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Congrats to 'Chasing Robert Barker,' March's Project of the Month!
5 April 2013 2:12 PM, PDT
Congratulations to "Chasing Robert Barker" director Daniel Florêncio! The project received the most votes to win March's Project of the Month. The prize is a creative consultation from the Tribeca Film Institute. Here's a look at the film's pitch: David is a photographer with a tormented past and a solitary lifestyle who now works as a paparazzi in London. His very limited social circle revolves around his work and a manipulative tabloid journalist, Olly. One night, David receives a tip off from a source, and manages to snap famous film actor Robert Barker dining with a young brunette. Not satisfied, Olly pushes David into pursuing Robert Barker to get more compromising pictures of the couple. In this chase, David's past starts unravelling, and he's forced to face the damage that a tabloid fabrication caused to his own life. For more information on this project, visit its Project of the Day page. »
- Indiewire
Vote for Project of the Week! Will It Be 'Ten,' 'Lost,' 'Lake' or 'Dwayne's'?
5 April 2013 12:56 PM, PDT
Vote below for this week's Project of the Week. The winning filmmaker will receive a digital distribution consultation from SnagFilms and will become a candidate for Project of the Month. That winner will be awarded with a creative consultation from the fine folks at the Tribeca Film Institute! The four projects up for the prize: "Ten," "Lost & Found," "Lake Lost Angeles" and "Dwayne's Last Photo." Voting will end on Monday April 8, at 11Am Eastern. Note: Votes are confirmed by email. After voting, please look for an email from Poll Daddy and confirm your vote. Indiewire nor PollDaddy use your email address after the confirmation, but if you do want to sign up for our newsletter, why Don't you mosey on over here and do so! <a href="<a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7017565/" >which"="">http://polldaddy.com/poll/7017565/">Which</a> project do you most want to see?</a> »
- Indiewire
Watch: New 'Carrie' Trailer Gives Away Entire Dramatic Arc to Mixed Results
5 April 2013 12:52 PM, PDT
Remaking a horror film as classic as Brian De Palma's "Carrie," is a move that would always cause some amount of hesitant backlash. The decision to push the film back seven months from its original March release to October 18th did little to sway those fears, but with this week's release of the "Evil Dead" reboot in mind, MGM and Screen Gems have released a new trailer for the remake aiming to turn the discussion in their favor. The results vary. Chloe Grace Moretz seems to do an admirable job of filling in Sissy Spacek's shoes as the titular high school outcast who's movement into maturity brings with it some supernatural baggage. Julianne Moore seems to be having a blast as her fanatical and abusive mother. Still, it's hard to shake the feeling that the trailer, which seems to show the entire dramatic arc of the film play out, »
- Cameron Sinz
Is the Era of Film Criticism on TV Over?
5 April 2013 10:23 AM, PDT
"Siskel & Ebert" was my first taste of film criticism. I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Growing up amidst the strip malls and multiplexes of the Northern California suburbs, I used to watch the show with my dad, before I started swiping the arts section of the newspaper every morning. I loved it with they argued, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, because even when it was heated it was obviously an earnest conversation between two people who knew and respected each other's taste, and because the accord or disagreement always came as a reveal. Ebert doesn't like "Die Hard," finds it too poorly written to hold his interest, then the camera cuts to Siskel, who proclaims he was interested and was drawn in by the two main performances. That turn -- will it be two thumbs up, two down, a split vote -- was really the only point of drama »
- Alison Willmore
Special Project of the Day: 'Hotline,' Directed by a Former Telephone Psychic, Produced by Indiewire Editor
5 April 2013 10:20 AM, PDT
This isn't your usual daily dose of an indie film in progress, nor is it up for the weekly competition. Today's project is produced by Filmmaker Toolkit Editor Bryce J. Renninger. This isn't the first time an Iw employee went to the crowd for dough; Thompson on Hollywood's Sophia Savage was featured in December 2011 for her film "Empyrean." "Hotline" Tweetable Logline: Hotline explores the intense connections made between strangers over phone hotlines in an age when people talk on the phone less and less. - Elevator Pitch: You may not think you have called a hotline, but likely you know someone who has. There is a huge demand for this anonymous connection be it for advice, counseling, entertainment or just to talk with another human about things people are too hesitant to discuss with even the closest of friends. We've traveled the country putting faces to the voices on the other end of the line, »
- Indiewire
Matteo Garrone Explains Why 'Reality' Will Help You Comprehend Modern Television
5 April 2013 10:06 AM, PDT
Italian director Matteo Garrone made waves at American art houses with the unsettling mob drama "Gomorrah," which not only unearthed details about his country's powerful criminal organizations but rendered them in cold, brutal terms that imbued the movie with extreme claustrophobia. His follow-up, the Cannes-winning "Reality," takes aim at a different target with a similarly dour gaze. The movie, which opened in limited release last month but expands to several cities today, follows the experiences of Neapolitan fishmonger Luciano (Aniello Arena) as he grows increasingly obsessed with landing a role on "Big Brother" to the point where he may or may not be losing his mind. While Garrone views his character in sympathetic terms and renders his blue collar status with many of the grimy, decisively unromantic traits previously found in the filmmaker's work, "Reality" also takes marvelously satiric jabs at the impact of contemporary media on the everyman, particularly in Italy. »
- Eric Kohn
Exclusive Photos: On Set With 'The Iceman' Stars Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder and Chris Evans
5 April 2013 8:36 AM, PDT
After landing on an impressive trio of festival lineups last fall at Venice, Telluride and Toronto, Ariel Vromen's based-on-a-true-story hitman thriller/Michael Shannon vehicle "The Iceman" is being prepped by distributor Millennium Entertainment for a release early next month, and we have an exclusive group of on-set photos in anticipation of the theatrical run-up. Shannon stars in the film as the notorious hitman Richard Kuklinski, who for years split his time between being a family man and a ruthless contract killer before his family finally learned the truth upon his 1986 arrest. Winona Ryder and Chris Evans costar as his wife and a fellow hitman in an ensemble cast that also includes Ray Liotta, David Schwimmer and Stephen Dorff. The pictures themselves show the three main billed cast members working around set, whether filming their scenes, talking with Vromen, or posing for photos as is the case in Shannon's extremely moody on-set portrait. »
- Cameron Sinz
The 10 Indies to Watch on VOD This April
5 April 2013 8:35 AM, PDT
This month on VOD: The latest from the makers of "Martha Marcy May Marlene," the pleasingly grisly debut from David Cronenberg's son, a Jeff Buckley biopic starring "Gossip Girl" star Penn Badgley as the famous musician, a mystery-ridden road story from "Upstream Color" star Amy Seimetz, and much more. Below are the 10 indies to watch on VOD this month in alphabetical order. "33 Postcards" Guy Pearce headlines this heartwarming tale of a teenaged orphan from China who searches for her benefactor, Dean (Pearce), in Australia. When they do meet, she discovers that the family man Dean had made himself out to be is in fact a convict, charged with murder. What follows is an uplifting, captivating story of redemption, crime, sacrifice and love, as they both take risks and make sacrifices to connect with each other. Where to Watch: iTunes, Amazon, Charter, Comcast, Google Play, DirecTV, Playstation, SuddenLink, Time Warner, »
- Nigel M Smith
Watch: Brooding New Trailer for Golden Lion Winner, South Korean Oscar Entry 'Pieta'
5 April 2013 7:49 AM, PDT
After taking the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion for best film in September and getting picked up by Drafthouse Films one month later, Kim Ki-Duk's "Pieta," has received its first trailer from the distributor ahead of its upcoming May release. Lee Jung-jin stars as a brutal loan shark gathering from the impoverished residents of a small town who is forced to rethink his violent path after a women claiming to be his mother (Cho Min-soo) enters his life. After its win in Venice, the film continued onto screenings at Toronto, Stockholm and many other festivals in addition to being selected as South Korea's official 2013 Oscar entry. It's one of the more moodier trailers to come out this year and seems to outline the brutal violence and psycho-sexual tension that influenced its largely mixed critical reception during its fall festival run. Indiewire's Eric Kohn called the film a "curiously engaging »
- Cameron Sinz
Vice Heads to HBO With a News Series That's Half Journalism and Half Adventure Tourism
5 April 2013 7:19 AM, PDT
Since its inception as a government-funded rag meant to promote community service called Voice of Montreal, Vice magazine has endured almost 20 years at the cutting edge of pop culture by changing with the times. The founders dropped the "o" and then the Canadianness, expanding the publication into one of the cornerstones of hipster culture. Before being in the periodicals business became such a dire place, Vice was already expanding into music and film ("Heavy Metal in Baghdad," "White Lightnin'" and the upcoming "Reincarnated") as well as, perhaps most successfully, online video via first the Spike Jonze-led Vbs.tv and now YouTube. More importantly, Vice has gotten serious, which is why its new, sort of grown-up HBO show, premiering tonight, April 5, at 11pm, exists. Over the last few years, the company has expanded into a kind of international journalism-meets-adventure tourism that was first laid out in a web series called »
- Alison Willmore
Meet the Tribeca Filmmaker #12: Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson Explore an Individual's Attempt to Fight Injustice in 'In God We Trust'
5 April 2013 6:56 AM, PDT
Producers Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson first rose to prominence in 2006 when they co-founded The Halcyon Company and Halcyon Games in 2006, the company that three years later would produce "Terminator Salvation," in addition to 2007's mockumentary "Cook Off." For the follow up to the release of those films, the partners decided they would try their hand at directing for the first time, resulting in their Madoff crime set documentary "In God We Trust" What it's about: "Eleanor Squillari went to work every day believing she was working for a great company, a great man. For twenty-five years she sat fifteen feet away from Bernard L. Madoff as his personal secretary. She never imagined he was perpetrating the largest financial crime in history. On December 11, 2008, her life as she knew it was destroyed…until she decided to do something about it. “In God We Trust” is not only an in depth look at the Madoff crime, »
- Indiewire
Meet the 2013 Tribeca Filmmaker #11: Caradog James Returns With His A.I. Fueled Sci-Fi Drama 'Machine'
5 April 2013 6:54 AM, PDT
Caradog James first began to consider filmmaking while working as a still photographer on sets in West Africa, soon after making a series of short films that screened throughout the festival circuit. His following feature debut, 2008's "Little White Lies," was selected as one of Variety's Top 10 British Films of the year, but for his follow up he has returned with a much more ambitious work in his sci-fi drama "Machine." What it's about: "With an impoverished world plunged into a Cold War with a new enemy, Britain’s Ministry of Defence is on the brink of developing a game-changing weapon. Lead scientist Vincent McCarthy (Toby Stephens) provides the answer with his creation, ‘The Machine’- a human cyborg with unrivalled physical and processing skills. When a programming glitch causes an early prototype to destroy his lab, McCarthy enlists artificial intelligence expert Ava (Caity Lotz) to help him harness the »
- Indiewire
Meet the Tribeca Filmmakers #10: Meera Menon Creates A Picture of Idealized Youth and Female Friendship in 'Farah Goes Bang'
5 April 2013 6:53 AM, PDT
After her family immigrated to the U.S. from India in the 1970s, Megan Menon split her time between Indian dance concerts, the mall and filming her friends in the backyard with her father's camcorders. She grew up in a house of artistsand now with "Farah Goes Bang," has finally finished her first feature film in the form of an extremely personal ode to adventurous youth. What it's about: "Farah Goes Bang is a road movie about a young woman in her early twenties hitting the campaign trail for John Kerry in 2004 with two of her best friends. Along the way, and encouraged by her friends, she tries to lose her long lingering virginity. Fgb is a valentine to the adventure of youth, female friendship, and political idealism." What else should audiences know: "Farah Goes Bang is about the humor and heartache that comes with the loss of innocence, for »
- Indiewire
Meet the Tribeca Filmmakers #9: Dave Carroll Reveals the Perceptual Limitations of 'Bending Steel'
5 April 2013 6:51 AM, PDT
Dave Carroll makes his filmmaking debut with the documentary "Bending Steel," which follows Chris Schoeck who overcomes physical, mental and perceptual limitations to prove his superhuman strength. Both Carroll and Schoeck embarked on their dreams late in life, but "Bending Steel" reminds us that it's never too late too late to start your journey. What it's about: "Bending Steel" is the intimate journey of an introverted man who struggles to shed self-perceived limitations that shackle his body and mind. About the filmmaker: I grew up with my sister in a small New Jersey suburb. My parents were always supportive and they did their best to nurture our interests. We started acting at an early age and joined the Screen Actors Guild. We would skip school so dad could take us in to New York City and go on auditions. Eventually I took a break from the business but over time »
- Indiewire
The 'Upstream Color' Cheat Sheet: 10 Things That Might Help You Understand Shane Carruth's Beguiling Sci Fi Epic (Spoilers)
5 April 2013 6:28 AM, PDT
You may not want to know anything about Shane Carruth's "Upstream Color," which opens in several theaters this week, because much of its appeal is derived from being thoroughly consumed by its mysteries. Unlike his cult hit "Primer," Carruth's intentionally cryptic tone poem of a movie constantly evades precise explanations. At the same time, its experimental, cosmic leanings are not devoid of plot. Those confused by the movie's intricate design may not realize that "Upstream Color" is actually fairly simple on the level of narrative. If you're not a fan of spoilers, you may want to hold off on this brief guide until experiencing "Upstream Color" for yourself. But rather than provide all the answers, the items below are intended to break down some of the crucial story ingredients in the movie so that confusion over the details won't obscure viewers' engagement with its potent ideas. There's no question »
- Eric Kohn
This Video Shows Exactly What We Lost With the Death of Roger Ebert
4 April 2013 2:30 PM, PDT
"Better Luck Tomorrow" premiered at Sundance 2002, four years before Ebert lost his voice to cancer. And the YouTube title sells it short: "Roger Ebert yelling at Sundance." But, as the clip shows at about 30 seconds in, what a voice it was. "Better Luck Tomorrow" was the solo feature-directing debut of Justin Lin, who went on to launch the "Fast & Furious" franchise. It's the story of overachieving Asian high schoolers who dabble in some seriously criminal activities. Shot at the film's third screening, a viewer takes Lin and his team to task at the Q&A: "Why, with the talent yup there and yourself, make a film so empty and amoral for Asian Americans and for Americans?" As the filmmakers struggle to find the words to form a response, Ebert stands up and leaps into the fray. "What I find very offensive and condescending about your statement is nobody would say »
- Dana Harris
Director Steve James Vows to Finish Ebert Doc 'Life Itself'
4 April 2013 2:25 PM, PDT
In the fall of last year it was reported that Roger Ebert's memoir "Life Itself," chronicling his struggle and recovery from alcohol addiction and his long running battles with thyroid cancer, would be adapted into a documentary by "Hoop Dreams" director Steve James. Ebert was a huge fan of "Hoop Dreams;" he gave it a four star review upon it's release in 1994, and given both the critic and the filmmaker's status as Chicago icons, it seemed like a perfect fit. The film is executive produced by Martin Scorsese and Oscar winning screenwriter Steve Zaillian. The film was acquired by CNN Films early this year, and Ebert was extremely grateful and excited about the project; allowing the filmmakers access to essentially whatever they needed, and letting them to record as much new footage as they could. In the shadow of the iconic critic's unfortunate passing, director James immediately took to »
- Mark Lukenbill
Exclusive: 2 Powerful Scenes From Health Insurance Doc 'Remote Area Medical'; Premieres at Full Frame
4 April 2013 2:08 PM, PDT
Last year, filmmaker duo Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman (2010's election doc "Gerrymandering") made a three minute informational doc on Remote Area Medical, a free, three day pop up medical clinic in Tennessee that specializes in providing care to Americans without health insurance. You can see the short here, but ever since the two have been working on completing a full length version of the doc. The feature, also titled "Remote Area Medical," aims to put a human face on what it means to not have health insurance. It will have its world premiere at Full Frame Film Festival, which runs from April 4th to 7th in Durham, North Carolina. It'll then move over to Hot Docs, the Canadian International Film Festival, from April 25th to May 5th. The moving doc boasts a score from longtime David Gordon Green collaborator David Wingo and was cut by Spike Lee's go to doc editor Sam Pollard. »
- Mark Lukenbill
Icarus Films Acquires New Restoration of Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme's 'Le Joli Mai'
4 April 2013 1:42 PM, PDT
Icarus Films has landed North American distribution rights to a brand new restoration of Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme's 1963 documentary "Le Joli Mai." The landmark film follows ordinary Parisians during the "first springtime of peace" in May 1962 after ceasefire between France and Algeria; made possible by the development of lightweight, sync-sound cameras. The restoration work was supervised by Lhomme (Marker passed away last year) and will be presented in Dcp, made from a new 2K scan. The new scan will play at several major film festivals before debuting theatrically at Film Forum in New York on September 13th, followed by a theatrical roll-out and DVD release in November. The deal was negotiated by Jonathan Miller, president of Icarus Films, with producers La Sofra, and Arte France. »
- Mark Lukenbill
'Holy Ghost People' Acquired by XLrator Media Following SXSW Premiere
4 April 2013 1:04 PM, PDT
"Holy Ghost People," the latest thriller from director Mitchell Altieri of the Butcher Brothers ("The Violent Kind"), has been picked up by XLrator Media. The company, who also distributed Altieri and Phil Flores' 2012 vampire film "The Thompsons," has secured all North American right to "Holy Ghost People." Read More: Meet the 2013 SXSW Filmmakers #35: Mitchell Altieri Directs a Congregation of Outcasts in American Gothic 'Holy Ghost People' Emma Greenwell of "Shameless" stars in the film as Charlotte, who goes on a search for her missing sister with the help of unstable ex-Marine Wayne (Brendan McCarthy). Her sister disappeared in the Appalachian Mountains where the Church of One Accord and its fiercly devout members are found. The church is led by a snake-handling preacher named Brother Billy (Joe Egender) who leads his congregation into harmful and even deadly pursuits of salvation. Wayne and Charlotte's journey on the mountain leads them to. »
- Cristina A. Gonzalez
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