January 8, 2009

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | American Spectrum: "Children of Invention" Director Tze Chen

by indieWIRE (January 8, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. From the Sundance catalog: "In his feature film debut, director Tze Chun explores this age-old perception through the eyes of a Chinese American family in suburban Boston.Single mother Elaine Cheng struggles to support her two young children, Raymond and Tina, by juggling various sales jobs. When another one falls through, the family finds itself homeless and must seek refuge in an unfinished apartment building. This latest predicament seems all too familiar to precocious Raymond, who dreams of taking care of his mother and sister with the fortunes garnered from his inventions. Little Tina, however, remains oblivious to their troubles, thanks to her mother's careful protection. Meanwhile, lured by promises of easy cash, Elaine finds herself drawn into another pyramid scheme, one that will jeopardize the welfare of the two things that matter the most: her children."
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Park City ]

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | American Spectrum: "Against the Current" Director Peter Callahan

by indieWIRE (January 8, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. According to the Sundance catalog, Peter Callahan's "Against the Current" concerns "Paul Thompson (Joseph Fiennes), a financial writer struggling with a tragic past who decides to do something special and unique to distinguish himself. Having always wanted to swim the 150 miles of the lower Hudson River, he recruits his best friend, Jeff (Justin Kirk), and new acquaintance, Liz (Elizabeth Reaser), to accompany him on a physical and emotional journey exploring friendship, grief, and how we cope when what we lose is greater than what life has to offer."
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Park City ]

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | Dramatic Competition: "Push" Director Lee Daniels

by indieWIRE (January 8, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Lee Daniels' "Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire" is described by the Sundance catalog as the story of "Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a high-school girl with nothing working in her favor. She is pregnant with her father's child--for the second time. She can't read or write, and her schoolmates tease her for being fat. Her home life is a horror, ruled by a mother (Mo'Nique) who keeps her imprisoned both emotionally and physically. Precious's instincts tell her one thing: if she's ever going to break from the chains of ignorance, she will have to dig deeply into her own resources."
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Lead Story, Park City ]

January 7, 2009

indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Just Another Love Story" Director Ole Bornedal

by indieWIRE (January 7, 2008)

Ole Bornedal's "Just Another Love Story" (Kaerlighed pa film) made its U.S. debut at last year's Sundance Film Festival, screening in the World Dramatic Competition. Almost exactly a year later, the film is finding a limited release this Friday, January 9th. The film follows Jonas (Anders W. Berthelsen), a man with a wife and two kids who lives in the suburbs, and whose life takes an unexpected twist when he accidentally crashes into a woman's car, subsequently putting into her a coma. When she awakes, her memory is lost, and Jonas decides to play her exotic new boyfriend.
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, World Cinema ]

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | Documentary Competition: "We Live in Public" Director Ondi Timoner

by indieWIRE (January 7, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Ondi Timoner's documentary "We Live in Public" examines the work of internet pioneer Josh Harris, who has spent his life implementing his unique vision of the future, where technology and media dictate human social interaction and define our personal identity. At the turn of the millennium, Harris launched an art experiment called Quiet: We Live in Public. He created an artificial society in an underground bunker in the heart of New York City. More than 100 artists moved in and lived in pods under 24-hour surveillance in what was essentially a human terrarium. They defecated, had sex, shared a transparent communal shower - all on camera. On January 1, 2000, after 30 days, the project was busted by FEMA as a "millennial cult."
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Park City ]

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | Dramatic Competition: "Arlen Faber" Director John Hindman

by indieWIRE (January 7, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Arlen Faber (Jeff Daniels) is the reclusive author of Me and God, a book that has redefined spirituality for an entire generation. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of his still-wildly-popular book, Arlen continues to be sought after as the man with all the answers. Then his life collides with those of Elizabeth (Laren Graham), a single mom raising her seven-year-old son, and Kris (Lou Taylor Pucci), a young man fresh out of rehab who is searching for meaning. Both Elizabeth and Kris are hopeful that Arlen has answers for them, but the truth is that he hasn't got a clue.
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Park City ]

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | American Spectrum: "Lymelife" Director Derick Martini

by indieWIRE (January 7, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Derick Martini's "Lymelife" is described by the Sundance catalog as "the story of Scott Bartlett (Rory Culkin), a typical 15-year-old boy growing up in late-1970s Long Island. His suburban existence is primarily marked by a nerdy interest in Star Wars, fending off bullies at high school, his longtime crush on neighbor/best friend Adrianna Bragg (Emma Roberts), and navigating the dysfunctional terrain of his parents' rocky marriage--all against the paranoid backdrop of a Lyme disease outbreak, which has freaked out Scott's high-strung mother, Brenda (Jill Hennessy), and has already claimed Adrianna's father, Charlie (Timothy Hutton), as a victim. With Charlie out of work due to his illness, Adrianna's mother, Melissa (Cynthia Nixon), takes a job working for Scott's father, Mickey (Alec Baldwin), a successful real-estate developer, and soon embarks on a messy affair. When eldest son Jimmy (Kieran Culkin) returns from army training and confronts his father about Mickey's less-than-discreet adultery, both families are forever changed by the devastating consequences."
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Park City ]

January 6, 2009

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | American Spectrum: "Once More with Feeling" Director Jeff Lipsky

by indieWIRE (January 6, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Jeff Lipsky's dramatic comedy "Once More with Feeling" tells the story of Frank Gregorio (Chazz Palminteri), a successful psychiatrist, loving husband, and doting grandfather to the two children of his eldest daughter, Lana (Drea de Matteo). When the universe conspires to introduce him to karaoke through both a patient's parent issues and his precocious granddaughter's birthday party, Frank rediscovers a long-suppressed dream of becoming a professional singer.
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Park City ]

indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "The Lost Coast" Director Gabriel Fleming

by indieWIRE (January 6, 2008)

"The Lost Coast," Gabriel Fleming's second feature as a director, premiered at SXSW last year and has since won the best feature prize at NewFest. The film follows high school friends who reunite for Halloween in San Francisco and confront experiences of the past that no one has yet dared to explore. indieWIRE talked to Fleming about the film, which is now available on Amazon VOD.
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Queer Cinema ]

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | Documentary Competition: "Crude" Director Joe Berlinger

by indieWIRE (January 6, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker Joe Berlinger's latest documentary picks up the thread of the infamous "Amazon Chernobyl" case, a 13-year-old battle between communities nearly destroyed by oil drilling and development and one of the biggest companies on earth. In a sophisticated take on the classic David and Goliath story, Berlinger took three years to craft a cinema verite portrait centering on the charismatic lawyers in the U.S. and Ecuador who have doggedly pursued the case against all of the forces a corporation can bring into courts of law.
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Lead Story, Park City ]

January 5, 2009

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | Premieres: "Mary and Max" Director Adam Elliot

by indieWIRE (January 6, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. "Mary and Max" will kick off the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. A claymation animation by Academy award-winning filmmaker Adam Elliot ("Harvie Krumpet"), it tells the simple story of a 20-year pen-pal friendship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle, a chubby, lonely 8-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horowitz, a 44-year-old Jewish man, who is severely obese, suffers from Asperger's syndrome, and lives an isolated life in New York City.
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Lead Story, Park City ]

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | American Spectrum: "World's Greatest Dad" Director Bobcat Goldthwait

by indieWIRE (January 6, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Director Bobcat Goldthwait's film "World's Greatest Dad" is a dark comedy about Lance Clayton (Robin Williams), a high school poetry teacher who dreams of becoming a rich and famous writer. A single father, he tries desperately to connect with his teenage son, Kyle (Daryl Sabara), an insolent, hormone-raging smartass who defies his dad at every turn. Lance exercises his own hormones with Claire (Alexie Gilmore), a painfully adorable art teacher who may have her eyes on a bigger prize. After a freak accident, Lance suddenly faces both the worst tragedy of his life, and the greatest opportunity. Determined to make lemonade from life's lemons, Lance treads a path that could land him everything he's ever dreamed of, as long as he can life with the knowledge of how he got there.
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Park City ]

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | American Spectrum: "Everything Strange and New" Screenwriter/Director Frazer Bradshaw

by indieWIRE (January 4, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Wayne has a job, a wife, two kids, and a house. He's living the American Dream. There's a fine line, however, between a dream and nightmare, and Wayne finds himself at odds with the life he has and preoccupied by the life he thinks he wants. He floats passively in a swirling sea inhabited by his emotionally unpredictable wife, his out-of-control young children, and his embattled friends, who have demons of their own. As things change for others, Wayne's life takes emotional turns, which are sometimes subtle and sometimes violent but never enough to shake him off the track he doesn't remember choosing. Everything Strange and New Director: Frazer Bradshaw Screenwriter: Frazer Bradshaw Executive Producers: Stephen Bannatyne, Marcia Carver, Willie Mae Webb Producers: Laura Techera Francia, A.D. Liano Cinematographer: Frazer Bradshaw Editor: Frazer Bradshaw, Jesse Spencer Music: Dan Plonsey, Kent Sparling Sound Designer: Kent Sparling Cast: Jerry McDaniel, Beth Lisick, Luis Saguar, Rigo Chacon Jr. U.S.A., 2009, 84 min., color
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Park City ]

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | American Spectrum: "La Mission" Screenwriter/Director Peter Bratt

by indieWIRE (January 4, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Feared, yet respected, as the baddest Chicano on the block, Che (Benjamin Bratt), a reformed inmate and recovering alcoholic, resorts to violence and intimidation to get what he wants. A bus driver by day, Che lives for his beloved son, Jesse, his lifelong friends, and his passion for lowrider cars. Che and the "Mission Boyz" salvage junked cars, transforming them into classics. Che's macho world is crushed when he discovers that Jesse's been living a secret life. In a violent rage, Che pummels Jesse and throws him out of the house. Lena, an attractive neighbor and a force to be reckoned with, is a woman with a few secrets of her own. Mutual attraction percolates as Lena challenges Che to reconcile the life he thought he had. La Mission Director: Peter Bratt Screenwriter: Peter Bratt Executive Producers: Tom Steyer, Kat Taylor, Dan Nelson Producers: Alpita Patel, Benjamin Bratt, Peter Bratt Cinematographer: Hiro Narita Editor: Stan Webb Composer: Mark Kilian Consulting Producer: John Amaechi Cast: Benjamin Bratt, Erika Alexander, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Jesse Borrego, Talisa Soto Bratt
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Park City ]

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | Dramatic Competition: "Amreeka" Director Cherien Dabis

by indieWIRE (January 4, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Muna Farah, a Palestinian single mom, struggles to maintain her optimistic spirit in the daily grind of intimidating West Bank checkpoints, the constant nagging of a controlling mother, and the haunting shadows of a failed marriage. Everything changes one day when she receives a letter informing her that her family has been granted a U.S. green card. Reluctant to leave her homeland, but realizing it may be the only way to secure a future for Fadi, her teenage son, Muna decides to quit her job at the bank and visit her relatives in Illinois to see about a new life in a land that gives newcomers a run for their money. Amreeka Director: Cherien Dabis Screenwriter: Cherien Dabis Executive Producers: Alicia Sams, Cherien Dabis Producers: Christina Piovesan, Paul Barkin Coproducers: Liz Jarvis, Al-Zain Al-Sabah Cinematographer: Tobias Datum Editor: Keith Reamer Composer: Kareem Roustom
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Park City ]

January 4, 2009

SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | Doc Competition: "Art & Copy" Director Doug Pray

by indieWIRE (January 4, 2009)

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. "Art & Copy" takes us inside a powerful, yet surprisingly unknown, industry to reveal the most influential creative forces tapping the zeitgeist of our time. Think of those commercials we can never seem to get out of our heads. Each one is the brain child of an industry typically associated with pandering and manipulation. Is great advertising actually a rare and rebellious accomplishment more akin to--dare I say it--art? Beginning in the 1960s, a creative revolution revitalized the advertising industry. Bill Bernbach launched the Volkswagen Beetle, prompting viewers to "think small." Dan Wieden coined "Just Do It" and forever changed the way we motivate ourselves athletically. Phyllis Robinson empowered the "me generation" with a Clairol tagline. Hal Riney all but insured Reagan's reelection with heart-tugging TV ads. Mary Wells Lawrence reinvented the big bad apple via her "I love NY" campaign. George Lois gave Tommy Hilfiger the makeover of a lifetime, while Cliff Freeman wondered "Where's the beef?" and Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein asked, "Got Milk?" Renowned documentary filmmaker Doug Pray ("Scratch", "Surfwise") intermingles dazzling footage of TV satellites being launched and billboards being erected with some of the most remarkable ad campaigns of all time. Art & Copy Director: Doug Pray Screenwriter: Timothy J. Sexton Executive Producers: David Baldwin, Gregory Beauchamp, Kirk Souder, Mary Warlick Producers: Jimmy Greenway, Michael Nadeau Cinematographer: Peter Nelson Editor: Philip Owens Music: Jeff Mart
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Lead Story, Park City ]

January 3, 2009

HONOR ROLL '08 | Some of the best of the year

Awards Watch coverage Presented by The Wrestler for your consideration.

by indieWIRE (January 3, 2008)

Wrapping up indieWIRE's recent daily series featuring new or previously published interviews and profiles of some of the year's best filmmakers, writers, actors and actresses, a look back at a month of the indieWIRE 2008 Honor Roll.
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Awards Watch, Interviews ]

December 29, 2008

indieWIRE INTERVIEW | Fish out of Water?: "Good" director Vicente Amorim

by indieWIRE (December 29, 2008)

In director Vicente Amorim's "Good," John Halder is a good, decent individual with family problems. A German literature professor in the 1930s, Halder explores his personal circumstances in a novel advocating compassionate euthanasia. When the book is unexpectedly enlisted by powerful political figures in support of government propaganda, Halder finds his career rising in an optimistic current of nationalism and prosperity. Yet with Halder's change in fortune, his seemingly inconsequential decisions potentially jeopardize the people in his life with devastating effects. Starring Viggo Mortensen and Jason Isaacs, The film screened earlier this year at the Toronto, Rio de Janeiro and Rome fil festivals. THINKFilm will open "Good" in limited release beginning December 31.
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Interviews, Lead Story ]

HONOR ROLL '08 | "Man on Wire" Director James Marsh and subject Philippe Petit

Awards Watch coverage Presented by The Wrestler for your consideration.

by Howard Feinstein (December 29, 2008)

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of a daily December series that will feature new or previously published interviews and profiles of some of the year's best filmmakers, writers, actors and actresses. "Man on Wire" is the perfect example of matching doc director to doc subject. French tightrope walker and juggler Philippe Petit became world-famous when he walked between the two World Trade Center towers, then under construction, on August 7, 1974 -- a completely illegal if fantastic act that involved complex preparation and shook up New York City's police department. (He had to cross back and forth several times to avoid the cops.) Petit had already achieved artistic notoriety for his feats at famous sites like Notre Dame in Paris, but to traverse the air space between what were then the world's two tallest buildings? It's not only his unbeatable skill, though, that makes Petit an ideal subject for a doc: He is a ball of fire, a fascinating egomaniac who engages you completely with his energy and confidence. Petit has written several books, including To Reach the Clouds, which recounts the feat in downtown Manhattan.
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Awards Watch, Interviews ]

December 28, 2008

HONOR ROLL '08 | Sodom's Mob Brother: "Gomorrah" by Matteo Garrone

Awards Watch coverage Presented by The Wrestler for your consideration.

by Brian Brooks (December 28, 2008)

After its press screening ahead of the New York Film Festival back in September, the audience seemed to take a collective breath as the credits rolled on Italian director Matteo Garrone's stunning "Gomorrah," which screened last spring at the Festival de Cannes. Unlike many a mafia story, "Gomorrah" is devoid of much of the romaticized and almost fairytale elements of a Hollywood mob film. Without a doubt, the film's focus on hard reality is in the spirit of author and co-screenwriter Roberto Saviano's book "Gomorrah," which sold over 1.2 million copies in Italy alone. His success has resulted in a loss of personal freedom, as he now lives under constant police protection. "I was afraid at first when we started," Garrone recalled in a recent conversation with indieWIRE. "When we started to work on the screenplay in Rome, he used to come to my house with police protection."
[ read more in People ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Awards Watch, Interviews, Lead Story ]