; www.sfjff.org.

SARASOTA FILM FESTIVAL, March 31- April 9, FL. Deadline: Feb. 6 (final). A program of 85 independent & int'l narrative & documentary films plus shorts, sidebars, premieres, par- ties & symposiums. Fest aims to "support & encourage the filmmaker by supplying essential networking opportunities & open dialogue w/ intelligent consumers of film". Cats: feature, doc, short. Formats: 35mm, Beta SP DigiBeta. Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: Feature: $30, $50 (final); short: $20-$35 (final); Student: $10, $30 (final). Contact: Max Burke-Phillips; (941) 364-9514; fax: (941) 364-8411; max@sarasotafilmfesti val.com; www.sarasotafilmfestival.com.

STUDIOS: Make More Money From Your Movies!

Now millions of

people can watch

them on the Internet

No cost to you! We do all the work

and advertising!

lnfo@VodDollars.com

Info Line

1-800-V0D-1212

Offices

1-800-V0D-1200

CALL FOR ENTRIES! Deadline: June 1

UNAFF 20063

"Sparks of Humanity"

9th United Nations Association Film Festival October 25-29 Stanford University www.unaff.org

January-February 2006 I The Independent 51

The 28th Annual

Big Muddy Film Festival

February 24 thru March 5, 2006 Deadline for entries: January 15, 2006

www. bigmuddyfilm.com

SEATTLE INT'L FILM FESTIVAL, May 25-June 18, WA. Deadline: Jan. 1 ; Feb. 1 (final). SIFF is the largest film fest in the US, presenting more than 200 features & 80 short films to an audience of over 150,000 filmgoers each year. Fest is one of five N. American film fests in which presentation will qualify a film w/out distribution for submission to the Independent Spirit awards. Founded: 1976. Cats: feature, doc, short, animation. Awards: $22,500 in cash pnzes.Best American Independent Film, Best New Director (Int'l), Best Short Film & audience-based Golden Space Needle, given for feature film, director, actress, actor, doc, & shorts. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Beta, Beta SR DigiBeta. Preview on VHS or DVD. Entry Fee: $35-590. Contact: SIFF: (206) 264-7919: fax: 264-7919: entries @seattlef ilm.org; www.seattlefilm.org.

SILVERD0CS: AFI/DlSCOVERY CHANNEL DOC FILM FESTIVAL, June 13-18, MD. Deadline: Jan. 27: March 3 (final). Showcasing over 80 of the best new feature & short documen- taries from around the world. A 3-Day Int'l Doc Conference- pitch to dozens of buyers & program executives. All in Washington, DC, where politics, arts & media converge. Cats: doc, any style or genre. Awards: Awards totaling over $30,000 in cash & prizes.. Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: $25 (short), $30 (feature): $30 (short, final), $35 (feature final). Contact: Festival: (301)495-6776: fax: 495- 6777: info@silverdocs.com: www.silver docs.com orWithoutabox.com.

SAN FRANCISCO INT'L LGBT FILM FESTIVAL:

Frameline 30, June 15-25, CA. Deadline: Dec. 23: Jan. 27 (final). Fest one of the old- est & most respected, is committed to screening the best in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Film. Rough cuts accepted for preview if submitted on 1/2". Fest pro- duced by Frameline, nonprofit arts organiza- tion dedicated to gay & lesbian media arts. Founded: 1976. Cats: any style or genre, fea- ture, doc, short, experimental. Awards: Frameline Award, Audience Award, 1st Feature Award ($10,000), Excellent Doc Award ($10,000). Formats: 35mm, 1/2", Beta, 16mm, BETA cam SP- NTSC only. VHS- NTSC/PAL. Entry Fee: $15-35. Contact: Program Coordinator: (415) 703-8650: fax: 861-1404: info@frameline.org: www.frame line.org.

USA Film Festival / Nat" I Short Film & Video Competition, April 20-April 27, TX. Deadline: Shorts: Feb. 1; March 1 (final); Features: March 1. Film Fest features the "best new U.S. & foreign films, special tributes & ret- ros, the 28th Annual Nat'l Short Film & Video Competition, & more (50+ visiting filmmak- ers in attendance w/ 75+ films)." Within the Film Fest is the Short Film & Video competi- tion open to US made works only, is admin- istered by an independent nat'l jury of film experts, & is an Academy-qualified program (in the fiction, animation & experimental cats). Founded: 1969. Cats: short, feature, experimental, animation. Awards: Cash Prizes; Jury Awards. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, 3/4", 1/2", Beta SR DigiBeta, DVD. Preview on VHS (NTSC) & DVD. Entry Fee: $0-$50 (final). Contact: Festival; (214) 821- 6300; fax: 821-6364; info@usafilm festival.com; www.usafilmfestival.com.

UNITED STATES SUPER 8MM FILM & DIGITAL VIDEO FESTIVAL, February 17-19, NJ. Deadline: Jan. 20. Annual fest encourages any genre, but work must have predomi- nantly originated on Super 8 film or hi-8 or digital video. Rutgers Film Co-op/NJMAC has sponsored seven touring programs, culled from fest winners for the past several years, which have travelled extensively & seen new audiences. Cats: any style or genre. Awards: $4,000 in cash & prizes; selected winners go on Best of Fest Int'l Tour. Formats: Hi8, super 8, 16mm, 1/2',' 3/4" DV 8mm. Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: $40 (check or money order payable to Rutgers Film Co-op/NJMAC). Contact: A.G. Nigrin; (732) 932-8482; fax: 932-1935; njmac@aol.com; www.njfilmfest.com.

INTERNATIONAL

BANFF WORLD TELEVISION FESTIVAL, June 11- 14, Canada. Deadline: Feb. 28. This fest is Canada's premier int'l event for program makers & content creators in television & new media. Founded: 1979. Cats: See Website for Full List. Awards: Sculptures; Global TV Grand Prize, $50,000; NHK President's Prize, $25,000 (project shot or postproduced on HDTV); Telefilm Canada Prizes, two $20,000 awards for the Best Independent Canadian Production in English & in French. Formats: Beta, Beta SP VHS (NTSC or PAL); DVD. Entry Fee: $250 (U.S.

52 The Independent I January-February 2006

or Canadian dollars); $100 (original content created for webcasting, w no prior or simul- taneous appearance in another medium). Contact: Festival; (403) 678-1216; fax: 678-9269; info@achillesmedia.com;

www.bwtvf.com.

CANADIAN FILM CENTRE'S WORLDWIDE SHORT FILM FESTIVAL, June 13-18, Canada Deadline: Feb. 24. Competitive event held in Toronto. The Festival is dedicated to cele- brating & exposing audiences to the excit- ing world of short film, & is the "largest Festival of this kind in North America." The Festival is accredited by the Academy Awards, winners of the Best Animated & Best Live-Action Short awards can be nom- inated for an Oscar. Cats: short, doc, ani- mation, experimental, music video. Awards: $125,000 in cash & prizes. Formats: 16mm, 35mm, Beta SF? DigiBeta. VHS. Entry Fee: 15-50. Contact: Festival; (416) 445-1446 ext. 312; fax: (416) 445- 9481 ; shortfilmfest@cdnfilmcentre.com; www.worldwideshortfilmfest.com.

GOLDEN PRAGUE INT'L TELEVISION FESTIVAL,

May 7-11, Czech Republic. Deadline: Feb. 28 (forms); Mar. 15 (preview tapes). Seeks music & dance focused television programs more than five min. in length in the folow- mg competitive cats: music or dance pro- grams made for television; classical, jazz, & world music or dance programs adapted for television; documentary programs; & live recordings of performances. Awards: 5000 Euros. Formats: 1/2", DigiBeta. VHS. Entry Fee: 10-150 Euros. Contact: Festival; (42) 2 6113 7014; fax: (42) 2 6113 7124; golden prague@czech-tv.cz; www.czech-tv.cz.

INSIDE OUT: TORONTO LESBIAN & GAY FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL, May 18-28, Canada. Deadline: Jan. 16. Fest hosts the largest les- bian & gay fest in Canada & one of the largest in the world. Founded: 1991. Cats: feature, doc, short, animation, experimen- tal, music video, student, youth media, fam- ily, children, TV. Awards: Awards are given for both local & int'l work; more than $5,000 in cash & prizes is awarded annually. Formats: 16mm, Beta, 35mm. Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: None. Contact: Kathleen Mullen; (416) 977-6847; fax: 977- 8025; inside@msideout.on.ca; Website: www.insideout.on.ca.

NEW DAY FILMS is the premiere distribution company for social issue media owned and managed by filmmakers. We have distributed documentary film and video for over 30 years to non-theatrical markets. With a strong com- mitment to diversity within our membership and the content of the media we represent, we welcome your interest!

www.newday.com • join@newday.com

Or call Alice Elliott: 212.924.7151

Seeking energetic independent makers of social issue

New Year's resolutions not quite working out?

Then try the AIVF Resolution:

1 . Tell someone about AIVF

2. Buy a membership for a filmmaker friend

3. Donate to AIVF

imes to a i li ise and think about a few things

: I ,!H lie i I, il \l\ I

I tow would you like to I n ered?

You can mail in youi donation or \ Kit our website:

lat Manager MVl I04 Hudson Streel 6th I I N> N

| video and filmmakers

AIVF

January-February 2006 I The Independent 53

"Three things make True/False

the best US documentary

festival. First.

the perfect number

of films. Second, a

collegia!, egalitarian.

non-competitive

environment for all

the filmmakers.

Third, the most

stylish hooded

sweatshirt."

-John Pierson

independent film guru

Please join us.

The True/False Film Festival

Columbia. Missouri* Feb 23-26. 2006

Bellingham. Washington • April 21-23. 2006

www.truefalse.org

INT'L SHORT FILM FESTIVAL HAMBURG, June 7-12, Germany. Deadline: Feb. 15. Annual Festival is a forum for presenting diversity of int'l short films & providing a meeting place for filmmakers from home & abroad. Consecutively run w/ the Hamburg Children's Film Festival. Shorts must be under 20 mm., except for Three-Minute Quickie entries (must be under 3 min.). Founded: 1985. Cats: short, any style or genre, children. Awards: Hamburg Short Film Award, No Budget Award, Audience Awards. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, super 8, S- VHS, Beta SR DVD, 1/2", Mini-DV Preview on VHS. If previews are not in German or English, please enclose text list. Entry Fee: None. Contact: c/o Short Film Agency; 011 49 40 39 10 6323; fax: 39 10 6320; festi val@shortfilm.com; www.shortfilm.com;.

MARSEILLES INT'L FESTIVAL OF EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO, France. Deadline: Mar. 1. a.k.a Festival Images Contre Nature, seeks video works that "give more importance to the nature of the vanishing image than to the content" & that deal w/ themes of time, ercetion, space, or movement. Formats: S-VHS, Mini-DV, DVD. VHS. Contact: Festival; (33) 49 142 2175; fax: (33) 49 142 2175; icn@p-silo.org; p-silo.org.

OBERHAUSEN INT'L SHORT FILM FESTIVAL.

May 5-10, Germany. Deadline: Jan. 15. The world's oldest short film fest offers a forum for aesthetic & technological innovation & reflection. There are no limits as to form or genre but films in the Int'l & Children's & Youth Competitions must not exceed 35 mm. & have been made after Jan. 1 of the previous year. Founded: 1954. Cats: Short, Any style or genre, Children, Music Video. Awards: Prizes worth a total of 37500 EURO (approx. $46,000). Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Beta SP/PAL, DV, S-VHS, Super 8, DVD. VHS, S-VHS, DVD. Entry Fee: None. Contact: Melanie Piguel, Coordinator; 011 49 208 825 2652; fax: 49 208 825 5413; info@kurzfilmtage.de; www.kurz film- tage.de.

SKIP CITY INT'L D-CINEMA FESTIVAL, July 15 23, Japan. Deadline: Feb. 17th. Fest cele- brates the growing possibilities & rising tal- ents powered by cutting-edge technology. The main program showcases the new wave of digital productions. Cats: feature, short, any style or genre, animation, experi-

mental, doc. Awards: A total of 150,000 Yen in awards. Formats: Most Digital formats, DVD, Mini-DV, 1/2". Entry Fee: None. Contact: Festival; 011 81 48 263 0818; fax: 011 81 262 5635; mfo@skipcity-dcf.jp; www.skipcity-dcf.jp.

TORONTO DOC FORUM, May 3-4, Canada Deadline: Feb. 1. Part of the Hot Docs Canadian Int'l Doc Festival. An unprecedent- ed North American market opportunity to locate financing for your social, cultural & political documentary one-offs & limited series. Based on the prestigious FORUM in Amsterdam. Two days. 36 Pitching slots. 40+ Int'l Commissioning Editors Preview on VHS. Contact: Michelle McLean; 416-203- 2155 ext. 288; www.hotdocs.ca. Toronto Jewish Film Festival, April 20-28, Canada. Deadline: Feb. 1. Second largest Jewish film fest in North America. Fest is devoted to chronicling the diversity of Jewish life & experiences from around the world. Founded: 1993. Cats: feature, doc, short. Formats: Beta SR 16mm, 35mm, VHS (Secam, PAL). Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: no entry fee. Contact: Shlomo Schwartzberg, Dir. of Programming; 416-324-9316; fax: 416-324-9415; tjff@inter log.com; www.tjff.com.

YORKTON SHORT FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL, May

25-28, Canada. Deadline: Feb. 15. Longest running fest of its kind in Canada. Awards avail, in 18 genre cats, 16 craft cats. Festival incls. public screenings, mini cinema, work- shops & activities. Cats: Doc, Children, short. Awards: The Golden Sheaf Award. Formats: 1/2", DVD. Preview on VHS. Entry Fee: CAN $75. Contact: Festival; (306) 782- 7077; fax: (306) 782-1550; mfo@yorkton- shortfilm.org; www.yorktonshortfilm.org.

VUES D'AFRIQUE, April 20-30, Canada. Deadline: Jan. 31. Fest, founded in 1983, is an important showcase for films from Africa & diaspora. Categories include: African & Creole docs, World View, Canadian Vision, Expositions Info Kiosks, Music, Dance, & Literature. Founded: 1983. Cats: Feature, Doc, Short, African/diaspora, animation, TV. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Beta SP Preview on DVD or VHS. Entry Fee: $7 (Canadian). Contact: Aunelle Tchetchenigbo; (514) 284- 3322 xt228; fax: (514) 845-0631; mfo@vues dafrique.org; www.vuesdafnque.org.

54 The Independent I January-February 2006

c

LASSIFIEDS

^ < 3

Q. CO CD

CD £3

x p- ex

2 >5_

o <; * <

Q. X 9. 3

CD COO CD CJ iOXl oo 3 n cons □ CL =>"

3" ZJ CD

° c= i7 F" O ?" cn

c o

7C O Q. C/>

Q. CD =j

m *- -?

0_ CJ1

* 9 CD 5 CD =fc —

- ^

CD CD

W Ul

CD CD

CJl CJ1

-J -^

cn cn

3 0> ^

3 o>

3 R qT

D" U) W

CD _. cn

cn 13'

o?-IiI

qo-i^-oSicQC

CD CD O o o § g" ;*-

£ cp

6§ ii

u ,„ <"

°"S ®

° 2 <

. CD r*-

>« o

< 2° cq

I*

oj 5. cd br

21 < 2 -,

J 5 co CD 3 ^

co Q. o -, o

CD CO 7* O

CXI CD O [Q

~H; CD

— * rr\ CD

°f - •°-3

x _, o

SO w D

CO <

0)

H

CD

-^

O

5-1 S-

^ co o

o ai<

< CD 9 =r

2 S

iV CD V- =

i «i O » rj < D

i - ■ =i o ^J _. 3

■^ A *■ £, £ 3"

•uaioSi"

:§c:^' 1

BUY | RENT | SELL

ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE AT LOW PRICES, NO RESTRICTIONS: Offering a High Quality, Extensive Library of Public Domain Footage spanning the 20th Century at prices independent producers can afford. Footage Farm (888) 270-1414; www.footagefarm.com.

OFFICE SPACE within well-established video facility. 5 Office Rooms/ Production Space available. Access to adjoining con- ference room, kitchen, large sun-filled lounge. Stage & post rooms on site. 22 Year-old Full Production/Post Production Facility seeking media-related tenants for mutually beneficial relationship. Great Chelsea location. (212) 206-1402.

UNION SQUARE AREA STAGE RENTALS, pro- duction space, Digibeta, Beta SR DVCAM, mini-DV, hi-8, 24-R projectors, grip, lights, dubs, deck and camera rentals. Uncompressed Avid and FCP suites, too. Production Central (212) 631-0435

DISTRIBUTION

FANLIGHT PRODUCTIONS 25 years as an industry leader! Join more than 100 award-winning film & video producers. Send us your new works on healthcare, mental health, aging, disabilities, and related issues. (800) 937-4113; www. fan light.com.

NEW DAY FILMS seeks energetic independ- ent film and video makers with social issue docs for distribution to non-theatrical markets. If you want to maximize your audience while working within a remark- able community of activist filmmakers, New Day is the perfect home for your film. New Day is committed to promoting diver- sity within our membership and the media we represent. Explore our catalog at www.newday.com, then contact Alice Elliott at join@newday.com or 212-924- 7151.

THE CINEMA GUILD, leading film/video/mul- timedia distributor, seeks new doc, fiction, educational & animation programs for dis- tribution. Send videocassettes or discs for evaluation to: The Cinema Guild, 130 Madison Ave., 2nd fl., New York, NY 10016; (212) 685-6242; mfo@CIN EMAGUILD.COM; Ask for our Distribution Services brochure.

THE ARAB RADIO AND TELEVISION NETWORK, or ART, is planning to introduce a non-Arab language satellite channel in the Middle East. This Film Channel is seek- ing independent feature films, short films and documentaries for future program- ming. We want to introduce the Middle East to films that are not commercial. Go global with us. For submission information please contact Mustafa Tell, Broadcast Director, ART at broadcast@art-tv.]o with a short synopsis of your film.

FREELANCE

35MM & 16MM PROD. PKG. W/ DP. COMPLETE PACKAGE w/ DP's own Am 35BL, 16SR, HMIs, lighting, dolly, Tulip crane, camjib, DAT grip & 5-ton truck, more. Call for reel: Tom Agnello (201) 741-4367; road toindy@aol.com.

ARE YOU STUCK? Fernanda Rossi, script & documentary doctor, specializes in narra- tive structure in all stages of the filmmak- ing process, including story development, fundraismg trailers and post-production. She has doctored over 30 films and is the author of "Trailer Mechanics." For private consultations and workshops visit www.documentarydoctor.com or write to info@documentarydoctor.com.

BRENDAN C. FLYNT Director of Photography for feature films and shorts. Credits: "Remedy" starring Frank Vincent and "El Rey "(Goya Award). Have 35mm,s16,HD equipment and contacts w/festivals, dis- tributors, and name actors. Call anytime (212) 208-0968 or bcfly nt@yahoo.com; www.dpflynt.com

COMPOSER MIRIAM CUTLER loves to collab- orate: docs, features. Lost In La Mancha/IFC, Scout's Honor, Licensed To Kill, Pandemic: Facing Aids/HBO, Indian Point/HBO, Positively Naked/HBO, Stolen Childhoods, Amy's 0 & more. (310) 398- 5985 mir.cut@venzon.net. www.miriam cutler.com.

COMPOSER: Original music for your film or video project. Will work with any budget. Complete digital studio. NYC area. Demo CD upon request. Call Ian O'Brien: (201) 222-2638; iobrien@bellatlantic.net.

D.P WITH ARRI SR SUPER 16/16MM and

35BL-2 camera packages. Expert lighting and camerawork for independent films, music videos, etc. Superb results on a short schedule and low budget. Great prices. Willing to travel. Matthew 617-244- 6730.

FREELANCE CAMERA GROUP IN NYC seeking

January-February 2006 I The Independent 55

professional cameramen and soundmen w/ solid Betacam experience to work w/ wide array of clients. If qualified, contact COA at (212) 505-1911. Must have docu- mentary/ news samples or reel.

LOCATION SOUND: Over 25 yrs sound exp. w/ timecode Nagra & DAT quality mics & mixers. Reduced rates for low-budget projects. Harvey & Fred Edwards, (518) 677-5720; (819) 459-2680; edfilms@world net.att.net; www.edwardsfilms.com.

STORYBOARDS make complicated scenes clear. Kathryn Roake has drawn over 15 films and is the winner of a New Line Cinema grant, another, the winner of an HBO grant. I work on union and non union films. Kathryn 718-788-2755.

OPPORTUNITIES | GIGS

50 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR VIDEO BUSINESS. FREE REPORT. Grow a successful video busi- ness in Legal, Wedding, Corporate, TV and more, http://videouniversity.com/50web.htm

CAREER AND SCRIPT CONSULTANT Emmy nominated Ellen Sandler (Co-Executive Producer "Everybody Loves Raymond") can help anyone avoid costly, time con- suming pitfalls and deadends in the Hollywood game. She works one on one with you on pitching skills, script re-writes, career strategies, including networking and relocating to Los Angeles. Her approach follows specific guidelines and proven techniques, but is always cus- tomized to the specific needs, strengths and budget of each client. Email: elsand@comcast.net for more information and to request a sample consultation at no charge.

ECHOTROPE, OMAHA NE, works collabora- tively with other art venues such as the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and UNO Art Gallery to organize exhibitions/screenings. Seeking submis- sions for the 2006 - 2007 Deadline 2/1/05 for CE06/ CE07 Accept MiniDV, DVD. Please include current CV, support materi- als, contact info, SASE FOR RETURN: Echotrope PO. Box 31394 Omaha NE, 68181-0394. www.echotrope.org.

FILMMAKING INSTRUCTOR NEEDED Concord Academy is a coeducational independent boarding and day school of 340 students grades 9-12. It offers a rigorous liberal arts curriculum in which the arts play an impor- tant role. Members of the Visual Arts department are working artists who main- tain their own studios and exhibit their work. The Visual Arts Department is look- ing for a 60-80% time filmmaking instruc- tor. Candidates are expected to teach three levels of filmmaking which includes film (Super 8 and 16mm), video and digital video production and post-produc- tion. Other courses could include Screenwriting, Film History and New Media Production. Experience with Final Cut Pro, Avid DV express pro and other graphic software helpful. Production expe- rience and knowledge of film history and criticism essential. Teaching experience and MFA preferred. Instructor supervises a well-equipped facility with the help of a tech assistant. Duties beyond the class- room include advising students and serv- ing on committees. To apply send resume, teaching philosophy and three references to: Cynthia Katz, Chair, Visual Arts Department Concord Academy, 166 Main Street Concord, MA 01742 Review of applications to begin November 1. Position open until filled. Finalists will be asked to submit a sample reel. No telephone calls please. For questions, email cyn- thia_katz@concordacademy.org. Concord Academy actively seeks applicants who reflect and support our mission-driven commitment to creating and maintaining a diverse and inclusive school community.

PREPRODUCTION | DEVELOPMENT

GET YOUR SCREENPLAY READY FOR PRODUC- TION! Former Miramax story analyst, School of Visual Arts professor and author of Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters (Hyperion, August 2002), will analyze your screenplay and write you contructive in- depth studio style notes. I will go right to the heart of what works in your script and what needs improvement as well as offer- ing suggestions about HOW to fix it. Trust me, I'm not looking for "formulas." Every screenplay is different. Since I'm an inde-

pendent filmmaker, I specialize in helping filmmakers get their scripts ready for shooting. Face it. You're going to spend a lot of money to make your film. Spend a little up front to make sure your script works. It's the ONLY way to pull off a low budget film effectively! It will cost you 1000 times more to fix script problems AFTER the production begins. Reasonable rates, references. Michael Tierno, mtier no@nyc.rr.com.

POSTPRODUCTION

AUDIO POST-PRODUCTION Audio comple tion on your Doc or Film. Well Credited and experienced. Visit website for Credit List. Terra Vista Media, Inc. Tel 562-437- 0393.

BRODSKY & TREADWAY film-to-tape trans- fers, wet-gate, scene-by-scene, reversal film only. Camera original Regular 8mm, Super 8, and 16mm. For appointment call (978) 948-7985.

WEB

WEB SITE DESIGNER: Create multimedia web sites, integrating video, sound, and special effects, that promote your films and/or your company, www.sabineprobst- design.com. Info: Sabine Probst, phone: 646-226-7881, email: sabme@spromo.net.

INDIEVILLE: With more than 26,000 unique visitors per month and 5,200 email newsletter subscribers join the indie crusade at http://mdieville.net.

56 The Independent I January-February 2006

■ ■

•Ssift

M

»f

■■E

• ' ' > *■'•■ I

nil!

??$»$< HI Krai M ffifelfts Sa

Iflg $$ $$& ■■•-..-.■.•■.•

:**

■

OTICES

c =r rr 3 3

3 CO CO CO Q

_. 7T CD -l ^

^ o Q) 3 Q-

QJ c Q. CD -j

r-f CD Q ~\

=> rr ^ (D "

ID tt 0) D j^

C „ CD

o — o | § °c5 ® 3 ?•§"

a<? am

-< _» Q) -f,

CD n ~ =V

W u (D 3

1/1 ID — ^

9> CD CO ->-

Q. C - 5 -O w CO CD

o 8-S 3 -. 3 fo

?T 3

w c/>

Is

El.CO

CD "} CQ n

DO

<

CO

3" CO CD T3 _, CD

QJ CO

<D 3 3 3 3- _

CO O

3 £

O E=

5"

(XI CD

—\ CD

CO

r-h CD_

-f CD

°3

to

o £o Jo

^ £ <3 a- 2.

2 ?. ^» (t "■

— ■ 3 o, CD CD

3 a

COMPETITIONS

ALWAYS INDEPENDENT FILMS shows mde pendent feature films, short films, docs & animation. In addition, AIF features original made-for-lntemet content as well as on line film festivals, www.alwaysif.com.

SHORT FILM SLAM, NYC's only weekly short film competition, is looking for sub- missions. Competition on Sundays at 2 p.m. At the end of each show the audi- ence votes for a winning film, which receives further screenings at the Pioneer Theater. To enter, you must have a film, 30 min. or less, in a 35mm, 16mm, BetaSR VHS, or DVD format. To submit your film, stop by the PioneerTheater (155 E. 3rd St.) during operating hours, call (212) 254- 7107, or visit www.twoboots.com /pioneer for more information.

APPLAUSE SCREENWRITING COMPETITION

calling for original works of an author or authors and not previously optioned, pur- chased, or produced. Adaptations (no docu- mentaries) are welcome provided the author assumes sole legal responsibility for obtaining copyrights to the adapted work. Prizes: Script submission to agents, man- agers, producers, lunch with Hollywood execs, exposure and promotion packages, coverage, script critiques, software, maga- zines, and other great product prizes. For more info visit www.applause4you.com.

DRAMA GARAGE seeks completed and orig- inal feature-length screenplays that do not exceed 120 pages and have limited camera

angles. If chosen, you'll receive a fully pro- duced, staged reading of your screenplay in Hollywood, referrals, contacts, and much more. Please visit www.dramagarage.com or call 323-993-5700 for more information.

CONFERENCES/ WORKSHOPS

"CREATIVE DEMOLITION." The 52nd Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, curated by Ariella Ben-Dov and Steve Seid, will be held at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, June 17-24 2006. Register online at www.flahertyseminar.org. Fellowships, with a partial fee reduction, are available. Regional Fellowships, with a full fee waiver, may also become available. Deadline: March 20 2006. See website for more details or e-mail ifs@flahertyseminar.org.

VOLUNTEER LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS: offer seminars on "Copyright Basics," "Nonprofit Incorporation & Tax Exemption" & more. Reservations must be made. Contact: (212) 319-2910 x. 9.

24TH STREET WRITERS GROUP seeking new members - Monday Nights. Well estab- lished Manhattan based screen writing group is seeking committed new members for Monday evening meetings. If interested in being considered for membership, please send a 30 page writing sample in PDF format to the24thstwriters@aol.com.

PUBLICATIONS

DATABASE & DIRECTORY OF LATIN AMERICAN FILM & VIDEO, organized by Int'l Media

Resources Exchange, seeks works by Latin American & US Latino ind. producers. To send work or for info, contact Roselly Torres, LAVA, 124 Washington PL, NY, NY 10014; (212) 463-0108; imre@igc.org.

DEEP FOCUS: A REPORT ON THE FUTURE OF INDEPENDENT MEDIA What are the con tours of this decade's emerging media land- scape? How can makers, funders and organizations adapt to opportunities and challenges distinctive to this new environ- ment? In this far-reaching new report six leading independent media organizations partner with Global Business Network to take a bold, provocative look at the future. Free to members and available for purchase at www.namac.org.

RESOURCES/ FUNDS

THE FLEISHHACKER FOUNDATION Offers $1,000-$10,000 biannually to support works by San Francisco Bay artists that are in post-production in film, video and media arts projects. Priority will be given to new works and projects with a good chance of being completed. Students are ineligible. The annual operating budget must be between $100,000- $750,000 annually. Deadline is July 15th and January 15th For more information, visit: www.fleishhacker foundation.org

THE FUND FOR WOMEN ARTISTS is a non

profit organization dedicated to helping women get the resources they need to do their creative work. We focus on women using their art to address social issues,

January-February 2006 I The Independent 57

especially women in theatre, film, and video, and we have two primary goals: To Challenge Stereotypes - We support the creation of art that reflects the full diversity and complexity of women's lives. To Increase Opportunities - We advocate for women artists to be paid fairly and to have more opportunities to make a living from their creative work. To learn more about our work, and to sign up to receive these fund- ing newsletters, visit our web page at: www.WomenArts.org .

THE LEEWAY FOUNDATION, which supports individual women artists, arts programs, and arts organizations in the Greater Philadelphia region, has announced the Art and Change Grants provide immediate, short-term grants of up to $2,500 to women artists in the Philadelphia region who need financial assistance to take advantage of opportunities for art and change. The artist's opportunity for change must be supported by or be in collaboration with a Change Partner — a person, organi-

zation, or business that is providing the opportunity or is a part of the opportunity in some way. Eligible Change Partners include mentors, editors, galleries, community art spaces, theaters, nonprofit organizations, film studios, and clubs. (Art and Change Grant Deadlines: April 11, June 20, and October 31, 2005.) Visit the Leeway Foundation Web site for grantmaking guide lines and application forms.

MICROCINEMAS / SCREENINGS

FILM AND VIDEO 825 - Series of bi-monthly screenings of locally, nationally and interna- tionally recognized film and video artists' work, providing a forum for presenting experimental film and video in Los Angeles. In a city dominated by Hollywood, venues such as ours become a necessity for artists working in time-based media that is outside the mainstream of narrative cinema. Our curatorial vision is open to both shorts and features in experimental, performance, ani- mation, and documentary forms. Film

A/ideo 825, Gallery 825/LAAA, 825 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90069, T (310) 652-8272, F: (310) 652-9251, gallery825@laaa.org, www.laaa.org/calen dar/film_video.html

ROOFTOP FILMS Submit your movies! We are currently accepting films for our 10th anniversary season, the 2006 Summer Series. We want motion that tell us about where you live and how you live, and we seek independent movies with original ideas, of production values. We accept films of all genres and lengths. The festi- val consists of weekly shows in parks, along piers, in historical locations or on rooftops in New York City. Curators encouraged to submit entire programs of films. For information, please visit www.rooftopfilms.com or email Dan Nuxoll, programming director, at sub mit@rooftopflims.com.

SQUEAKY WHEEL'S long-running free open screening is one of our most popular pro-

AIVF presents:

THE PRODUCER SERIES

IB

with Innes Smolansky

Thursdays - Winter/Spring 2006 6:30 - 8:30pm at the AIVF office, 304 Hudson St., 6th floor, NYC. $25- AIVF Members $30- General Public Series Fees

5 sessions pass: $100 AIVF members $125 general public

Advanced purchase is recommended.

Register on-line at: www.aivf.org/store or call 212/807-1400x301

get it made.

January 12

CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP/ PRODUCT PLACEMENT

February 2

RAISING MONEY FOR DOCUMENTARIES

March 2

AGENTS/ REPRESENTATION

March 16

CASTING YOUR TALENT

April 6

MUSIC IN TELEVISON/FILM

April 27

FESTIVAL/FILM SERIES PROGRAMMERS

May 11

SELLING YOUR DOCUMENTARY FILM

June 1

SELLING YOUR NARRATIVE FILM

Innes Smolansky, entertainment attorney and producers' rep moderates the essential with local industry players and representatives. In Brief provides the platform to get questions answered and advice to help you get it made.

www.aivf.org

58 The Independent I January-February 2006

grams: second Wednesday of Every Month 8pm! Free! Filmmakers, video/sound/digital artists, community documentarians, and students of all ages are welcome to bring short works for insightful critique. The open screening is perfect for newly created works or works in progress. Bring works less than 15 minutes. Call ahead to screen a longer work. We created some new mini-themes (you don't have to make work on the theme, but if it inspires you, go ahead) to get more people in the door! Formats accepted: Super 8, 16mm, video (mini-dv, svhs, vhs), cas- settes, cds, Mac compatible cd-rom. Please visit www.squeaky.org/opportunities.html #ongoing for more information.

BROADCAST / CABLECAST

AXLEGREASE PUBLIC ACCESS CABLE SHOW Tuesdays at 2:00 PM on Channel 20 Become part of current media making his- tory and submit your media work to be shown on TV, on our legendary public access cable show. Commercial free, 100% media art TV. Provide us with mini- dv, vhs, svhs, or 8mm video (ntsc) tapes with a running time of 28 min. or less. Your work may also be displayed in our store- front window. Your entry will become a part of our Member Viewing Library unless you include an SASE. Axlegrease is open to local and international artists. Send tapes Attention: Axlegrease. Formats accepted: mini-dv, s-vhs, vhs or dvd. Please visit www.squeaky.org/opportunities. html#ongo ing for more information.

OPEN SCREENINGS Second Wednesday of Every Month 8pm! Free! Squeaky Wheel's long-running free open screening is one of our most popular programs. Filmmakers, video/sound/digital artists, community docu- mentarians, and students of all ages are wel- come to bring short works for insightful cri- tique. The open screening is perfect for newly created works or works in progress. Bring works less than 15 minutes. Call ahead to screen a longer work. We created some new mini-themes (you don't have to make work on the theme, but if it inspires you, go ahead) to get more people in the door! Formats accepted: Super 8, 16mm,

video (mini-dv, svhs, vhs), cassettes, cds, Mac compatible cd-rom.

THE DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL is a new digital cable channel dedicated to airing, exclusive- ly, the works of the independent documen- tary filmmaker. There isn't a single type of documentary that they will not show, and they are not afraid of controversy. That said, they prefer the edgier, more personal films that tell a story and that show something in a unique, visual manner. See the website for submission instructions. Submissions accepted on a rolling basis. Please visit http://documentarychannel.com/ mdex.htm for more information or email programs@documentarychannel.com

DUTV: A progressive, nonprofit educational channel in Philadelphia seeks works by indie producers. All genres & lengths considered. Will return tapes. BetaSP DV, dvd accepted for possible cablecast. Contact: Debbie Rudman, DUTV, 3141 Chestnut St., Bldg 9B, Rm 0016,Philadelphia, PA 19104; (215) 895- 2927; dutv@drexel.edu; www.dutv.org.

GET YOUR FILM SHOWN ON SKY! Propeller TV is the new national channel for film and tele- vision talent, to launch in the new year on SKY. The Film First strand of the channel is looking for short films to be considered for broadcast. They can be any length and genre. You don't have to be Spielberg to be considered for the channel, you could be an independent filmmaker or even a communi- ty-based group. Please send films on DVD for broadcast consideration to: John Offord, Propeller TV, c/o Screen Yorkshire, 46 The Calls, Leeds LS2 7EYjohn@propellertv.co.uk (0)7724 243680.

WIRESTREAM FILMSEARCH seeks films for broadcast. WireStream Productions, in Co- operation with WireStream networks, is seeking independent films and television series for broadcast. Genre welcome include Drama, Comedy, SciFi, Fantasy, Nonfiction/Reality and Educational films and series, suitable for general/mature audiences. All entries must be available for all rights worldwide. Entries previously presented are eligible subject to confirma-

tion of rights. Submit entries to Waye Hicks, Executive Producer, via email to wayne@wirestreamproductions.com, or by Parcel Post to WireStream Productions, 3005B W.Hwy 76, Branson MO 65616.

WEBCAST

FILMFIGHTS.COM democratic filmfestival that anyone can enter, 3 times a month. We filmfight every ten days of the month (the 10th, 20th, and 30th) and submissions are due 1 day before the fight-given a title or genre, the submissions are voted on through the website. The winner is the winner and goes into the archives, and their video sits front and center until the next winner is crowned, along with a little blurb about whatever they feel like. Please visit the website for a complete list of guidelines: http://filmfights.com/sub mit.shtml.

KNOWITALLVIDEO created an online video community aimed at world's largest user- generated video collection. With an exhaustive list of categories covering every conceivable subject, any wannabe star or director with a camera can easily upload short-form digital videos for an unlimited audience of Internet and wire- less PDA users who search the site by key word or category, all completely free of charge-equal parts talent showcase and information resource. For more informa- tion please visit www.knowitallvideo.com.

WWW.VIDEOART.NET is looking for new filmmakers, video artists, producers, etc. to post their clips into a searchable data- base. Registration is free. We're also inter- ested in learning about your work, new links, trends, equipment, and general film dialogue in the forums. A great opportuni- ty to showcase your talents and discuss your work in the forums.

January-February 2006 I The Independent 59

"The script is locked.

Now I just need

to cast the lead —

a luminously beautiful

arachibutyrophobe

who ' s on the run

from drug dealers,

her ex-husband,

and herself . "

r

You re sear

for a great actor.

There are over 100,000 SAG members searching for great roles.

Let us help you find each other.

To learn more about how the Screen Actors Guild has made it easier than ever for independent filmmakers to work with professional actors, visit

www.sagindie.org

Work Wanted

By Erica Berenstein

Noncommercial notices are listed free of charge as space permits. The Independent reserves the right to edit for length and makes no guarantees about dura- tion of listing. Limit submissions to 60 words and indi- cate how long your information will be current. Listings must be submitted to notices@aivf.org by the first of the month two months prior to cover date (e.g., Sept. 1 for Nov. issue). Remember to give us complete con- tact info (name, address, and phone number). Listings do not constitute an endorsement by The Independent or AIVF We try to be as current and accurate as possi- ble, but nevertheless: double-check details before sending anyone anything.

AMAZEFILMS is constantly looking for feature films and short films to include in its pro- gramming. We welcome filmmakers and writers to send us their work for considera- tion free of charge. If you feel that your short film, feature film or documentary film that you have produced would make a good addi- tion to the AmazeFilms programming, please fill out the film submission form: www.amazefilms.com/submissions.

ATOMFILMS brings you all the best shorts - animation, comedy, action, sci-fi, drama, and more! There are lots of places to post your film or animation on the Wet) — but there is only one AtomFilms. Filmmakers around the world know us as the place to go to get dis- covered, get paid, and make more movies. Do you have a short film or animation that we should see? www.atomfilms.com/sub- mit/

HOLLYWOOD GATEWAY SCREENWRITING CONTEST: The mission of the Hollywood Gateway Screenwriting Contest is to guide aspiring writers to their success through opportunity, mentoring and unpar- alleled access to Hollywood decision mak- ers. $5,000 Cash prize and an initial 12- month option agreement against a poten- tial $100,000 purchase price, among other prizes. Early Entries February 28th, 2005 - Special Early Bird Entry Cost $35.00. Contest Deadline April 30th, 2005 - Entry Cost $40.00 Late Entrany June 30th, 2005 - Entry Cost $50.00. Type of Material: Screenplays 80-140 pages. International entries written in English are welcome. For more information go to www.holly- wood gateway.com/details.php

THE DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL is a new digital cable channel dedicated to airing, exclusive- ly, the works of the independent documen- tary filmmaker. There isn't a single type of

documentary that they will not show, and they are not afraid of controversy. That said, they prefer the edgier, more personal films that tell a story and that show something in a unique, visual manner. See the website for submission instructions. Submissions accepted on a rolling basis. Please visit http://documentarychannel.com /index. htm for more information or email programs@documentarychan nel.com

COMEDY EXPRESS TV seeks funny films under 7 min. to show and promote on tele- vision. We will show, onscreen, the credits and contact information for the filmmakers, including your 15,000! Please look at our website www.comedyexpresstv.com which gives more background as well as the online release which MUST accompany all submis- sions. Contact: Adam Gilad 9229 Sunset Blvd LA CA 90069 adamgilad@mac.com 310 271 0023.

MACHINE DREAMS is developing a series of theatrical shows for national audiences that will involve original music, movies, movie shorts, animations, games, graphics and art. We are conducting a global search for the best ORIGINAL independent material in the following categories: Social Commentary & Societal Issues, Humor and Satire, Special Effects, Interactive "No Death" Gaming, Great Media in any form (music, music video, movie, movie shorts, animation, games, graphics, art) We plan to incorporate your work in one or more of the following ways: 1. Include it in a juried show in New York City, with winners receiving recognition and cash prizes and airing on a network tel- evision show, 2. Include it in one or more interactive shows in New York City, 3. Include it in distribution across movie the- atres, DVD, web, television, cable, satellite or radio broadcast. Email a BRIEF DESCRIP- TION to us of your work: kate@machine

dreams.com DO NOT SEND US YOUR WORK YET For more information call Kate Lawson at 612-371-4428 x11.

SMOGDANCE, the Seventh Annual Pomona Film Festival, wants to see your cinematic statement. Our Smogdance '04 committee is already up and running. Contact us if you'd like to be a part of the Inland Empire's most exciting and eclectic film event. Submission Deadline: December 15, 2005 Festival Date: January 21, 2005 — January 23, 2005 Smogdance '04. (909) 629-9797, FX: (909) 629-8697, smogdance@hot mail.com.

TIMEBASE is a curated exhibition of time- based media and art at Boley, an 8,000 sq ft. former bank in downtown Kansas City. Emphasis for 2006 May-June show is site- specific work and installation. Video, film, audio, installation, interactive art or perform- ance of any type also considered. Send CD, DVD, VHS, URL or detailed proposal with entry form (www.time-base.org) to: time:base, 5100 Rockhill Rd Haag 202, Kansas City MO 64110. Tel/816/235-1708; time-base@hotmail.

THE WAVES Committee announces the call for entries for the 5th WAVES Asian/Asian American Film Festival, scheduled to run April 14th -April 16th, 2006. Filmmakers are encouraged to access comprehensive infor- mation and eligibility requirements and to complete the entry form online at the WAVES Web site, www.uiowa.edu/~waves. Discounted Deadline is 5pm CSX Tuesday, January 17 2006. Final deadline for entries is Friday, February 16th, 2006. Entry forms and eligibility requirements can also be requested by email, uiwaves@yahoo.com.

January-February 2006 I The Independent 61

EARN riLM/HAI\ING

ACTING

roc

riLM

8, 6, 4 and 1-week intensive, hands-on workshops

DIRECTING //

ACTING f

PRODUCING /

SCREENWRITING II

3-D ANIMATION \\

DIGITAL FILMMAKING \ EDITING

ONE YEAR PROGRAMS

Directing for Film • Acting for Film

Screenwriting • Producing

3-D Animation and Special Effects

-

Master of Fine Arts

in Filmmaking available 2006^

1.800.611.FILM • WWW.NYFA.COM

NEW YORK CITY UNIVERSAL STUDIOSt HARVARD UNIVERSITY*

DISNEY-MGM STUDIOS PRINCETON UNIVERSITY* COLORADO FILM SCHOOL

ST CATHERINE'S COLLEGE in the

UNIVERSITY of OXFORD

FLORENCE, ITALY*

PARIS, FRANCE*

NEW yCCI\ ■ II V4 ACADEMy

OXFORD UNIVERSITY, ENGLAND

St. Catherine's College University Oxford

Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3UJ, United Kingdom

tel +44 1865-271-805 • fax +44 1865-271-807

email: filmuk@nyfa.com

NEW YORK CITY

mim 100 East 17th Street New York City 10003

tel 212-674-4300 • fax 212-477-1414 email: film@nyfa.com

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

Gate 4, Barham Blvd., Lakeside Plaza

Los Angeles, California 91608

tel 818-733-2600 • fax 818-733-4074

email: studios@nyfa.com

All workshops are solely owned and operated by the New York Film Academy and are not affiliated with Harvard University Princeton University. St. Catherine's College in the University of Oxford. Universal or Disney-MGM Studios. 'Summer only.

THANK YOU

The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers (AIVF) provides a wide range of programs and services for independent moving image makers and the media community, including The Independent and a series of resource publications, seminars and workshops, infor- mation services, and arts and media policy advocacy.

None of this work would be possible without the generous support of the AIVF membership and the following organizations:

We also wish to thank the following individuals and organizational members:

H

NYSCA

O

PBS

Kodak

Motion Picture film

City of New York Dept. of Cultural Affairs

Discovery Wines

Experimental Television Center Ltd.

Forest Creatures Entertainment, Inc.

Home Box Office

The Jewish Communal Fund

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

The Nathan Cummings Foundation

The National Endowment for the Arts

New York State Council on the Arts

The Norman and Rosita Winston Foundation

PBS

Yuengling Beer

The Advertising Club

Kodak

BUSINESS/INDUSTRY MEMBERS: AL: Cypress Moon Productions; CA: SJPL Films, Ltd.; CO: CU Film Studies, Pay Reel; CT Anvil Production; FL: Charter Pictures Entertainment; IL: Shattering Paradigms Entertainment, LLC; MD: NewsGroup, Inc.; TLF Limited Management; Ml: Logic Media LLC; MS: Magnolia Independent Film Festival; NY: Entertainment Pro Insurance; Cypress Films; Deutsch/Open City Films; Docurama; Forest Creatures Entertainment; getcast.com; Larry Engel Productions Inc.; Lightworks Producing Group; Mad Mad Judy; Metropolis Film Lab; Missing Pixel; New School University; Off Ramp Films, Inc.; On the Prowl Productions; OVO; Production Central; Range Post; Robin Frank Management; Rockbottom Entertainment, LLC; Talent Solutions; The Outpost; Triune Pictures; United Spheres Production; VA: Karma Communications Film & Video; WA: Two Dogs Barking;

NONPROFIT MEMBERS: AR: Henderson State University; CA: Bay Area Video Coalition; California Newsreel; Everyday Gandhis Project; NAATA/Media Fund; NALIP; USC School of Cinema and TV; CO: Denver Center Media; Free Speech TV: CT: Hartley Film Foundation; DC: CINE; Media Access; School of Communication, American University; FL: Miami International Film Festival; University of Tampa; HI: Pacific Islanders in Communications; IL: Community Television Network; Department of Communication/NLU; Kartemquin Films; IN: Fort Wayne Cinema Center; Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee; KY: Appalshop; MA: CCTV; Documentary Educational Resources; Harvard University, OsCLibrary; LTC; MD: Laurel Cable Network; Silverdocs: AFI Discovery Channel Doc Festival; ME: Maine Photographic Workshop; Ml: Ann Arbor Film Festival; MN: IFP/MSP; Walker Art Center; MO: dhTV; Webster University Film Series; NC: Broadcasting/Cinema; Working Films; NE: Nebraska Independent Film Project/AIVF Salon Lincoln; NJ: Black Maria Film Festival; Princeton University. Program in Visual Arts; University of New Mexico; NY: ActNow Productions; Arts Engine; Cornell Cinema; Council for Positive Images, Inc.; Creative Capital Foundation; Crowing Rooster Arts; Dutchess Community College

Student Activites; Educational Video Center; Film Forum; Film Society of Lincoln Center; Firelight Media; International Film Seminars; LMC-TV; Manhattan Neighborhood Network; National Black Touring Circuit; National Black Programming Consortium; National Musuem of the American Indian; National Video Resources; New York University, Cinema Studies; New York Women in Film and Television; Parnassus Works; POV/The American Documentary; RIT School of Film and Animation, Squeaky Wheel; Stony Brook Film Festival; Syracuse University United Community Centers; Upstate Films, Ltd.; Witness Women Make Movies; OH: Athens Center for Film And Video Independent Pictures/AIVF Ohio Salon; OR: Media Arts, MHCC Northest Film Center; The Oregon Film & Video Foundation; PA American INSIGHT Inc.; TeamChildren.com; Rl: Flickers Arts Collaborative; SC: Department of Art, University of South Carolina; South Carolina Arts Commission; TX: Houston Film Commission; Southwest Alternate Media Project; Students of the World; University of Texas RTF; WA: Seattle Central Community College; Wl: UWM Dept. of film; Canada: Cinematheque Quebecoise Musee Du Cinema; France: The Carmago Foundation

FRIENDS OF AIVF: Angela Alston, Sabina Maja Angel, Tom Basham, Aldo Bello, David Bemis, Doug Block, Liz Canner, Hugo Cassirer, Williams Cole, Anne del Castillo, Arthur Dong, Martin Edelstein, Esq., Aaron Edison, Paul Espinosa, Karen Freedman, Lucy Garrity, Norman Gendelman, Debra Granik, Catherine Gund, Peter Gunthel, David Haas, Kyle Henry, Lou Hernandez, Lisa Jackson, John Kavanaugh, Stan Konowitz, Leonard Kurz, Lyda Kuth, Steven Lawrence, Bart Lawson, Regge Life, Juan Mandelbaum, Diane Markrow, Tracy Mazza, Leonard McClure, Daphne McDuffie- Tucker, Jim McKay, Michele Meek, Robert Millis, Robert Millis, Richard Numeroff, Elizabeth Peters, Laura Poitras, Robert Richter, Hiroto Saito, Larry Sapadin, James Schamus, John Schmidt, Nat Segaloff, Robert Seigel, Gail Silva, Innes Smolansky, Barbara Sostaric, Alexander Spencer, Miriam Stern, George Stoney, Rhonda Leigh Tanzman, Rahdi Taylor, KarlTrappe, Jane Wagner, Bart Weiss

January-February 2006 I The Independent 63

THE LIST

Coming Up Sho

By Erica Berenstein

You've been working for months, maybe years, on your script. You've re-written it 47 times. The denouement is perfect, the dialogue well-crafted. Is there any reason in the world that you might want to chop it up or slim it down? Are there any advantages to turning your 120-page screenplay into a seven-minute short?

"Good question! I would have to say that the advantage would be a good test to see if your stripped down, key ingredi- ents are there, and secondly that the arc is tangible and as strong as it can be, and most importantly, that you have a central theme that can be executed in a micro (short) or macro (feature-