============================================================ indieWIRE: DAILY September 30, 2005 ~~ the leading source on independent film since 1996 ~~ < http://www.indiewire.com > ============================================================ + PEOPLE: Down in the Delta; Ira Sachs Plays "Forty Shades of Blue" + ON THE SCENE: Dispatch From Brazil: Short Films In Abundance at Sao Paulo's Festival Internacional de Curtas-Metragens + IPOP: Squid & Whale + IPOP: A Nice Reunion... + BUZZ & RUMORS /=====================FROM OUR SPONSOR===================== Film Independent's First Annual Filmmaker Forum: SELL YOUR FILM WITHOUT GETTING SCREWED! Saturday, October 15, 8:30 am - 6:30 pm Your film is done; now what do you do? Whether you're in a festival or trying to get into one, the Forum's filmmakers and other experts help you make the most of the festival circuit and beyond. Visit http://www.FilmIndependent.org for more information or register at http://www.WithOutABox.com. ==========================================================/ + PEOPLE: Down in the Delta; Ira Sachs Plays "Forty Shades of Blue" (by Anthony Kaufman, September 29, 2005) While regional filmmakers were all the rage at Sundance this year (from "Hustle & Flow" to "Junebug"), Ira Sachs' top prizewinner "Forty Shades of Blue" feels like it comes from another planet. Whether it's the France of Maurice Pialat and Raoul Coutard, the Germany of Rainer Werner Fassbinder or the England of Ken Loach, all of whom he cites as influences, the Memphis of Sachs' second feature (after his 1996 debut "The Delta") captures the blues-soaked sadness of his home city, but also evokes a foreign aesthetic far from the nooks and crannies of the United States. Read the Full Story @ indieWIRE.com < http://www.indiewire.com/people/2005/09/by_anthony_kauf.html > /=====================FROM OUR SPONSOR===================== The 8th San Francisco Independent Film Festival (Feb 2-14, 2006) Call for Entries deadline is October 15th. Hot on the heels of the Park City Dances is a completely different (and much warmer) kind of Festival. The SF IndieFest is dedicated to showing challenging, provocative and entertaining movies to large appreciative audiences - and partying every night. 12,000 passionate film lovers joined us last year to watch films that explore the quirky details of human relationships and/or sex, drugs, madness and Rock 'n Roll. We play features, shorts, narratives, docs, animation and experimental film and video, in any style and in any genre - as long as it's great. Visit http://www.sfindie.com to see the Festival archives and download the 2006 entry form. ==========================================================/ + ON THE SCENE: Dispatch From Brazil: Short Films In Abundance at Sao Paulo's Festival Internacional de Curtas-Metragens (by Michael Gibbons, September 29, 2005) World Cinema coverage presented by National Geographic's All Roads Film Festival "A long life for Brazilian cinema!" was the ironic cheer of the night at the opening of the 16th Festival Internacional de Curtas-Metragens de Sao Paulo, the largest short film festival in Latin America. Despite being an invitation-only event, the theater was so full on opening night that guests filled the aisles and huddled into corners to watch the evening's selection of films. The scene repeated itself throughout the course of the festival: theaters filled to capacity with their fair share of organizational and technical snags, which were forgiven by the diversity and sheer volume of films on offer to the public. The ten-day festival, which took place between August 25 and September 3, generated a high level of excitement from an eager audience (and it was hard to complain when the projector broke for the third time when all the sessions were free). Read the Full Story @ indieWIRE.com < http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2005/09/dispatch_from_b.html > /=====================FROM OUR SPONSOR===================== Take advantage of indieWIRE's ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES * indieWIRE:DAILY e-mail newsletter (33,000+ subscribers) * Topical sponsorships delivering in excess of 1 MM exposures For information, contact J.D. Ashcraft at: jd@indiewire.com * indieWIRE.com -- Box ads (up to 200k ad views per week!) For more information, please visit http://www.blogads.com ==========================================================/ + IPOP: Squid & Whale (photo by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE, September 29, 2005) In the far corner of the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life at New York's American Museum of Natural History are Squid and Whale, pictured here during Monday's premiere party for the film, one of the more distinctive New York parties we've ever attended at indieWIRE. The event, punctuated by a terrific mix of music, filled the ocean life room and offered a tasty selection of treats. The large undersea duo pictured here will no doubt receive an even greater amount of attention given their important scene as the title characters in Noah Baumbach's new movie, "The Squid and the Whale". Check Out the Photo @ indieWIRE.com < http://www.indiewire.com/ipop/2005/09/squid_whale.html > ____________________________________________________________ + IPOP: A Nice Reunion... (photo by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE, September 29, 2005) Offering a bit of perspective this caption, Duopoly's Liz Manne (pictured left) called this iPOP image (from the opening night of the New York Film Festival Friday), a "nice reunion shot." She is pictured (from left to right) with Ira Deutchman, producer Fred Berner ("Pollock"), and producer Peter Newman ("The Squid and the Whale") and explained, "We four were office mates a long time ago...I worked for Ira at The Deutchman Company, plus Fred Berner Films, plus Peter Newman Productions. This was after Cinecom, before Fine Line." Manne would later join Deutchman in launching Fine Line Features, where Fred and Peter had producing deals. Manne added that she and Berner now live together. Check Out the Photo @ indieWIRE.com < http://www.indiewire.com/ipop/2005/09/a_nice_reunion.html > ____________________________________________________________ + BUZZ & RUMORS - Veteran Miramax Execs Cohen and Faber Named to Weinstein Company Posts Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein announced today that two long time Miramax executives have joined The Weinstein Company to co-head the Marketing department. Matthew Cohen has been named executive vice president of marketing and creative affairs and Gary Faber has been named executive vice president of marketing. Both executives will report directly to Bob and Harvey Weinstein and will be based in New York. Cohen and Faber will oversee the marketing and Academy Awards campaigns on all Weinstein Company and Dimension films. Both will oversee strategic marketing while Cohen will focus on creating trailers, TV and radio spots as well as print creative advertising. Faber, meanwhile, will oversee the strategic marketing, market research and all media planning for The Weinstein Company as well as spearhead the creative on selected projects. "Matthew and Gary are outstanding creative executives that will play an integral role in the success of our new slate of films," said Bob and Harvey Weinstein in a joint statement. "They are an asset to the company and we could not be happier that they are joining us." [Brian Brooks] < http://www.indiewire.com/buzz/050925.html#000724 > - Film Independent to Host First Annual Filmmakers Forum on Selling Film Film Independent executive director Dawn Hudson announced today that the organization will host, "Sell Your Film Without Getting Screwed!" The forum will take place on Saturday, October 15, 8:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Forum panelists include: Tom Bernard (co-president, Sony Pictures Classics), Peter Broderick (Paradigm Consulting), Jeremy Coon (executive producer, "Napoleon Dynamite"), Cassian Elwes (WMA), Catherine Hardwicke (director, "Lords of Dogtown,"), Richard Klubeck (UTA), Jeffrey Levy-Hinte (producer, "Thirteen"), Linda Lichter (Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Goodman Inc.), Tom Ortenberg (president, Lions Gate Films Releasing), Peggy Rajski (executive producer, "Bee Season"), Ted Sarandos (chief content officer, Netflix) and John Sloss (founding member, Cinetic Media). "This forum will bring together a phenomenal group of experienced filmmakers and experts who are committed to giving effective and trustworthy advice on how to best navigate the festival circuit," said Hudson. "It's about giving filmmakers the information they need to take control of the destiny of their films." [Brian Brooks] < http://www.indiewire.com/buzz/050925.html#000723 > - AFI Fest Swoons "Casanova" for Closing Night; Announces Over a Dozen U.S. Premieres The AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival announced that Lasse Hallstrom's North American premiere of "Casanova," starring Heath Ledger will close its event, which will take place November 3 - 13. Set in 18th century Venice, thecomedy gives the legend of Giacomo Casanova who meets his ultimate romantic match in Francesca Bruni (Sienna Miller), succumbing to the only woman to ever refuse his charms. The film was produced by Mark Gordon, Betsy Beers and Leslie Holleran, based on a script by Jeffrey Hatcher and Kimberly Simi from a story by Kimberly Simi and Michael Cristofer. Also announced by the festival are 15 narrative U.S. premieres, including Toronto '05 titles, including audience award winner "Tsotsi" by Gavin Hood, "C.R.A.Z.Y." by Jean-Marc Vallee and "Bam Bam and Celeste" by Lorene Machado. Danis Tanovic's latest, "Hell" is also slated to screen at AFI Fest as well as the late Dutch director Theo Van Gogh's "06/05 The Fifth of May." For more information and a list of films, visit the AFI webiste. [Brian Brooks] < http://www.indiewire.com/buzz/050925.html#000722 > - NY Times: Defying Terror, Filmgoers Attend a Festival in Baghdad In what was perhaps as much an act of defiance as a leisurely way of spending an afternoon, more than 300 Iraqis walked into a theater this past Saturday, and without metal detectors or security guards, sat down and watched a movie. It was the start of Baghdad's first film festival since the American-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein, a six-day event that by Wednesday evening had produced hundreds of happy Iraqis and not a single casualty. Sabrina Tavernise reports (free subscription required to view full NY Times article). < http://www.indiewire.com/buzz/050925.html#000720 > - SF Chronicle: Resfest's digital media festival a portent of future filmmaking So it is with a great sense of timing that RESFEST makes its annual Bay Area stop, beginning Thursday at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Developed in 1996 by the RES Media Group, which focuses on digital filmmaking, RESFEST brings together more than 150 cutting-edge features and short subjects -- narratives, music videos and documentaries -- all made without the aid of traditional celluloid. G. Allen Johnson reports. < http://www.indiewire.com/buzz/050925.html#000719 > - AP: 'Capote' May Be Breakout Role for Hoffman The hesitation Philip Seymour Hoffman felt about playing Truman Capote was not unlike the uncertainty audiences might feel over seeing a movie about the man who wrote the true-crime classic "In Cold Blood." Hoffman wondered how he would hold up in the title role of "Capote," impersonating the author's weirdly effete, self-important mannerisms and cadences, and questioned whether moviegoers would want to watch him do it. A.P. reports. < http://www.indiewire.com/buzz/050925.html#000718 > - 7th Art On Board WIth Breast Cancer Doc Udy Epstein's 7th Art Releasing has signed on to executive produce and distribute Linda Pattillo's "The Breast Cancer Diaries" featuring former NBC affiliate anchor Ann Murray Page's battle with the disease. Epstein closed the deal at the IFP Market last week in New York. Pattillo is a former ABC TV reporter and CNN staffer, she co-produced the film with Kate Nelligan, who also edited the project. It screened at the IFP Market as a work-in-progress and includes an intimate diary of Ann Murray Page's nine-month struggle with breast cancer. [Eugene Hernandez] < http://www.indiewire.com/buzz/050925.html#000713 > - And more from Buzz/Rumors @ indieWIRE.com < http://www.indiewire.com/buzz/ > ____________________________________________________________ You've chosen to receive the "Plain Text" version of the indieWIRE: DAILY. For a better viewing experience, we recommend trying the "HTML" version (see an example here: http://www.indiewire.com/newsletter_example.html ). You can change your subscription settings by clicking the "Subscriptions" button in your Member Control Panel: < http://www.indiewire.com/edit.cgi > ============================================================ To UNSUBSCRIBE from indieWIRE emails: < > To CHANGE YOUR PREFERENCES < http://www.indiewire.com/edit.cgi > ============================================================ indieWIRE is published by indieWIRE LLC. 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