Podcasts about best first feature

film winner taliban tensions afghan kabul co director lincoln center abbas film schools zaki school radio ifc center best first feature

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2023

Co-director Abbas Rezaie debut feature documentary takes the viewer inside the office of the city's most widely read newspaper, The Etilaat Roz. The film is a gripping firsthand account of the August 2021 takeover of Kabul by the Taliban. Afghan filmmaker and Etilaat Roz staff member Abbas Rezaie relentlessly films and questions his passionate colleagues on the editorial team in the days leading up to, during, and after the takeover as they try to decide whether to stay and continue reporting - risking torture, imprisonment and death - or join thousands of others attempting to flee the country. What begins as shock at a surreal situation gradually shifts to realization of an inescapable reality at their doorstep. Tensions rise as Rezaie's colleagues must balance their families' safety with their dedication to providing honest reporting, while the Taliban sets its sights on curbing the free press. This dramatic account of a group of courageous journalists in their struggle for truth, freedom and life is poignantly captured by Rezaie's camera, fully immersing the viewer in this rapidly changing environment. We are joined by the co-director and editor-in-chief of Etilaat Roz Zaki Daryabi for a conversation on the harrowing days of dread and fear that Daryabi and his colleagues endured watching their beloved country fall under the heavy hand of the Taliban, fearing for their lives and being forced to abandon the offices and the mission of Etilaat Roz. Winner, Best First Feature, IDFA 2022 Digital screening:  Available to watch at your own pace, any time between June 5 and June 11, 2023, on the festival's digital streaming platform. Human Rights Watch Film Festival - May 31 - June 11 Co-Presented by Film at Lincoln Center and IFC Center 

#191 | Ciaran Creagh | Director (Ann)

Play Episode Listen Later May 22, 2023 47:00

Joining Paul Webster on the podcast is writer and director, Ciaran Creagh. Ciaran Creagh is a screenwriter, director & producer whose credits include In View, a feature he wrote and directed which won Best Screenplay at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Newcomer Award at the Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival. Creagh also wrote the feature Parked, starring Colm Meaney. Parked was nominated in four categories at the Irish Film and Television Awards and won Best First Feature at the Galway Film Festival and Best Screenplay at the 2012 Foggia Film Festival. Creagh also wrote and directed the short The Note, starring Aidan Gillen. Cry from the Sea, a feature he wrote is to be shot during 2023 in Mayo and Donegal. FNI Wrapchat brings you exclusive interviews with filmmakers, producers, directors, and actors, giving you insight into the creative process behind some of the best productions in the country. From discussing the latest industry news to sharing invaluable tips and tricks for aspiring filmmakers, FNI Wrapchat is your go-to podcast for all things film and TV industry related in Ireland. So sit back, relax, check out our back catalogue and get ready to wrap your head around the fascinating world of Irish film and television. Please Support our podcast, events and classes on BuyMeACoffee.com/fni FNI Wrapchat is Produced by PBL, Paul Webster and Edited and Mixed by Mark Monks in the heart of Dublin City Centre at the Podcast Studios. Check out Film Network Ireland at https://wearefni.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/filmnetworkireland https://twitter.com/fni_film Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#191 | Ciaran Creagh | Director (Ann)

AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL'S ON STORY PODCAST

Play Episode Listen Later May 22, 2023 45:15

Joining Paul Webster on the podcast is writer and director, Ciaran Creagh. Ciaran Creagh is a screenwriter, director & producer whose credits include In View, a feature he wrote and directed which won Best Screenplay at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Newcomer Award at the Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival. Creagh also wrote the feature Parked, starring Colm Meaney. Parked was nominated in four categories at the Irish Film and Television Awards and won Best First Feature at the Galway Film Festival and Best Screenplay at the 2012 Foggia Film Festival. Creagh also wrote and directed the short The Note, starring Aidan Gillen. Cry from the Sea, a feature he wrote is to be shot during 2023 in Mayo and Donegal. FNI Wrapchat brings you exclusive interviews with filmmakers, producers, directors, and actors, giving you insight into the creative process behind some of the best productions in the country. From discussing the latest industry news to sharing invaluable tips and tricks for aspiring filmmakers, FNI Wrapchat is your go-to podcast for all things film and TV industry related in Ireland. So sit back, relax, check out our back catalogue and get ready to wrap your head around the fascinating world of Irish film and television. Please Support our podcast, events and classes on BuyMeACoffee.com/fni FNI Wrapchat is Produced by PBL, Paul Webster and Edited and Mixed by Mark Monks in the heart of Dublin City Centre at the Podcast Studios. Check out Film Network Ireland at https://wearefni.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/filmnetworkireland https://twitter.com/fni_film

Armageddon Time Q&A with James Gray

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2023 25:16

This week on On Story, AFF Moderator and Senior Programmer, Andy Volk, sat down with writer, director, and producer James Gray for a post-screening Q&A of his coming-of-age drama, Armageddon Time. A deeply personal film inspired by Gray's childhood, Armageddon Time is a reflection on the strength of family, the complexity of friendship, and the realities of class as seen through the eyes of a young Jewish boy growing up in 1980s Queens. Through the brilliant performances of its all-star cast, which includes leading actors such as Anthony Hopkins, Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong, Armageddon Time is a beautiful, detailed, and intimate portrait of how privilege, inequality, and prejudice are integral to the American experience. AFF was ecstatic to welcome the preeminent writer-director James Gray, not only to speak more about the film but also to honor him as the 2022 recipient of AFF's coveted Bill Wittliff Award for Screenwriting, an annual award presented to leading storytellers within film, television, and new media. A true visionary, Gray made his directorial debut with his acclaimed film, Little Odessa, which earned him nominations for both Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay at the 1994 Independent Spirit Awards. Other acclaimed features in Gray's canon include The Yards, starring Joaquin Phoenix, who is in fact a frequent collaborator of Gray's, and We Own the Night, starring Mark Wahlberg, in addition to his films Two Lovers, The Immigrant, The Lost City of Z, and Ad Astra, all of which are critically acclaimed and set the bar for both screenwriting and direction. So join us and the legendary director James Gray for a little trip back to the 1980s and a closer look at Armageddon Time. Clips of Armageddon Time courtesy of AT Picture Ventures LLC.

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT BEST FIRST FEATURE AWARD WINNERS (with Mitchell Beaupre & Slim)

Screen Drafts

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 28, 2023 126:22

Mitchell Beaupre and Slim from Letterboxd sit down at the virtual draft table for the first time, collaboratively ranking the 7 best films that have won Best First Feature from the Film Independent Spirit Awards!

slim award winners letterboxd independent spirit beaupre film independent spirit awards best first feature mitchell beaupre

Vestron Pictures - Part One

The 80s Movies Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2023 47:30

The first of a two-part series on the short-lived 80s American distribution company responsible for Dirty Dancing. ----more---- The movies covered on this episode: Alpine (1987, Fredi M. Murer) Anna (1987, Yurek Bogayevicz) Billy Galvin (1986, John Grey) Blood Diner (1987, Jackie Kong) China Girl (1987, Abel Ferrera) The Dead (1987, John Huston) Dirty Dancing (1987, Emile Ardolino) Malcolm (1986, Nadia Tess) Personal Services (1987, Terry Jones) Slaughter High (1986, Mark Ezra and Peter Litten and George Dugdale) Steel Dawn (1987, Lance Hook) Street Trash (1987, Jim Muro) TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. Have you ever thought “I should do this thing” but then you never get around to it, until something completely random happens that reminds you that you were going to do this thing a long time ago? For this week's episode, that kick in the keister was a post on Twitter from someone I don't follow being retweeted by the great film critic and essayist Walter Chaw, someone I do follow, that showed a Blu-ray cover of the 1987 Walter Hill film Extreme Prejudice. You see, Walter Chaw has recently released a book about the life and career of Walter Hill, and this other person was showing off their new purchase. That in and of itself wasn't the kick in the butt. That was the logo of the disc's distributor. Vestron Video. A company that went out of business more than thirty years before, that unbeknownst to me had been resurrected by the current owner of the trademark, Lionsgate Films, as a specialty label for a certain kind of film like Ken Russell's Gothic, Beyond Re-Animator, CHUD 2, and, for some reason, Walter Hill's Neo-Western featuring Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe and Rip Torn. For those of you from the 80s, you remember at least one of Vestron Pictures' movies. I guarantee it. But before we get there, we, as always, must go back a little further back in time. The year is 1981. Time Magazine is amongst the most popular magazines in the world, while their sister publication, Life, was renowned for their stunning photographs printed on glossy color paper of a larger size than most magazines. In the late 1970s, Time-Life added a video production and distribution company to ever-growing media empire that also included television stations, cable channels, book clubs, and compilation record box sets. But Time Life Home Video didn't quite take off the way the company had expected, and they decided to concentrate its lucrative cable businesses like HBO. The company would move Austin Furst, an executive from HBO, over to dismantle the assets of Time-Life Films. And while Furst would sell off the production and distribution parts of the company to Fox, and the television department to Columbia Pictures, he couldn't find a party interested in the home video department. Recognizing that home video was an emerging market that would need a visionary like himself willing to take big risks for the chance to have big rewards, Furst purchased the home video rights to the film and video library for himself, starting up his home entertainment company. But what to call the company? It would be his daughter that would come up with Vestron, a portmanteau of combining the name of the Roman goddess of the heart, Vesta, with Tron, the Greek word for instrument. Remember, the movie Tron would not be released for another year at this point. At first, there were only two employees at Vestron: Furst himself, and Jon Pesinger, a fellow executive at Time-Life who, not unlike Dorothy Boyd in Jerry Maguire, was the only person who saw Furst's long-term vision for the future. Outside of the titles they brought with them from Time-Life, Vestron's initial release of home video titles comprised of two mid-range movie hits where they were able to snag the home video rights instead of the companies that released the movies in theatres, either because those companies did not have a home video operation yet, or did not negotiate for home video rights when making the movie deal with the producers. Fort Apache, The Bronx, a crime drama with Paul Newman and Ed Asner, and Loving Couples, a Shirley MacLaine/James Coburn romantic comedy that was neither romantic nor comedic, were Time-Life productions, while the Burt Reynolds/Dom DeLuise comedy The Cannonball Run, was a pickup from the Hong Kong production company Golden Harvest, which financed the comedy to help break their local star, Jackie Chan, into the American market. They'd also make a deal with several Canadian production companies to get the American home video rights to titles like the Jack Lemmon drama Tribute and the George C. Scott horror film The Changeling. The advantage that Vestron had over the major studios was their outlook on the mom and pop rental stores that were popping up in every city and town in the United States. The major studios hated the idea that they could sell a videotape for, say, $99.99, and then see someone else make a major profit by renting that tape out fifty or a hundred times at $4 or $5 per night. Of course, they would eventually see the light, but in 1982, they weren't there yet. Now, let me sidetrack for a moment, as I am wont to do, to talk about mom and pop video stores in the early 1980s. If you're younger than, say, forty, you probably only know Blockbuster and/or Hollywood Video as your local video rental store, but in the early 80s, there were no national video store chains yet. The first Blockbuster wouldn't open until October 1985, in Dallas, and your neighborhood likely didn't get one until the late 1980s or early 1990s. The first video store I ever encountered, Telford Home Video in Belmont Shores, Long Beach in 1981, was operated by Bob Telford, an actor best known for playing the Station Master in both the original 1974 version of Where the Red Fern Grows and its 2003 remake. Bob was really cool, and I don't think it was just because the space for the video store was just below my dad's office in the real estate company that had built and operated the building. He genuinely took interest in this weird thirteen year old kid who had an encyclopedic knowledge of films and wanted to learn more. I wanted to watch every movie he had in the store that I hadn't seen yet, but there was one problem: we had a VHS machine, and most of Bob's inventory was RCA SelectaVision, a disc-based playback system using a special stylus and a groove-covered disc much like an LP record. After school each day, I'd hightail it over to Telford Home Video, and Bob and I would watch a movie while we waited for customers to come rent something. It was with Bob that I would watch Ordinary People and The Magnificent Seven, The Elephant Man and The Last Waltz, Bus Stop and Rebel Without a Cause and The French Connection and The Man Who Fell to Earth and a bunch of other movies that weren't yet available on VHS, and it was great. Like many teenagers in the early 1980s, I spent some time working at a mom and pop video store, Seacliff Home Video in Aptos, CA. I worked on the weekends, it was a third of a mile walk from home, and even though I was only 16 years old at the time, my bosses would, every week, solicit my opinion about which upcoming videos we should acquire. Because, like Telford Home Video and Village Home Video, where my friends Dick and Michelle worked about two miles away, and most every video store at the time, space was extremely limited and there was only space for so many titles. Telford Home Video was about 500 square feet and had maybe 500 titles. Seacliff was about 750 square feet and around 800 titles, including about 50 in the tiny, curtained off room created to hold the porn. And the first location for Village Home Video had only 300 square feet of space and only 250 titles. The owner, Leone Keller, confirmed to me that until they moved into a larger location across from the original store, they were able to rent out every movie in the store every night. For many, a store owner had to be very careful about what they ordered and what they replaced. But Vestron Home Video always seemed to have some of the better movies. Because of a spat between Warner Brothers and Orion Pictures, Vestron would end up with most of Orion's 1983 through 1985 theatrical releases, including Rodney Dangerfield's Easy Money, the Nick Nolte political thriller Under Fire, the William Hurt mystery Gorky Park, and Gene Wilder's The Woman in Red. They'd also make a deal with Roger Corman's old American Independent Pictures outfit, which would reap an unexpected bounty when George Miller's second Mad Max movie, The Road Warrior, became a surprise hit in 1982, and Vestron was holding the video rights to the first Mad Max movie. And they'd also find themselves with the laserdisc rights to several Brian DePalma movies including Dressed to Kill and Blow Out. And after Polygram Films decided to leave the movie business in 1984, they would sell the home video rights to An American Werewolf in London and Endless Love to Vestron. They were doing pretty good. And in 1984, Vestron ended up changing the home video industry forever. When Michael Jackson and John Landis had trouble with Jackson's record company, Epic, getting their idea for a 14 minute short film built around the title song to Jackson's monster album Thriller financed, Vestron would put up a good portion of the nearly million dollar budget in order to release the movie on home video, after it played for a few weeks on MTV. In February 1984, Vestron would release a one-hour tape, The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, that included the mini-movie and a 45 minute Making of featurette. At $29.99, it would be one of the first sell-through titles released on home video. It would become the second home videotape to sell a million copies, after Star Wars. Suddenly, Vestron was flush with more cash than it knew what to do with. In 1985, they would decide to expand their entertainment footprint by opening Vestron Pictures, which would finance a number of movies that could be exploited across a number of platforms, including theatrical, home video, cable and syndicated TV. In early January 1986, Vestron would announce they were pursuing projects with three producers, Steve Tisch, Larry Turman, and Gene Kirkwood, but no details on any specific titles or even a timeframe when any of those movies would be made. Tisch, the son of Loews Entertainment co-owner Bob Tisch, had started producing films in 1977 with the Peter Fonda music drama Outlaw Blues, and had a big hit in 1983 with Risky Business. Turman, the Oscar-nominated producer of Mike Nichols' The Graduate, and Kirkwood, the producer of The Keep and The Pope of Greenwich Village, had seen better days as producers by 1986 but their names still carried a certain cache in Hollywood, and the announcement would certainly let the industry know Vestron was serious about making quality movies. Well, maybe not all quality movies. They would also launch a sub-label for Vestron Pictures called Lightning Pictures, which would be utilized on B-movies and schlock that maybe wouldn't fit in the Vestron Pictures brand name they were trying to build. But it costs money to build a movie production and theatrical distribution company. Lots of money. Thanks to the ever-growing roster of video titles and the success of releases like Thriller, Vestron would go public in the spring of 1985, selling enough shares on the first day of trading to bring in $440m to the company, $140m than they thought they would sell that day. It would take them a while, but in 1986, they would start production on their first slate of films, as well as acquire several foreign titles for American distribution. Vestron Pictures officially entered the theatrical distribution game on July 18th, 1986, when they released the Australian comedy Malcolm at the Cinema 2 on the Upper East Side of New York City. A modern attempt to create the Aussie version of a Jacques Tati-like absurdist comedy about modern life and our dependance on gadgetry, Malcolm follows, as one character describes him a 100 percent not there individual who is tricked into using some of his remote control inventions to pull of a bank robbery. While the film would be a minor hit in Australia, winning all eight of the Australian Film Institute Awards it was nominated for including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay and three acting awards, the film would only play for five weeks in New York, grossing less than $35,000, and would not open in Los Angeles until November 5th, where in its first week at the Cineplex Beverly Center and Samuel Goldwyn Pavilion Cinemas, it would gross a combined $37,000. Go figure. Malcolm would open in a few more major markets, but Vestron would close the film at the end of the year with a gross under $200,000. Their next film, Slaughter High, was a rather odd bird. A co-production between American and British-based production companies, the film followed a group of adults responsible for a prank gone wrong on April Fool's Day who are invited to a reunion at their defunct high school where a masked killer awaits inside. And although the movie takes place in America, the film was shot in London and nearby Virginia Water, Surrey, in late 1984, under the title April Fool's Day. But even with Caroline Munro, the British sex symbol who had become a cult favorite with her appearances in a series of sci-fi and Hammer horror films with Peter Cushing and/or Christopher Lee, as well as her work in the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, April Fool's Day would sit on the proverbial shelf for nearly two years, until Vestron picked it up and changed its title, since Paramount Pictures had released their own horror film called April Fools Day earlier in the year. Vestron would open Slaughter High on nine screens in Detroit on November 14th, 1986, but Vestron would not report grosses. Then they would open it on six screen in St. Louis on February 13th, 1987. At least this time they reported a gross. $12,400. Variety would simply call that number “grim.” They'd give the film one final rush on April 24th, sending it out to 38 screens in in New York City, where it would gross $90,000. There'd be no second week, as practically every theatre would replace it with Creepshow 2. The third and final Vestron Pictures release for 1986 was Billy Galvin, a little remembered family drama featuring Karl Malden and Lenny von Dohlen, originally produced for the PBS anthology series American Playhouse but bumped up to a feature film as part of coordinated effort to promote the show by occasionally releasing feature films bearing the American Playhouse banner. The film would open at the Cineplex Beverly Center on December 31st, not only the last day of the calendar year but the last day a film can be released into theatres in Los Angeles to have been considered for Academy Awards. The film would not get any major awards, from the Academy or anyone else, nor much attention from audiences, grossing just $4,000 in its first five days. They'd give the film a chance in New York on February 20th, at the 23rd Street West Triplex, but a $2,000 opening weekend gross would doom the film from ever opening in another theatre again. In early 1987, Vestron announced eighteen films they would release during the year, and a partnership with AMC Theatres and General Cinema to have their films featured in those two companies' pilot specialized film programs in major markets like Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston and San Francisco. Alpine Fire would be the first of those films, arriving at the Cinema Studio 1 in New York City on February 20th. A Swiss drama about a young deaf and mentally challenged teenager who gets his older sister pregnant, was that country's entry into the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race. While the film would win the Golden Leopard Award at the 1985 Locarno Film Festival, the Academy would not select the film for a nomination, and the film would quickly disappear from theatres after a $2,000 opening weekend gross. Personal Services, the first film to be directed by Terry Jones outside of his services with Monty Python, would arrive in American theatres on May 15th. The only Jones-directed film to not feature any other Python in the cast, Personal Services was a thinly-disguised telling of a 1970s—era London waitress who was running a brothel in her flat in order to make ends meet, and featured a standout performance by Julie Walters as the waitress turned madame. In England, Personal Services would be the second highest-grossing film of the year, behind The Living Daylights, the first Bond film featuring new 007 Timothy Dalton. In America, the film wouldn't be quite as successful, grossing $1.75m after 33 weeks in theatres, despite never playing on more than 31 screens in any given week. It would be another three months before Vestron would release their second movie of the year, but it would be the one they'd become famous for. Dirty Dancing. Based in large part on screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein's own childhood, the screenplay would be written after the producers of the 1980 Michael Douglas/Jill Clayburgh dramedy It's My Turn asked the writer to remove a scene from the screenplay that involved an erotic dance sequence. She would take that scene and use it as a jumping off point for a new story about a Jewish teenager in the early 1960s who participated in secret “Dirty Dancing” competitions while she vacationed with her doctor father and stay-at-home mother while they vacationed in the Catskill Mountains. Baby, the young woman at the center of the story, would not only resemble the screenwriter as a character but share her childhood nickname. Bergstein would pitch the story to every studio in Hollywood in 1984, and only get a nibble from MGM Pictures, whose name was synonymous with big-budget musicals decades before. They would option the screenplay and assign producer Linda Gottlieb, a veteran television producer making her first major foray into feature films, to the project. With Gottlieb, Bergstein would head back to the Catskills for the first time in two decades, as research for the script. It was while on this trip that the pair would meet Michael Terrace, a former Broadway dancer who had spent summers in the early 1960s teaching tourists how to mambo in the Catskills. Terrace and Bergstein didn't remember each other if they had met way back when, but his stories would help inform the lead male character of Johnny Castle. But, as regularly happens in Hollywood, there was a regime change at MGM in late 1985, and one of the projects the new bosses cut loose was Dirty Dancing. Once again, the script would make the rounds in Hollywood, but nobody was biting… until Vestron Pictures got their chance to read it. They loved it, and were ready to make it their first in-house production… but they would make the movie if the budget could be cut from $10m to $4.5m. That would mean some sacrifices. They wouldn't be able to hire a major director, nor bigger name actors, but that would end up being a blessing in disguise. To direct, Gottlieb and Bergstein looked at a lot of up and coming feature directors, but the one person they had the best feeling about was Emile Ardolino, a former actor off-Broadway in the 1960s who began his filmmaking career as a documentarian for PBS in the 1970s. In 1983, Ardolino's documentary about National Dance Institute founder Jacques d'Amboise, He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin', would win both the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Entertainment Special. Although Ardolino had never directed a movie, he would read the script twice in a week while serving on jury duty, and came back to Gottlieb and Bergstein with a number of ideas to help make the movie shine, even at half the budget. For a movie about dancing, with a lot of dancing in it, they would need a creative choreographer to help train the actors and design the sequences. The filmmakers would chose Kenny Ortega, who in addition to choreographing the dance scenes in Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, had worked with Gene Kelly on the 1980 musical Xanadu. Well, more specifically, was molded by Gene Kelly to become the lead choreographer for the film. That's some good credentials. Unlike movies like Flashdance, where the filmmakers would hire Jennifer Beals to play Alex and Marine Jahan to perform Alex's dance scenes, Emile Ardolino was insistent that the actors playing the dancers were actors who also dance. Having stand-ins would take extra time to set-up, and would suck up a portion of an already tight budget. Yet the first people he would meet for the lead role of Johnny were non-dancers Benecio del Toro, Val Kilmer, and Billy Zane. Zane would go so far as to do a screen test with one of the actresses being considered for the role of Baby, Jennifer Grey, but after screening the test, they realized Grey was right for Baby but Zane was not right for Johnny. Someone suggested Patrick Swayze, a former dancer for the prestigious Joffrey Ballet who was making his way up the ranks of stardom thanks to his roles in The Outsiders and Grandview U.S.A. But Swayze had suffered a knee injury years before that put his dance career on hold, and there were concerns he would re-aggravate his injury, and there were concerns from Jennifer Grey because she and Swayze had not gotten along very well while working on Red Dawn. But that had been three years earlier, and when they screen tested together here, everyone was convinced this was the pairing that would bring magic to the role. Baby's parents would be played by two Broadway veterans: Jerry Orbach, who is best known today as Detective Lenny Briscoe on Law and Order, and Kelly Bishop, who is best known today as Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls but had actually started out as a dancer, singer and actor, winning a Tony Award for her role in the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line. Although Bishop had originally been cast in a different role for the movie, another guest at the Catskills resort with the Housemans, but she would be bumped up when the original Mrs. Houseman, Lynne Lipton, would fall ill during the first week of filming. Filming on Dirty Dancing would begin in North Carolina on September 5th, 1986, at a former Boy Scout camp that had been converted to a private residential community. This is where many of the iconic scenes from the film would be shot, including Baby carrying the watermelon and practicing her dance steps on the stairs, all the interior dance scenes, the log scene, and the golf course scene where Baby would ask her father for $250. It's also where Patrick Swayze almost ended his role in the film, when he would indeed re-injure his knee during the balancing scene on the log. He would be rushed to the hospital to have fluid drained from the swelling. Thankfully, there would be no lingering effects once he was released. After filming in North Carolina was completed, the team would move to Virginia for two more weeks of filming, including the water lift scene, exteriors at Kellerman's Hotel and the Houseman family's cabin, before the film wrapped on October 27th. Ardolino's first cut of the film would be completed in February 1987, and Vestron would begin the process of running a series of test screenings. At the first test screening, nearly 40% of the audience didn't realize there was an abortion subplot in the movie, even after completing the movie. A few weeks later, Vestron executives would screen the film for producer Aaron Russo, who had produced such movies as The Rose and Trading Places. His reaction to the film was to tell the executives to burn the negative and collect the insurance. But, to be fair, one important element of the film was still not set. The music. Eleanor Bergstein had written into her script a number of songs that were popular in the early 1960s, when the movie was set, that she felt the final film needed. Except a number of the songs were a bit more expensive to license than Vestron would have preferred. The company was testing the film with different versions of those songs, other artists' renditions. The writer, with the support of her producer and director, fought back. She made a deal with the Vestron executives. They would play her the master tracks to ten of the songs she wanted, as well as the copycat versions. If she could identify six of the masters, she could have all ten songs in the film. Vestron would spend another half a million dollars licensing the original recording. The writer nailed all ten. But even then, there was still one missing piece of the puzzle. The closing song. While Bergstein wanted another song to close the film, the team at Vestron were insistent on a new song that could be used to anchor a soundtrack album. The writer, producer, director and various members of the production team listened to dozens of submissions from songwriters, but none of them were right, until they got to literally the last submission left, written by Franke Previte, who had written another song that would appear on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, “Hungry Eyes.” Everybody loved the song, called “I've Had the Time of My Life,” and it would take some time to convince Previte that Dirty Dancing was not a porno. They showed him the film and he agreed to give them the song, but the production team and Vestron wanted to get a pair of more famous singers to record the final version. The filmmakers originally approached disco queen Donna Summer and Joe Esposito, whose song “You're the Best” appeared on the Karate Kid soundtrack, but Summer would decline, not liking the title of the movie. They would then approach Daryl Hall from Hall and Oates and Kim Carnes, but they'd both decline, citing concerns about the title of the movie. Then they approached Bill Medley, one-half of The Righteous Brothers, who had enjoyed yet another career resurgence when You Lost That Lovin' Feeling became a hit in 1986 thanks to Top Gun, but at first, he would also decline. Not that he had any concerns about the title of the film, although he did have concerns about the title, but that his wife was about to give birth to their daughter, and he had promised he would be there. While trying to figure who to get to sing the male part of the song, the music supervisor for the film approached Jennifer Warnes, who had sung the duet “Up Where We Belong” from the An Officer and a Gentleman soundtrack, which had won the 1983 Academy Award for Best Original Song, and sang the song “It Goes Like It Goes” from the Norma Rae soundtrack, which had won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Original Song. Warnes wasn't thrilled with the song, but she would be persuaded to record the song for the right price… and if Bill Medley would sing the other part. Medley, flattered that Warnes asked specifically to record with him, said he would do so, after his daughter was born, and if the song was recorded in his studio in Los Angeles. A few weeks later, Medley and Warnes would have their portion of the song completed in only one hour, including additional harmonies and flourishes decided on after finishing with the main vocals. With all the songs added to the movie, audience test scores improved considerably. RCA Records, who had been contracted to handle the release of the soundtrack, would set a July 17th release date for the album, to coincide with the release of the movie on the same day, with the lead single, I've Had the Time of My Life, released one week earlier. But then, Vestron moved the movie back from July 17th to August 21st… and forgot to tell RCA Records about the move. No big deal. The song would quickly rise up the charts, eventually hitting #1 on the Billboard charts. When the movie finally did open in 975 theatres in August 21st, the film would open to fourth place with $3.9m in ticket sales, behind Can't Buy Me Love in third place and in its second week of release, the Cheech Marin comedy Born in East L.A., which opened in second place, and Stakeout, which was enjoying its third week atop the charts. The reviews were okay, but not special. Gene Siskel would give the film a begrudging Thumbs Up, citing Jennifer Grey's performance and her character's arc as the thing that tipped the scale into the positive, while Roger Ebert would give the film a Thumbs Down, due to its idiot plot and tired and relentlessly predictable story of love between kids from different backgrounds. But then a funny thing happened… Instead of appealing to the teenagers they thought would see the film, the majority of the audience ended up becoming adults. Not just twenty and thirty somethings, but people who were teenagers themselves during the movie's timeframe. They would be drawn in to the film through the newfound sense of boomer nostalgia that helped make Stand By Me an unexpected hit the year before, both as a movie and as a soundtrack. Its second week in theatre would only see the gross drop 6%, and the film would finish in third place. In week three, the four day Labor Day weekend, it would gross nearly $5m, and move up to second place. And it would continue to play and continue to bring audiences in, only dropping out of the top ten once in early November for one weekend, from August to December. Even with all the new movies entering the marketplace for Christmas, Dirty Dancing would be retained by most of the theatres that were playing it. In the first weekend of 1988, Dirty Dancing was still playing in 855 theaters, only 120 fewer than who opened it five months earlier. Once it did started leaving first run theatres, dollar houses were eager to pick it up, and Dirty Dancing would make another $6m in ticket sales as it continued to play until Christmas 1988 at some theatres, finishing its incredible run with $63.5m in ticket sales. Yet, despite its ubiquitousness in American pop culture, despite the soundtrack selling more than ten million copies in its first year, despite the uptick in attendance at dance schools from coast to coast, Dirty Dancing never once was the #1 film in America on any weekend it was in theatres. There would always be at least one other movie that would do just a bit better. When awards season came around, the movie was practically ignored by critics groups. It would pick up an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and both the movie and Jennifer Grey would be nominated for Golden Globes, but it would be that song, I've Had the Time of My Life, that would be the driver for awards love. It would win the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, and a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The song would anchor a soundtrack that would also include two other hit songs, Eric Carmen's “Hungry Eyes,” and “She's Like the Wind,” recorded for the movie by Patrick Swayze, making him the proto-Hugh Jackman of the 80s. I've seen Hugh Jackman do his one-man show at the Hollywood Bowl, and now I'm wishing Patrick Swayze could have had something like that thirty years ago. On September 25th, they would release Abel Ferrera's Neo-noir romantic thriller China Girl. A modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet written by regular Ferrera writer Nicholas St. John, the setting would be New York City's Lower East Side, when Tony, a teenager from Little Italy, falls for Tye, a teenager from Chinatown, as their older brothers vie for turf in a vicious gang war. While the stars of the film, Richard Panebianco and Sari Chang, would never become known actors, the supporting cast is as good as you'd expect from a post-Ms. .45 Ferrera film, including James Russo, Russell Wong, David Caruso and James Hong. The $3.5m movie would open on 110 screens, including 70 in New York ti-state region and 18 in Los Angeles, grossing $531k. After a second weekend, where the gross dropped to $225k, Vestron would stop tracking the film, with a final reported gross of just $1.26m coming from a stockholder's report in early 1988. Ironically, China Girl would open against another movie that Vestron had a hand in financing, but would not release in America: Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride. While the film would do okay in America, grossing $30m against its $15m, it wouldn't translate so easily to foreign markets. Anna, from first time Polish filmmaker Yurek Bogayevicz, was an oddball little film from the start. The story, co-written with the legendary Polish writer/director Agnieszka Holland, was based on the real-life friendship of Polish actresses Joanna (Yo-ahn-nuh) Pacuła (Pa-tsu-wa) and Elżbieta (Elz-be-et-ah) Czyżewska (Chuh-zef-ska), and would find Czech supermodel Paulina Porizkova making her feature acting debut as Krystyna, an aspiring actress from Czechoslovakia who goes to New York City to find her idol, Anna, who had been imprisoned and then deported for speaking out against the new regime after the 1968 Communist invasion. Nearly twenty years later, the middle-aged Anna struggles to land any acting parts, in films, on television, or on the stage, who relishes the attention of this beautiful young waif who reminds her of herself back then. Sally Kirkland, an American actress who got her start as part of Andy Warhol's Factory in the early 60s but could never break out of playing supporting roles in movies like The Way We Were, The Sting, A Star is Born, and Private Benjamin, would be cast as the faded Czech star whose life seemed to unintentionally mirror the actress's. Future Snakes on a Plane director David R. Ellis would be featured in a small supporting role, as would the then sixteen year old Sofia Coppola. The $1m movie would shoot on location in New York City during the winter of late 1986 and early 1987, and would make its world premiere at the 1987 New York Film Festival in September, before opening at the 68th Street Playhouse on the Upper East Side on October 30th. Critics such as Bruce Williamson of Playboy, Molly Haskell of Vogue and Jami Bernard of the New York Post would sing the praises of the movie, and of Paulina Porizkova, but it would be Sally Kirkland whom practically every critic would gush over. “A performance of depth and clarity and power, easily one of the strongest female roles of the year,” wrote Mike McGrady of Newsday. Janet Maslim wasn't as impressed with the film as most critics, but she would note Ms. Kirkland's immensely dignified presence in the title role. New York audiences responded well to the critical acclaim, buying more than $22,000 worth of tickets, often playing to sell out crowds for the afternoon and evening shows. In its second week, the film would see its gross increase 12%, and another 3% increase in its third week. Meanwhile, on November 13th, the film would open in Los Angeles at the AMC Century City 14, where it would bring in an additional $10,000, thanks in part to Sheila Benson's rave in the Los Angeles Times, calling the film “the best kind of surprise — a small, frequently funny, fine-boned film set in the worlds of the theater and movies which unexpectedly becomes a consummate study of love, alienation and loss,” while praising Kirkland's performance as a “blazing comet.” Kirkland would make the rounds on the awards circuit, winning Best Actress awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Golden Globes, and the Independent Spirit Awards, culminating in an Academy Award nomination, although she would lose to Cher in Moonstruck. But despite all these rave reviews and the early support for the film in New York and Los Angeles, the film got little traction outside these two major cities. Despite playing in theatres for nearly six months, Anna could only round up about $1.2m in ticket sales. Vestron's penultimate new film of 1987 would be a movie that when it was shot in Namibia in late 1986 was titled Peacekeeper, then was changed to Desert Warrior when it was acquired by Jerry Weintraub's eponymously named distribution company, then saw it renamed again to Steel Dawn when Vestron overpaid to acquire the film from Weintraub, because they wanted the next film starring Patrick Swayze for themselves. Swayze plays, and stop me if you've heard this one before, a warrior wandering through a post-apocalyptic desert who comes upon a group of settlers who are being menaced by the leader of a murderous gang who's after the water they control. Lisa Niemi, also known as Mrs. Patrick Swayze, would be his romantic interest in the film, which would also star AnthonY Zerbe, Brian James, and, in one of his very first acting roles, future Mummy co-star Arnold Vosloo. The film would open to horrible reviews, and gross just $312k in 290 theatres. For comparison's sake, Dirty Dancing was in its eleventh week of release, was still playing 878 theatres, and would gross $1.7m. In its second week, Steel Dawn had lost nearly two thirds of its theatres, grossing only $60k from 107 theatres. After its third weekend, Vestron stopped reporting grosses. The film had only earned $562k in ticket sales. And their final release for 1987 would be one of the most prestigious titles they'd ever be involved with. The Dead, based on a short story by James Joyce, would be the 37th and final film to be directed by John Huston. His son Tony would adapt the screenplay, while his daughter Anjelica, whom he had directed to a Best Supporting Actress Oscar two years earlier for Prizzi's Honor, would star as the matriarch of an Irish family circa 1904 whose husband discovers memoirs of a deceased lover of his wife's, an affair that preceded their meeting. Originally scheduled to shoot in Dublin, Ireland, The Dead would end up being shot on soundstages in Valencia, CA, just north of Los Angeles, as the eighty year old filmmaker was in ill health. Huston, who was suffering from severe emphysema due to decades of smoking, would use video playback for the first and only time in his career in order to call the action, whirling around from set to set in a motorized wheelchair with an oxygen tank attached to it. In fact, the company insuring the film required the producers to have a backup director on set, just in case Huston was unable to continue to make the film. That stand-in was Czech-born British filmmaker Karel Reisz, who never once had to stand-in during the entire shoot. One Huston who didn't work on the film was Danny Huston, who was supposed to shoot some second unit footage for the film in Dublin for his father, who could not make any trips overseas, as well as a documentary about the making of the film, but for whatever reason, Danny Huston would end up not doing either. John Huston would turn in his final cut of the film to Vestron in July 1987, and would pass away in late August, a good four months before the film's scheduled release. He would live to see some of the best reviews of his entire career when the film was released on December 18th. At six theatres in Los Angeles and New York City, The Dead would earn $69k in its first three days during what was an amazing opening weekend for a number of movies. The Dead would open against exclusive runs of Broadcast News, Ironweed, Moonstruck and the newest Woody Allen film, September, as well as wide releases of Eddie Murphy: Raw, Batteries Not Included, Overboard, and the infamous Bill Cosby stinker Leonard Part 6. The film would win the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Picture of the year, John Huston would win the Spirit Award and the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director, Anjelica Huston would win a Spirit Award as well, for Best Supporting Actress, and Tony Huston would be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. But the little $3.5m film would only see modest returns at the box office, grossing just $4.4m after a four month run in theatres. Vestron would also release two movies in 1987 through their genre Lightning Pictures label. The first, Blood Diner, from writer/director Jackie Kong, was meant to be both a tribute and an indirect sequel to the infamous 1965 Herschell Gordon Lewis movie Blood Feast, often considered to be the first splatter slasher film. Released on four screens in Baltimore on July 10th, the film would gross just $6,400 in its one tracked week. The film would get a second chance at life when it opened at the 8th Street Playhouse in New York City on September 4th, but after a $5,000 opening week gross there, the film would have to wait until it was released on home video to become a cult film. The other Lightning Pictures release for 1987, Street Trash, would become one of the most infamous horror comedy films of the year. An expansion of a short student film by then nineteen year old Jim Muro, Street Trash told the twin stories of a Greenpoint, Brooklyn shop owner who sell a case of cheap, long-expired hooch to local hobos, who hideously melt away shortly after drinking it, while two homeless brothers try to deal with their situation as best they can while all this weirdness is going on about them. After playing several weeks of midnight shows at the Waverly Theatre near Washington Square, Street Trash would open for a regular run at the 8th Street Playhouse on September 18th, one week after Blood Diner left the same theatre. However, Street Trash would not replace Blood Diner, which was kicked to the curb after one week, but another long forgotten movie, the Christopher Walken-starrer Deadline. Street Trash would do a bit better than Blood Diner, $9,000 in its first three days, enough to get the film a full two week run at the Playhouse. But its second week gross of $5,000 would not be enough to give it a longer playdate, or get another New York theatre to pick it up. The film would get other playdates, including one in my secondary hometown of Santa Cruz starting, ironically, on Thanksgiving Day, but the film would barely make $100k in its theatrical run. While this would be the only film Jim Muro would direct, he would become an in demand cinematographer and Steadicam operator, working on such films as Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, Sneakers, L.A. Confidential, the first Fast and Furious movie, and on The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies and Titanic for James Cameron. And should you ever watch the film and sit through the credits, yes, it's that Bryan Singer who worked as a grip and production assistant on the film. It would be his very first film credit, which he worked on during a break from going to USC film school. People who know me know I am not the biggest fan of horror films. I may have mentioned it once or twice on this podcast. But I have a soft spot for Troma Films and Troma-like films, and Street Trash is probably the best Troma movie not made or released by Troma. There's a reason why Lloyd Kaufman is not a fan of the movie. A number of people who have seen the movie think it is a Troma movie, not helped by the fact that a number of people who did work on The Toxic Avenger went to work on Street Trash afterwards, and some even tell Lloyd at conventions that Street Trash is their favorite Troma movie. It's looks like a Troma movie. It feels like a Troma movie. And to be honest, at least to me, that's one hell of a compliment. It's one of the reasons I even went to see Street Trash, the favorable comparison to Troma. And while I, for lack of a better word, enjoyed Street Trash when I saw it, as much as one can say they enjoyed a movie where a bunch of bums playing hot potato with a man's severed Johnson is a major set piece, but I've never really felt the need to watch it again over the past thirty-five years. Like several of the movies on this episode, Street Trash is not available for streaming on any service in the United States. And outside of Dirty Dancing, the ones you can stream, China Girl, Personal Services, Slaughter High and Steel Dawn, are mostly available for free with ads on Tubi, which made a huge splash last week with a confounding Super Bowl commercial that sent millions of people to figure what a Tubi was. Now, if you were counting, that was only nine films released in 1987, and not the eighteen they had promised at the start of the year. Despite the fact they had a smash hit in Dirty Dancing, they decided to push most of their planned 1987 movies to 1988. Not necessarily by choice, though. Many of the films just weren't ready in time for a 1987 release, and then the unexpected long term success of Dirty Dancing kept them occupied for most of the rest of the year. But that only meant that 1988 would be a stellar year for them, right? We'll find out next episode, when we continue the Vestron Pictures story. Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again next week. Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode. The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment. Thank you again. Good night.

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Vestron Pictures - Part One

The 80s Movie Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2023 47:30

The first of a two-part series on the short-lived 80s American distribution company responsible for Dirty Dancing. ----more---- The movies covered on this episode: Alpine (1987, Fredi M. Murer) Anna (1987, Yurek Bogayevicz) Billy Galvin (1986, John Grey) Blood Diner (1987, Jackie Kong) China Girl (1987, Abel Ferrera) The Dead (1987, John Huston) Dirty Dancing (1987, Emile Ardolino) Malcolm (1986, Nadia Tess) Personal Services (1987, Terry Jones) Slaughter High (1986, Mark Ezra and Peter Litten and George Dugdale) Steel Dawn (1987, Lance Hook) Street Trash (1987, Jim Muro) TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. Have you ever thought “I should do this thing” but then you never get around to it, until something completely random happens that reminds you that you were going to do this thing a long time ago? For this week's episode, that kick in the keister was a post on Twitter from someone I don't follow being retweeted by the great film critic and essayist Walter Chaw, someone I do follow, that showed a Blu-ray cover of the 1987 Walter Hill film Extreme Prejudice. You see, Walter Chaw has recently released a book about the life and career of Walter Hill, and this other person was showing off their new purchase. That in and of itself wasn't the kick in the butt. That was the logo of the disc's distributor. Vestron Video. A company that went out of business more than thirty years before, that unbeknownst to me had been resurrected by the current owner of the trademark, Lionsgate Films, as a specialty label for a certain kind of film like Ken Russell's Gothic, Beyond Re-Animator, CHUD 2, and, for some reason, Walter Hill's Neo-Western featuring Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe and Rip Torn. For those of you from the 80s, you remember at least one of Vestron Pictures' movies. I guarantee it. But before we get there, we, as always, must go back a little further back in time. The year is 1981. Time Magazine is amongst the most popular magazines in the world, while their sister publication, Life, was renowned for their stunning photographs printed on glossy color paper of a larger size than most magazines. In the late 1970s, Time-Life added a video production and distribution company to ever-growing media empire that also included television stations, cable channels, book clubs, and compilation record box sets. But Time Life Home Video didn't quite take off the way the company had expected, and they decided to concentrate its lucrative cable businesses like HBO. The company would move Austin Furst, an executive from HBO, over to dismantle the assets of Time-Life Films. And while Furst would sell off the production and distribution parts of the company to Fox, and the television department to Columbia Pictures, he couldn't find a party interested in the home video department. Recognizing that home video was an emerging market that would need a visionary like himself willing to take big risks for the chance to have big rewards, Furst purchased the home video rights to the film and video library for himself, starting up his home entertainment company. But what to call the company? It would be his daughter that would come up with Vestron, a portmanteau of combining the name of the Roman goddess of the heart, Vesta, with Tron, the Greek word for instrument. Remember, the movie Tron would not be released for another year at this point. At first, there were only two employees at Vestron: Furst himself, and Jon Pesinger, a fellow executive at Time-Life who, not unlike Dorothy Boyd in Jerry Maguire, was the only person who saw Furst's long-term vision for the future. Outside of the titles they brought with them from Time-Life, Vestron's initial release of home video titles comprised of two mid-range movie hits where they were able to snag the home video rights instead of the companies that released the movies in theatres, either because those companies did not have a home video operation yet, or did not negotiate for home video rights when making the movie deal with the producers. Fort Apache, The Bronx, a crime drama with Paul Newman and Ed Asner, and Loving Couples, a Shirley MacLaine/James Coburn romantic comedy that was neither romantic nor comedic, were Time-Life productions, while the Burt Reynolds/Dom DeLuise comedy The Cannonball Run, was a pickup from the Hong Kong production company Golden Harvest, which financed the comedy to help break their local star, Jackie Chan, into the American market. They'd also make a deal with several Canadian production companies to get the American home video rights to titles like the Jack Lemmon drama Tribute and the George C. Scott horror film The Changeling. The advantage that Vestron had over the major studios was their outlook on the mom and pop rental stores that were popping up in every city and town in the United States. The major studios hated the idea that they could sell a videotape for, say, $99.99, and then see someone else make a major profit by renting that tape out fifty or a hundred times at $4 or $5 per night. Of course, they would eventually see the light, but in 1982, they weren't there yet. Now, let me sidetrack for a moment, as I am wont to do, to talk about mom and pop video stores in the early 1980s. If you're younger than, say, forty, you probably only know Blockbuster and/or Hollywood Video as your local video rental store, but in the early 80s, there were no national video store chains yet. The first Blockbuster wouldn't open until October 1985, in Dallas, and your neighborhood likely didn't get one until the late 1980s or early 1990s. The first video store I ever encountered, Telford Home Video in Belmont Shores, Long Beach in 1981, was operated by Bob Telford, an actor best known for playing the Station Master in both the original 1974 version of Where the Red Fern Grows and its 2003 remake. Bob was really cool, and I don't think it was just because the space for the video store was just below my dad's office in the real estate company that had built and operated the building. He genuinely took interest in this weird thirteen year old kid who had an encyclopedic knowledge of films and wanted to learn more. I wanted to watch every movie he had in the store that I hadn't seen yet, but there was one problem: we had a VHS machine, and most of Bob's inventory was RCA SelectaVision, a disc-based playback system using a special stylus and a groove-covered disc much like an LP record. After school each day, I'd hightail it over to Telford Home Video, and Bob and I would watch a movie while we waited for customers to come rent something. It was with Bob that I would watch Ordinary People and The Magnificent Seven, The Elephant Man and The Last Waltz, Bus Stop and Rebel Without a Cause and The French Connection and The Man Who Fell to Earth and a bunch of other movies that weren't yet available on VHS, and it was great. Like many teenagers in the early 1980s, I spent some time working at a mom and pop video store, Seacliff Home Video in Aptos, CA. I worked on the weekends, it was a third of a mile walk from home, and even though I was only 16 years old at the time, my bosses would, every week, solicit my opinion about which upcoming videos we should acquire. Because, like Telford Home Video and Village Home Video, where my friends Dick and Michelle worked about two miles away, and most every video store at the time, space was extremely limited and there was only space for so many titles. Telford Home Video was about 500 square feet and had maybe 500 titles. Seacliff was about 750 square feet and around 800 titles, including about 50 in the tiny, curtained off room created to hold the porn. And the first location for Village Home Video had only 300 square feet of space and only 250 titles. The owner, Leone Keller, confirmed to me that until they moved into a larger location across from the original store, they were able to rent out every movie in the store every night. For many, a store owner had to be very careful about what they ordered and what they replaced. But Vestron Home Video always seemed to have some of the better movies. Because of a spat between Warner Brothers and Orion Pictures, Vestron would end up with most of Orion's 1983 through 1985 theatrical releases, including Rodney Dangerfield's Easy Money, the Nick Nolte political thriller Under Fire, the William Hurt mystery Gorky Park, and Gene Wilder's The Woman in Red. They'd also make a deal with Roger Corman's old American Independent Pictures outfit, which would reap an unexpected bounty when George Miller's second Mad Max movie, The Road Warrior, became a surprise hit in 1982, and Vestron was holding the video rights to the first Mad Max movie. And they'd also find themselves with the laserdisc rights to several Brian DePalma movies including Dressed to Kill and Blow Out. And after Polygram Films decided to leave the movie business in 1984, they would sell the home video rights to An American Werewolf in London and Endless Love to Vestron. They were doing pretty good. And in 1984, Vestron ended up changing the home video industry forever. When Michael Jackson and John Landis had trouble with Jackson's record company, Epic, getting their idea for a 14 minute short film built around the title song to Jackson's monster album Thriller financed, Vestron would put up a good portion of the nearly million dollar budget in order to release the movie on home video, after it played for a few weeks on MTV. In February 1984, Vestron would release a one-hour tape, The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, that included the mini-movie and a 45 minute Making of featurette. At $29.99, it would be one of the first sell-through titles released on home video. It would become the second home videotape to sell a million copies, after Star Wars. Suddenly, Vestron was flush with more cash than it knew what to do with. In 1985, they would decide to expand their entertainment footprint by opening Vestron Pictures, which would finance a number of movies that could be exploited across a number of platforms, including theatrical, home video, cable and syndicated TV. In early January 1986, Vestron would announce they were pursuing projects with three producers, Steve Tisch, Larry Turman, and Gene Kirkwood, but no details on any specific titles or even a timeframe when any of those movies would be made. Tisch, the son of Loews Entertainment co-owner Bob Tisch, had started producing films in 1977 with the Peter Fonda music drama Outlaw Blues, and had a big hit in 1983 with Risky Business. Turman, the Oscar-nominated producer of Mike Nichols' The Graduate, and Kirkwood, the producer of The Keep and The Pope of Greenwich Village, had seen better days as producers by 1986 but their names still carried a certain cache in Hollywood, and the announcement would certainly let the industry know Vestron was serious about making quality movies. Well, maybe not all quality movies. They would also launch a sub-label for Vestron Pictures called Lightning Pictures, which would be utilized on B-movies and schlock that maybe wouldn't fit in the Vestron Pictures brand name they were trying to build. But it costs money to build a movie production and theatrical distribution company. Lots of money. Thanks to the ever-growing roster of video titles and the success of releases like Thriller, Vestron would go public in the spring of 1985, selling enough shares on the first day of trading to bring in $440m to the company, $140m than they thought they would sell that day. It would take them a while, but in 1986, they would start production on their first slate of films, as well as acquire several foreign titles for American distribution. Vestron Pictures officially entered the theatrical distribution game on July 18th, 1986, when they released the Australian comedy Malcolm at the Cinema 2 on the Upper East Side of New York City. A modern attempt to create the Aussie version of a Jacques Tati-like absurdist comedy about modern life and our dependance on gadgetry, Malcolm follows, as one character describes him a 100 percent not there individual who is tricked into using some of his remote control inventions to pull of a bank robbery. While the film would be a minor hit in Australia, winning all eight of the Australian Film Institute Awards it was nominated for including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay and three acting awards, the film would only play for five weeks in New York, grossing less than $35,000, and would not open in Los Angeles until November 5th, where in its first week at the Cineplex Beverly Center and Samuel Goldwyn Pavilion Cinemas, it would gross a combined $37,000. Go figure. Malcolm would open in a few more major markets, but Vestron would close the film at the end of the year with a gross under $200,000. Their next film, Slaughter High, was a rather odd bird. A co-production between American and British-based production companies, the film followed a group of adults responsible for a prank gone wrong on April Fool's Day who are invited to a reunion at their defunct high school where a masked killer awaits inside. And although the movie takes place in America, the film was shot in London and nearby Virginia Water, Surrey, in late 1984, under the title April Fool's Day. But even with Caroline Munro, the British sex symbol who had become a cult favorite with her appearances in a series of sci-fi and Hammer horror films with Peter Cushing and/or Christopher Lee, as well as her work in the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, April Fool's Day would sit on the proverbial shelf for nearly two years, until Vestron picked it up and changed its title, since Paramount Pictures had released their own horror film called April Fools Day earlier in the year. Vestron would open Slaughter High on nine screens in Detroit on November 14th, 1986, but Vestron would not report grosses. Then they would open it on six screen in St. Louis on February 13th, 1987. At least this time they reported a gross. $12,400. Variety would simply call that number “grim.” They'd give the film one final rush on April 24th, sending it out to 38 screens in in New York City, where it would gross $90,000. There'd be no second week, as practically every theatre would replace it with Creepshow 2. The third and final Vestron Pictures release for 1986 was Billy Galvin, a little remembered family drama featuring Karl Malden and Lenny von Dohlen, originally produced for the PBS anthology series American Playhouse but bumped up to a feature film as part of coordinated effort to promote the show by occasionally releasing feature films bearing the American Playhouse banner. The film would open at the Cineplex Beverly Center on December 31st, not only the last day of the calendar year but the last day a film can be released into theatres in Los Angeles to have been considered for Academy Awards. The film would not get any major awards, from the Academy or anyone else, nor much attention from audiences, grossing just $4,000 in its first five days. They'd give the film a chance in New York on February 20th, at the 23rd Street West Triplex, but a $2,000 opening weekend gross would doom the film from ever opening in another theatre again. In early 1987, Vestron announced eighteen films they would release during the year, and a partnership with AMC Theatres and General Cinema to have their films featured in those two companies' pilot specialized film programs in major markets like Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston and San Francisco. Alpine Fire would be the first of those films, arriving at the Cinema Studio 1 in New York City on February 20th. A Swiss drama about a young deaf and mentally challenged teenager who gets his older sister pregnant, was that country's entry into the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race. While the film would win the Golden Leopard Award at the 1985 Locarno Film Festival, the Academy would not select the film for a nomination, and the film would quickly disappear from theatres after a $2,000 opening weekend gross. Personal Services, the first film to be directed by Terry Jones outside of his services with Monty Python, would arrive in American theatres on May 15th. The only Jones-directed film to not feature any other Python in the cast, Personal Services was a thinly-disguised telling of a 1970s—era London waitress who was running a brothel in her flat in order to make ends meet, and featured a standout performance by Julie Walters as the waitress turned madame. In England, Personal Services would be the second highest-grossing film of the year, behind The Living Daylights, the first Bond film featuring new 007 Timothy Dalton. In America, the film wouldn't be quite as successful, grossing $1.75m after 33 weeks in theatres, despite never playing on more than 31 screens in any given week. It would be another three months before Vestron would release their second movie of the year, but it would be the one they'd become famous for. Dirty Dancing. Based in large part on screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein's own childhood, the screenplay would be written after the producers of the 1980 Michael Douglas/Jill Clayburgh dramedy It's My Turn asked the writer to remove a scene from the screenplay that involved an erotic dance sequence. She would take that scene and use it as a jumping off point for a new story about a Jewish teenager in the early 1960s who participated in secret “Dirty Dancing” competitions while she vacationed with her doctor father and stay-at-home mother while they vacationed in the Catskill Mountains. Baby, the young woman at the center of the story, would not only resemble the screenwriter as a character but share her childhood nickname. Bergstein would pitch the story to every studio in Hollywood in 1984, and only get a nibble from MGM Pictures, whose name was synonymous with big-budget musicals decades before. They would option the screenplay and assign producer Linda Gottlieb, a veteran television producer making her first major foray into feature films, to the project. With Gottlieb, Bergstein would head back to the Catskills for the first time in two decades, as research for the script. It was while on this trip that the pair would meet Michael Terrace, a former Broadway dancer who had spent summers in the early 1960s teaching tourists how to mambo in the Catskills. Terrace and Bergstein didn't remember each other if they had met way back when, but his stories would help inform the lead male character of Johnny Castle. But, as regularly happens in Hollywood, there was a regime change at MGM in late 1985, and one of the projects the new bosses cut loose was Dirty Dancing. Once again, the script would make the rounds in Hollywood, but nobody was biting… until Vestron Pictures got their chance to read it. They loved it, and were ready to make it their first in-house production… but they would make the movie if the budget could be cut from $10m to $4.5m. That would mean some sacrifices. They wouldn't be able to hire a major director, nor bigger name actors, but that would end up being a blessing in disguise. To direct, Gottlieb and Bergstein looked at a lot of up and coming feature directors, but the one person they had the best feeling about was Emile Ardolino, a former actor off-Broadway in the 1960s who began his filmmaking career as a documentarian for PBS in the 1970s. In 1983, Ardolino's documentary about National Dance Institute founder Jacques d'Amboise, He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin', would win both the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Entertainment Special. Although Ardolino had never directed a movie, he would read the script twice in a week while serving on jury duty, and came back to Gottlieb and Bergstein with a number of ideas to help make the movie shine, even at half the budget. For a movie about dancing, with a lot of dancing in it, they would need a creative choreographer to help train the actors and design the sequences. The filmmakers would chose Kenny Ortega, who in addition to choreographing the dance scenes in Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, had worked with Gene Kelly on the 1980 musical Xanadu. Well, more specifically, was molded by Gene Kelly to become the lead choreographer for the film. That's some good credentials. Unlike movies like Flashdance, where the filmmakers would hire Jennifer Beals to play Alex and Marine Jahan to perform Alex's dance scenes, Emile Ardolino was insistent that the actors playing the dancers were actors who also dance. Having stand-ins would take extra time to set-up, and would suck up a portion of an already tight budget. Yet the first people he would meet for the lead role of Johnny were non-dancers Benecio del Toro, Val Kilmer, and Billy Zane. Zane would go so far as to do a screen test with one of the actresses being considered for the role of Baby, Jennifer Grey, but after screening the test, they realized Grey was right for Baby but Zane was not right for Johnny. Someone suggested Patrick Swayze, a former dancer for the prestigious Joffrey Ballet who was making his way up the ranks of stardom thanks to his roles in The Outsiders and Grandview U.S.A. But Swayze had suffered a knee injury years before that put his dance career on hold, and there were concerns he would re-aggravate his injury, and there were concerns from Jennifer Grey because she and Swayze had not gotten along very well while working on Red Dawn. But that had been three years earlier, and when they screen tested together here, everyone was convinced this was the pairing that would bring magic to the role. Baby's parents would be played by two Broadway veterans: Jerry Orbach, who is best known today as Detective Lenny Briscoe on Law and Order, and Kelly Bishop, who is best known today as Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls but had actually started out as a dancer, singer and actor, winning a Tony Award for her role in the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line. Although Bishop had originally been cast in a different role for the movie, another guest at the Catskills resort with the Housemans, but she would be bumped up when the original Mrs. Houseman, Lynne Lipton, would fall ill during the first week of filming. Filming on Dirty Dancing would begin in North Carolina on September 5th, 1986, at a former Boy Scout camp that had been converted to a private residential community. This is where many of the iconic scenes from the film would be shot, including Baby carrying the watermelon and practicing her dance steps on the stairs, all the interior dance scenes, the log scene, and the golf course scene where Baby would ask her father for $250. It's also where Patrick Swayze almost ended his role in the film, when he would indeed re-injure his knee during the balancing scene on the log. He would be rushed to the hospital to have fluid drained from the swelling. Thankfully, there would be no lingering effects once he was released. After filming in North Carolina was completed, the team would move to Virginia for two more weeks of filming, including the water lift scene, exteriors at Kellerman's Hotel and the Houseman family's cabin, before the film wrapped on October 27th. Ardolino's first cut of the film would be completed in February 1987, and Vestron would begin the process of running a series of test screenings. At the first test screening, nearly 40% of the audience didn't realize there was an abortion subplot in the movie, even after completing the movie. A few weeks later, Vestron executives would screen the film for producer Aaron Russo, who had produced such movies as The Rose and Trading Places. His reaction to the film was to tell the executives to burn the negative and collect the insurance. But, to be fair, one important element of the film was still not set. The music. Eleanor Bergstein had written into her script a number of songs that were popular in the early 1960s, when the movie was set, that she felt the final film needed. Except a number of the songs were a bit more expensive to license than Vestron would have preferred. The company was testing the film with different versions of those songs, other artists' renditions. The writer, with the support of her producer and director, fought back. She made a deal with the Vestron executives. They would play her the master tracks to ten of the songs she wanted, as well as the copycat versions. If she could identify six of the masters, she could have all ten songs in the film. Vestron would spend another half a million dollars licensing the original recording. The writer nailed all ten. But even then, there was still one missing piece of the puzzle. The closing song. While Bergstein wanted another song to close the film, the team at Vestron were insistent on a new song that could be used to anchor a soundtrack album. The writer, producer, director and various members of the production team listened to dozens of submissions from songwriters, but none of them were right, until they got to literally the last submission left, written by Franke Previte, who had written another song that would appear on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, “Hungry Eyes.” Everybody loved the song, called “I've Had the Time of My Life,” and it would take some time to convince Previte that Dirty Dancing was not a porno. They showed him the film and he agreed to give them the song, but the production team and Vestron wanted to get a pair of more famous singers to record the final version. The filmmakers originally approached disco queen Donna Summer and Joe Esposito, whose song “You're the Best” appeared on the Karate Kid soundtrack, but Summer would decline, not liking the title of the movie. They would then approach Daryl Hall from Hall and Oates and Kim Carnes, but they'd both decline, citing concerns about the title of the movie. Then they approached Bill Medley, one-half of The Righteous Brothers, who had enjoyed yet another career resurgence when You Lost That Lovin' Feeling became a hit in 1986 thanks to Top Gun, but at first, he would also decline. Not that he had any concerns about the title of the film, although he did have concerns about the title, but that his wife was about to give birth to their daughter, and he had promised he would be there. While trying to figure who to get to sing the male part of the song, the music supervisor for the film approached Jennifer Warnes, who had sung the duet “Up Where We Belong” from the An Officer and a Gentleman soundtrack, which had won the 1983 Academy Award for Best Original Song, and sang the song “It Goes Like It Goes” from the Norma Rae soundtrack, which had won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Original Song. Warnes wasn't thrilled with the song, but she would be persuaded to record the song for the right price… and if Bill Medley would sing the other part. Medley, flattered that Warnes asked specifically to record with him, said he would do so, after his daughter was born, and if the song was recorded in his studio in Los Angeles. A few weeks later, Medley and Warnes would have their portion of the song completed in only one hour, including additional harmonies and flourishes decided on after finishing with the main vocals. With all the songs added to the movie, audience test scores improved considerably. RCA Records, who had been contracted to handle the release of the soundtrack, would set a July 17th release date for the album, to coincide with the release of the movie on the same day, with the lead single, I've Had the Time of My Life, released one week earlier. But then, Vestron moved the movie back from July 17th to August 21st… and forgot to tell RCA Records about the move. No big deal. The song would quickly rise up the charts, eventually hitting #1 on the Billboard charts. When the movie finally did open in 975 theatres in August 21st, the film would open to fourth place with $3.9m in ticket sales, behind Can't Buy Me Love in third place and in its second week of release, the Cheech Marin comedy Born in East L.A., which opened in second place, and Stakeout, which was enjoying its third week atop the charts. The reviews were okay, but not special. Gene Siskel would give the film a begrudging Thumbs Up, citing Jennifer Grey's performance and her character's arc as the thing that tipped the scale into the positive, while Roger Ebert would give the film a Thumbs Down, due to its idiot plot and tired and relentlessly predictable story of love between kids from different backgrounds. But then a funny thing happened… Instead of appealing to the teenagers they thought would see the film, the majority of the audience ended up becoming adults. Not just twenty and thirty somethings, but people who were teenagers themselves during the movie's timeframe. They would be drawn in to the film through the newfound sense of boomer nostalgia that helped make Stand By Me an unexpected hit the year before, both as a movie and as a soundtrack. Its second week in theatre would only see the gross drop 6%, and the film would finish in third place. In week three, the four day Labor Day weekend, it would gross nearly $5m, and move up to second place. And it would continue to play and continue to bring audiences in, only dropping out of the top ten once in early November for one weekend, from August to December. Even with all the new movies entering the marketplace for Christmas, Dirty Dancing would be retained by most of the theatres that were playing it. In the first weekend of 1988, Dirty Dancing was still playing in 855 theaters, only 120 fewer than who opened it five months earlier. Once it did started leaving first run theatres, dollar houses were eager to pick it up, and Dirty Dancing would make another $6m in ticket sales as it continued to play until Christmas 1988 at some theatres, finishing its incredible run with $63.5m in ticket sales. Yet, despite its ubiquitousness in American pop culture, despite the soundtrack selling more than ten million copies in its first year, despite the uptick in attendance at dance schools from coast to coast, Dirty Dancing never once was the #1 film in America on any weekend it was in theatres. There would always be at least one other movie that would do just a bit better. When awards season came around, the movie was practically ignored by critics groups. It would pick up an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and both the movie and Jennifer Grey would be nominated for Golden Globes, but it would be that song, I've Had the Time of My Life, that would be the driver for awards love. It would win the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, and a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The song would anchor a soundtrack that would also include two other hit songs, Eric Carmen's “Hungry Eyes,” and “She's Like the Wind,” recorded for the movie by Patrick Swayze, making him the proto-Hugh Jackman of the 80s. I've seen Hugh Jackman do his one-man show at the Hollywood Bowl, and now I'm wishing Patrick Swayze could have had something like that thirty years ago. On September 25th, they would release Abel Ferrera's Neo-noir romantic thriller China Girl. A modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet written by regular Ferrera writer Nicholas St. John, the setting would be New York City's Lower East Side, when Tony, a teenager from Little Italy, falls for Tye, a teenager from Chinatown, as their older brothers vie for turf in a vicious gang war. While the stars of the film, Richard Panebianco and Sari Chang, would never become known actors, the supporting cast is as good as you'd expect from a post-Ms. .45 Ferrera film, including James Russo, Russell Wong, David Caruso and James Hong. The $3.5m movie would open on 110 screens, including 70 in New York ti-state region and 18 in Los Angeles, grossing $531k. After a second weekend, where the gross dropped to $225k, Vestron would stop tracking the film, with a final reported gross of just $1.26m coming from a stockholder's report in early 1988. Ironically, China Girl would open against another movie that Vestron had a hand in financing, but would not release in America: Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride. While the film would do okay in America, grossing $30m against its $15m, it wouldn't translate so easily to foreign markets. Anna, from first time Polish filmmaker Yurek Bogayevicz, was an oddball little film from the start. The story, co-written with the legendary Polish writer/director Agnieszka Holland, was based on the real-life friendship of Polish actresses Joanna (Yo-ahn-nuh) Pacuła (Pa-tsu-wa) and Elżbieta (Elz-be-et-ah) Czyżewska (Chuh-zef-ska), and would find Czech supermodel Paulina Porizkova making her feature acting debut as Krystyna, an aspiring actress from Czechoslovakia who goes to New York City to find her idol, Anna, who had been imprisoned and then deported for speaking out against the new regime after the 1968 Communist invasion. Nearly twenty years later, the middle-aged Anna struggles to land any acting parts, in films, on television, or on the stage, who relishes the attention of this beautiful young waif who reminds her of herself back then. Sally Kirkland, an American actress who got her start as part of Andy Warhol's Factory in the early 60s but could never break out of playing supporting roles in movies like The Way We Were, The Sting, A Star is Born, and Private Benjamin, would be cast as the faded Czech star whose life seemed to unintentionally mirror the actress's. Future Snakes on a Plane director David R. Ellis would be featured in a small supporting role, as would the then sixteen year old Sofia Coppola. The $1m movie would shoot on location in New York City during the winter of late 1986 and early 1987, and would make its world premiere at the 1987 New York Film Festival in September, before opening at the 68th Street Playhouse on the Upper East Side on October 30th. Critics such as Bruce Williamson of Playboy, Molly Haskell of Vogue and Jami Bernard of the New York Post would sing the praises of the movie, and of Paulina Porizkova, but it would be Sally Kirkland whom practically every critic would gush over. “A performance of depth and clarity and power, easily one of the strongest female roles of the year,” wrote Mike McGrady of Newsday. Janet Maslim wasn't as impressed with the film as most critics, but she would note Ms. Kirkland's immensely dignified presence in the title role. New York audiences responded well to the critical acclaim, buying more than $22,000 worth of tickets, often playing to sell out crowds for the afternoon and evening shows. In its second week, the film would see its gross increase 12%, and another 3% increase in its third week. Meanwhile, on November 13th, the film would open in Los Angeles at the AMC Century City 14, where it would bring in an additional $10,000, thanks in part to Sheila Benson's rave in the Los Angeles Times, calling the film “the best kind of surprise — a small, frequently funny, fine-boned film set in the worlds of the theater and movies which unexpectedly becomes a consummate study of love, alienation and loss,” while praising Kirkland's performance as a “blazing comet.” Kirkland would make the rounds on the awards circuit, winning Best Actress awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Golden Globes, and the Independent Spirit Awards, culminating in an Academy Award nomination, although she would lose to Cher in Moonstruck. But despite all these rave reviews and the early support for the film in New York and Los Angeles, the film got little traction outside these two major cities. Despite playing in theatres for nearly six months, Anna could only round up about $1.2m in ticket sales. Vestron's penultimate new film of 1987 would be a movie that when it was shot in Namibia in late 1986 was titled Peacekeeper, then was changed to Desert Warrior when it was acquired by Jerry Weintraub's eponymously named distribution company, then saw it renamed again to Steel Dawn when Vestron overpaid to acquire the film from Weintraub, because they wanted the next film starring Patrick Swayze for themselves. Swayze plays, and stop me if you've heard this one before, a warrior wandering through a post-apocalyptic desert who comes upon a group of settlers who are being menaced by the leader of a murderous gang who's after the water they control. Lisa Niemi, also known as Mrs. Patrick Swayze, would be his romantic interest in the film, which would also star AnthonY Zerbe, Brian James, and, in one of his very first acting roles, future Mummy co-star Arnold Vosloo. The film would open to horrible reviews, and gross just $312k in 290 theatres. For comparison's sake, Dirty Dancing was in its eleventh week of release, was still playing 878 theatres, and would gross $1.7m. In its second week, Steel Dawn had lost nearly two thirds of its theatres, grossing only $60k from 107 theatres. After its third weekend, Vestron stopped reporting grosses. The film had only earned $562k in ticket sales. And their final release for 1987 would be one of the most prestigious titles they'd ever be involved with. The Dead, based on a short story by James Joyce, would be the 37th and final film to be directed by John Huston. His son Tony would adapt the screenplay, while his daughter Anjelica, whom he had directed to a Best Supporting Actress Oscar two years earlier for Prizzi's Honor, would star as the matriarch of an Irish family circa 1904 whose husband discovers memoirs of a deceased lover of his wife's, an affair that preceded their meeting. Originally scheduled to shoot in Dublin, Ireland, The Dead would end up being shot on soundstages in Valencia, CA, just north of Los Angeles, as the eighty year old filmmaker was in ill health. Huston, who was suffering from severe emphysema due to decades of smoking, would use video playback for the first and only time in his career in order to call the action, whirling around from set to set in a motorized wheelchair with an oxygen tank attached to it. In fact, the company insuring the film required the producers to have a backup director on set, just in case Huston was unable to continue to make the film. That stand-in was Czech-born British filmmaker Karel Reisz, who never once had to stand-in during the entire shoot. One Huston who didn't work on the film was Danny Huston, who was supposed to shoot some second unit footage for the film in Dublin for his father, who could not make any trips overseas, as well as a documentary about the making of the film, but for whatever reason, Danny Huston would end up not doing either. John Huston would turn in his final cut of the film to Vestron in July 1987, and would pass away in late August, a good four months before the film's scheduled release. He would live to see some of the best reviews of his entire career when the film was released on December 18th. At six theatres in Los Angeles and New York City, The Dead would earn $69k in its first three days during what was an amazing opening weekend for a number of movies. The Dead would open against exclusive runs of Broadcast News, Ironweed, Moonstruck and the newest Woody Allen film, September, as well as wide releases of Eddie Murphy: Raw, Batteries Not Included, Overboard, and the infamous Bill Cosby stinker Leonard Part 6. The film would win the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Picture of the year, John Huston would win the Spirit Award and the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director, Anjelica Huston would win a Spirit Award as well, for Best Supporting Actress, and Tony Huston would be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. But the little $3.5m film would only see modest returns at the box office, grossing just $4.4m after a four month run in theatres. Vestron would also release two movies in 1987 through their genre Lightning Pictures label. The first, Blood Diner, from writer/director Jackie Kong, was meant to be both a tribute and an indirect sequel to the infamous 1965 Herschell Gordon Lewis movie Blood Feast, often considered to be the first splatter slasher film. Released on four screens in Baltimore on July 10th, the film would gross just $6,400 in its one tracked week. The film would get a second chance at life when it opened at the 8th Street Playhouse in New York City on September 4th, but after a $5,000 opening week gross there, the film would have to wait until it was released on home video to become a cult film. The other Lightning Pictures release for 1987, Street Trash, would become one of the most infamous horror comedy films of the year. An expansion of a short student film by then nineteen year old Jim Muro, Street Trash told the twin stories of a Greenpoint, Brooklyn shop owner who sell a case of cheap, long-expired hooch to local hobos, who hideously melt away shortly after drinking it, while two homeless brothers try to deal with their situation as best they can while all this weirdness is going on about them. After playing several weeks of midnight shows at the Waverly Theatre near Washington Square, Street Trash would open for a regular run at the 8th Street Playhouse on September 18th, one week after Blood Diner left the same theatre. However, Street Trash would not replace Blood Diner, which was kicked to the curb after one week, but another long forgotten movie, the Christopher Walken-starrer Deadline. Street Trash would do a bit better than Blood Diner, $9,000 in its first three days, enough to get the film a full two week run at the Playhouse. But its second week gross of $5,000 would not be enough to give it a longer playdate, or get another New York theatre to pick it up. The film would get other playdates, including one in my secondary hometown of Santa Cruz starting, ironically, on Thanksgiving Day, but the film would barely make $100k in its theatrical run. While this would be the only film Jim Muro would direct, he would become an in demand cinematographer and Steadicam operator, working on such films as Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, Sneakers, L.A. Confidential, the first Fast and Furious movie, and on The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies and Titanic for James Cameron. And should you ever watch the film and sit through the credits, yes, it's that Bryan Singer who worked as a grip and production assistant on the film. It would be his very first film credit, which he worked on during a break from going to USC film school. People who know me know I am not the biggest fan of horror films. I may have mentioned it once or twice on this podcast. But I have a soft spot for Troma Films and Troma-like films, and Street Trash is probably the best Troma movie not made or released by Troma. There's a reason why Lloyd Kaufman is not a fan of the movie. A number of people who have seen the movie think it is a Troma movie, not helped by the fact that a number of people who did work on The Toxic Avenger went to work on Street Trash afterwards, and some even tell Lloyd at conventions that Street Trash is their favorite Troma movie. It's looks like a Troma movie. It feels like a Troma movie. And to be honest, at least to me, that's one hell of a compliment. It's one of the reasons I even went to see Street Trash, the favorable comparison to Troma. And while I, for lack of a better word, enjoyed Street Trash when I saw it, as much as one can say they enjoyed a movie where a bunch of bums playing hot potato with a man's severed Johnson is a major set piece, but I've never really felt the need to watch it again over the past thirty-five years. Like several of the movies on this episode, Street Trash is not available for streaming on any service in the United States. And outside of Dirty Dancing, the ones you can stream, China Girl, Personal Services, Slaughter High and Steel Dawn, are mostly available for free with ads on Tubi, which made a huge splash last week with a confounding Super Bowl commercial that sent millions of people to figure what a Tubi was. Now, if you were counting, that was only nine films released in 1987, and not the eighteen they had promised at the start of the year. Despite the fact they had a smash hit in Dirty Dancing, they decided to push most of their planned 1987 movies to 1988. Not necessarily by choice, though. Many of the films just weren't ready in time for a 1987 release, and then the unexpected long term success of Dirty Dancing kept them occupied for most of the rest of the year. But that only meant that 1988 would be a stellar year for them, right? We'll find out next episode, when we continue the Vestron Pictures story. Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again next week. Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode. The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment. Thank you again. Good night.

united states christmas america tv american new york director time california world new york city australia babies hollywood earth los angeles england woman law dreams super bowl star wars british san francisco canadian ms australian north carolina ireland detroit jewish hbo irish greek dead field academy grammy hotels epic wind broadway hong kong baltimore tribute bond cinema michael jackson mtv titanic academy awards released wolves pope emmy awards dublin labor day pbs hammer usc golden globes bronx aussie plane terminator pictures officer thriller swiss sting vogue deadline polish factory billboard vhs april fools top gun outsiders blockbuster variety critics fast and furious lp graduate playboy bill cosby mummy james cameron toro mad max time magazine gentleman communists jacques santa cruz los angeles times long beach sneakers thanksgiving day best picture abyss hugh jackman my life orion python neo boy scouts new york post chinatown karate kid tron monty python warner brothers lenny woody allen czech mgm blu andy warhol duo gothic blow out princess bride day off dressed alpine jackie chan namibia surrey gilmore girls czy confidential dances christopher walken tony award val kilmer dirty dancing april fools day tubi ordinary people oates vocals kirkland patrick swayze ferris bueller risky business paul newman george miller playhouse changelings medley james joyce christopher lee brian de palma roger corman best actress best director roger ebert magnificent seven jerry maguire creepshow paramount pictures sofia coppola newsday american werewolf in london donna summer gene wilder screenplay greenwich village trading places true lies overboard czechoslovakia catskills gottlieb hollywood bowl lower east side stand by me terrace rodney dangerfield french connection john landis thumbs up road warrior toxic avenger xanadu troma pretty in pink red dawn gene kelly bryan singer huston upper east side billy zane nick nolte elephant man easy money amc theaters little italy mike nichols swayze moonstruck john huston flashdance william hurt timothy dalton vesta kirkwood peter cushing ed asner best supporting actress walter hill bus stop national society peacekeepers terry jones george c scott jack lemmon daryl hall chorus line cannonball run columbia pictures weintraub chud peter fonda tye ken russell thumbs down greenpoint rebel without independent spirit awards aptos rip torn lloyd kaufman james hong last waltz anjelica huston cheech marin rca records best original song best adapted screenplay jennifer grey living daylights broadcast news buy me love stakeout endless love time life kellerman catskill mountains righteous brothers new york film festival batteries not included spirit award street trash kenny ortega jacques tati jennifer beals movies podcast best documentary feature east l blood feast man who fell ferrera agnieszka holland washington square powers boothe david caruso eric carmen turman way we were blood diner bill medley my turn hungry eyes gene siskel danny huston steadicam furst kim carnes brian james houseman arnold vosloo jerry orbach anjelica norma rae paulina porizkova herschell gordon lewis slaughter high under fire orion pictures jennifer warnes elz julie walters joe esposito hollywood video joffrey ballet red fern grows karl malden pacu previte golden harvest caroline munro extreme prejudice china girl gorky park fort apache private benjamin neo western leonard part warnes johnny castle emile ardolino kelly bishop sally kirkland bergstein lionsgate films troma films jackie kong emily gilmore steel dawn james russo up where we belong entertainment capital vestron best first feature prizzi sea cliff jerry weintraub ironweed dohlen david r ellis los angeles film critics association molly haskell best supporting actress oscar aaron russo i've had benecio karel reisz best foreign language film oscar street playhouse amc century city

Interview With "Murina" Director/Writer, Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović

Next Best Picture Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 9, 2023 27:31

Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović's feature directorial debut "Murina" had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Caméra d'Or award for the best first-time feature of the festival. It then went on to play at other film festivals before getting released theatrically by Kino Lorber in the summer of 2022, and now, it finds itself nominated for three Film Independent Spirit Awards, including Best First Feature, Best Cinematography, and Best Breakthrough Performance for its lead star Gracija Filipović. Director and co-writer Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović was kind enough to spend some time talking with us about her work on the film, which can be listened to down below. Please take a listen and enjoy. Thank you! Check out more on NextBestPicture.com Please subscribe on... SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/nextbestpicturepodcast iTunes Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT And be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month at https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture

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Tonya Pinkins - Interview 3-18-2022

The Locher Room

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 20, 2023 62:33

Award-winning actress Tonya Pinkins will join me live for an interview in The Locher Room. Tonya's recent role as Alma Carthan in ABC's Women of The Movement has been touted as Emmy worthy. Her award-winning debut feature film Red Pill, which she wrote, directed and starred in, was an official selection at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival and won the Best Black Lives Matter Feature and Best First Feature at The Mykonos International Film Festival, Best First Feature at the Luléa Film Festival. Her web-series The Red Pilling of America can be heard on her podcast "You Can't Say That!" at BPN.fm/ycst. Red Pill is currently available on Amazon, Fandango, Vudu, DirectTV, etc. The audiobook on the making of the Red Pill called Red Pill Unmasked is also available along with the narrative game will be available soon at redpillmovie.com.Tonya is known to Daytime television audiences for her role as Heather Dalton on As the World Turns and for her portrayal of Livia Frye on the All My Children. She is also known for her numerous Broadway roles as Sweet Anita in Jelly's Last Jam for which she won the Tony Award. She was also nominated for her roles in Play On! and in Caroline, or Change, where she played the title role. Her additional Broadway credits include Merrily We Roll Along, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The Wild Party, House of Flowers, Radio Golf, A Time To Kill, and Holler If Ya Hear Me.Original Airdate: 3/18/2022

IFH 649: First-Time Filmmaking, Oscars & Netflix with Scott Copper

Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast with Alex Ferrari

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2023 66:17

Scott Copper (Director, Screenwriter, Producer) made his feature film directorial debut in 2009 with Fox Searchlight's Oscar-winning CRAZY HEART, which he also wrote and produced. The film, which starred Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall, earned three Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Actor (Bridges) and Best Original Song (T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham). Cooper won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature and earned WGA, USC Scripter and Independent Spirit Award nominations, for his screenplay.Cooper's follow-up was the Leonardo DiCaprio/Ridley Scott-produced OUT OF THE FURNACE, starring Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Zoë Saldana, Forest Whitaker and Sam Shepard. For his work as writer, director and producer, Cooper won the Best Debut and Second Film Award at the 2013 Rome Film Festival, where he was also nominated for a Golden Marc'Aurelio Award. Next was Cooper's 2015 Warner Bros. gangster film BLACK MASS, which Cooper both directed and produced and which made its worldwide debut at the Venice International Film Festival.The box-office hit garnered wins from critics associations across the country, and earned lead actor Johnny Depp the Desert Palm Achievement Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, as well as a Best Actor nomination from the Screen Actors Guild. In 2017, Cooper's western epic HOSTILES debuted at both the Telluride Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festivals, earning widespread critical acclaim. The film reunited Cooper with his OUT OF THE FURNACE star Christian Bale and featured performances from Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Jesse Plemons, Rory Cochrane and Ben Foster. Cooper followed this up with ANTLERS, an exploration of yet another genre in the Guillermo Del Toro-produced horror film. Searchlight released the film to acclaim in October 2021.Most recently, Cooper re-teamed for the third time with Bale on THE PALE BLUE EYE, an adaptation of Louis Bayard's novel of the same name. The film tells the story of a series of murders at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1830 and a cadet the world would later come to know as Edgar Allan Poe. Robert Duvall, Gillian Anderson, Timothy Spall, Toby Jones and Harry Melling round out the cast. The Netflix film will debut in Fall of 2022. Born in Virginia, Cooper now resides in Los Angeles.Please enjoy my conversation with Scott Copper.

BPS 261: How To Shoot In An Impossible Location With Peter Bishai

Bulletproof Screenplay® Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 23, 2022 70:38

What if you were given permission to shoot most of your film in one of the busiest and iconic streets in the world, Times Square. Well, today's guest did just that. He shot most of his new film Rapid Eye Movement.In the heart of Times Square, radio DJ Rick Weider is driven to the edge of insanity as he tries to break the 11-day world record for staying awake, under the threat of a deranged caller who will kill him if he fails. In his quest to stay awake, he endures a harrowing physical, mental and emotional ordeal while summoning the will to survive against all the odds.Rapid Eye Movement was given unprecedented access to Times Square by New York City to shoot the majority of the film right in the heart of the “crossroads of the world”. This included closing a lane of traffic for several weeks to accommodate the placement of the main set – Rick Weider's mobile radio broadcast booth where he takes on the 11-day struggle to stay awake. No film has ever had this extensive shoot in Times Square.The mandate of the film was to create absolute authenticity. A custom-made soundproof windowed booth was built to allow live audio recording, eliminating the need for ADR. Literally thousands of “extras” were always on hand to give the film scope and realism. The majority of the film was shot using an ultra-fast 18mm Zeiss lens, creating a much bigger visual space within the confined setting. No green screens were used for any of the Times Square scenes. It is a true New York film.Canadian-born actor François Arnaud takes the lead role of radio DJ Rick Weider. He embraced the challenge of shooting on location in Times Square, having to undergo a difficult emotional journey in the middle of the intensity of New York's famous landmark area. We always strove to be authentic and nothing is more real than portraying mental and physical torment in the midst of thousands of real people, the cacophony of the city and the dazzling neon lights all around.With the cooperation of New York City's Mayor's Office, The Times Square Alliance, a band of determined filmmakers, an exceptional cast and the enthusiasm of thousands of passersby who clamored to appear in the film, Rapid Eye Movement has become a unique and thrilling movie experience about pushing the limits of human endurance.Peter Bishai wrote and directed the epic true-life saga Colors of Heaven (aka A Million Colours). It is the winner of two South African Academy Awards, Best Foreign Film at the WorldFest Houston Film Festival and was the Opening Night Gala film at the Hollywood Black Film Festival. He also directed the comedy-adventure The Dueling Accountant, which won Best Comedy Film at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival and Best First Feature at the Long Island International Film Expo.It is profiled in the book Fervid Filmmaking: 66 Cult Pictures of Vision, Verve and No Self-Restraint. His newest film is the psychological thriller Rapid Eye Movement. He lives in New York City.

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Colby Minifie From The Movie Homebody

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2022 17:22

Cinedigm will release celebrated writer-director Joseph Sackett's feature film debut, the body-transfer fantasy-comedy ,i>Homebody, on digital and Fandor exclusive on December 6th.In an award winning role, Colby Minifie (The Boys) stars as Melanie, in this lighthearted, body transfer comedy, expanded from Joseph Sackett's 2018 short I Was in Your Blood. Young Johnny, played beautifully by young actor Tre Ryder (The Magnificent Meyersons), discovers a YouTube video that teaches him how to send his spirit out of his body and into his beloved babysitter Melanie. The pressures of pretending to be someone else can stack up fast! in her body Johnny can see through her eyes and operate her from the inside out. Johnny-as-Melanie plays dress-up, buys obscene amounts of candy, and has awkward run-ins with her friends, clients and partners.Homebody is the directorial feature debut for Sackett, one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film," whose shorts have screened in competition from Slamdance to Cannes. Premiering at Outfest, where it won the Emerging Talent Award, it has screened at many other festivals including Cleveland International, Milwaukee, New Hampshire, and won Best First Feature at Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Toronto.

movies milwaukee new hampshire cannes new faces independent films premiering sackett homebody slamdance outfest filmmaker magazine fandor your blood best first feature colby minifie

Colby Minifie From The Movie Homebody

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2022 17:22

Cinedigm will release celebrated writer-director Joseph Sackett's feature film debut, the body-transfer fantasy-comedy ,i>Homebody, on digital and Fandor exclusive on December 6th.In an award winning role, Colby Minifie (The Boys) stars as Melanie, in this lighthearted, body transfer comedy, expanded from Joseph Sackett's 2018 short I Was in Your Blood. Young Johnny, played beautifully by young actor Tre Ryder (The Magnificent Meyersons), discovers a YouTube video that teaches him how to send his spirit out of his body and into his beloved babysitter Melanie. The pressures of pretending to be someone else can stack up fast! in her body Johnny can see through her eyes and operate her from the inside out. Johnny-as-Melanie plays dress-up, buys obscene amounts of candy, and has awkward run-ins with her friends, clients and partners.Homebody is the directorial feature debut for Sackett, one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film," whose shorts have screened in competition from Slamdance to Cannes. Premiering at Outfest, where it won the Emerging Talent Award, it has screened at many other festivals including Cleveland International, Milwaukee, New Hampshire, and won Best First Feature at Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Toronto.

movies milwaukee new hampshire cannes new faces independent films premiering sackett homebody slamdance outfest filmmaker magazine fandor your blood best first feature colby minifie

Colby Minifie From The Movie Homebody

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2022 17:22

Cinedigm will release celebrated writer-director Joseph Sackett's feature film debut, the body-transfer fantasy-comedy ,i>Homebody, on digital and Fandor exclusive on December 6th.In an award winning role, Colby Minifie (The Boys) stars as Melanie, in this lighthearted, body transfer comedy, expanded from Joseph Sackett's 2018 short I Was in Your Blood. Young Johnny, played beautifully by young actor Tre Ryder (The Magnificent Meyersons), discovers a YouTube video that teaches him how to send his spirit out of his body and into his beloved babysitter Melanie. The pressures of pretending to be someone else can stack up fast! in her body Johnny can see through her eyes and operate her from the inside out. Johnny-as-Melanie plays dress-up, buys obscene amounts of candy, and has awkward run-ins with her friends, clients and partners.Homebody is the directorial feature debut for Sackett, one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film," whose shorts have screened in competition from Slamdance to Cannes. Premiering at Outfest, where it won the Emerging Talent Award, it has screened at many other festivals including Cleveland International, Milwaukee, New Hampshire, and won Best First Feature at Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Toronto.

movies milwaukee new hampshire cannes new faces independent films premiering sackett homebody slamdance outfest filmmaker magazine fandor your blood best first feature colby minifie

Colby Minifie From The Movie Homebody

TheMummichogBlog - Malta In Italiano

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2022 17:22

Cinedigm will release celebrated writer-director Joseph Sackett's feature film debut, the body-transfer fantasy-comedy ,i>Homebody, on digital and Fandor exclusive on December 6th.In an award winning role, Colby Minifie (The Boys) stars as Melanie, in this lighthearted, body transfer comedy, expanded from Joseph Sackett's 2018 short I Was in Your Blood. Young Johnny, played beautifully by young actor Tre Ryder (The Magnificent Meyersons), discovers a YouTube video that teaches him how to send his spirit out of his body and into his beloved babysitter Melanie. The pressures of pretending to be someone else can stack up fast! in her body Johnny can see through her eyes and operate her from the inside out. Johnny-as-Melanie plays dress-up, buys obscene amounts of candy, and has awkward run-ins with her friends, clients and partners.Homebody is the directorial feature debut for Sackett, one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film," whose shorts have screened in competition from Slamdance to Cannes. Premiering at Outfest, where it won the Emerging Talent Award, it has screened at many other festivals including Cleveland International, Milwaukee, New Hampshire, and won Best First Feature at Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Toronto.

movies milwaukee new hampshire cannes new faces independent films premiering sackett homebody slamdance outfest filmmaker magazine fandor your blood best first feature colby minifie

"‘Alcarràs' Director Carla Simón On Harvesting Peaches, Learning From Each Film Carla Simón's first feature “Summer 1993” was a knockout; a Generation Kplus and Best First Feature award winner at

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2022 7:36

"‘Alcarràs' Director Carla Simón On Harvesting Peaches, Learning From Each Film Carla Simón's first feature “Summer 1993” was a knockout; a Generation Kplus and Best First Feature award winner at the 2017 Berlinale and Spain's 2018 Oscars submission, winning three Spanish Academy Goya Awards. The di" "--START AD- #TheMummichogblogOfMalta Amazon Top and Flash Deals(Affiliate Link - You will support our translations if you purchase through the following link) - https://amzn.to/3CqsdJH Compare all the top travel sites in just one search to find the best hotel deals at HotelsCombined - awarded world's best hotel price comparison site. (Affiliate Link - You will support our translations if you purchase through the following link) - https://www.hotelscombined.com/?a_aid=20558 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."" #Jesus #Catholic. END AD---" "rector has since become a reference within a new wave of Catalan women filmmakers that have broken out to considerable box office and festival success. Now, Simón competes in Berlin's main competition with her sophomore effort “Alcarràs,” exploring her own roots through her adoptive mother's family. Set in the so-called Catalan Far West, in a small village near Lleida, the film is shot entirely using non-professional actors. “Alcarràs” tells the story of a family who make their living harvesting peaches and are forced to abandon the lands they have been taking care of for sixty years under a perpetual verbal agreement with the landowner. After the landowner's death, his heirs no longer recognize the agreement and want to change the situation. “Alcarràs” is sold by MK2 and produced by Elástica Films, Avalon, Vilaüt Films and Kino Produzioni. How is “Alcarràs” a follow-up of “Summer 1993,” and a step forward in your career? The continuity is in the tone, in looking for a special realism in the actors, in this case non-actors, with the aim to keep them all “alive.” However, “Alcarràs” needed much more structure, especially for the work on the point of view. Whereas in “Summer 1993” we just followed the protagonist continuously, here we have twelve separate characters. As far as camera planning, “Alcarràs” required a very different effort. Beyond the tone and structure, can you talk about the visual proposal of the film's rural environment? For me, the camera must tell the story for the characters; love them, caress them without the viewer perceiving other stylistic details. In the end, the visual proposal has its own poetry, but it's deeply rooted in the land, which is what the film is about. Where do I put the camera? For me it should go where the character and their emotions dictate. This has been my philosophy, although I realize that I like long shots, because it keeps the feeling of being with the characters. In times of gentrification, you tackle a family's attachment to the land… Agriculture is the theme of the film and was a key reason for me to make the film. My uncles grow peaches in Alcarràs and, like them, there are many other people who are really screwed, because it is very difficult to engage in family farming at present. I would certainly like to raise awareness about this. The severe changes that are being suffered and why this type of agriculture is not protected. Ultimately, it is this form of agriculture that is most respectful to the earth. In a rural environment and being a film with so many characters, the work with sound must have been another decisive element… When you're working with many people, a lot of things happen at once and the cinema becomes two-dimensional. You can play with perspective, but what really gives you the feeling that there's a lot going on at the same time is the sound, and we worked on this thoroughly. “Summer 1993” was remarkable for the performances of its non-pro actors. Did you change your directing methods in “Alcarràs”? It was a similar process but m

IFH Film Production Archive: How to Shoot in an Impossible Location with Peter Bishai

Indie Film HustleÂ® Podcast Archives: Film Production

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2022 70:22

What if you were given permission to shoot most of your film in one of the busiest and iconic streets in the world, Times Square. Well, today's guest did just that. He shot most of his new film Rapid Eye Movement.Peter Bishai wrote and directed the epic true-life saga Colors of Heaven (aka A Million Colours). It is the winner of two South African Academy Awards, Best Foreign Film at the WorldFest Houston Film Festival and was the Opening Night Gala film at the Hollywood Black Film Festival. He also directed the comedy-adventure The Dueling Accountant, which won Best Comedy Film at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival and Best First Feature at the Long Island International Film Expo.It is profiled in the book Fervid Filmmaking: 66 Cult Pictures of Vision, Verve and No Self-Restraint. His newest film is the psychological thriller Rapid Eye Movement. He lives in New York City.

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‘Africa and I' wins Best First Feature Documentary at PAFF.

The Best of Weekend Breakfast

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2022 14:24

Gugu Mhlungu speak to Film maker & Adventurer, Othmane Zolati on his documentary “Africa and I”, which won the Best First Feature Documentary at the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) in the US recently and follows the journey of adventurer Othmane Zolati as he makes his way through 24 countries over 30 000km. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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#395 - Camilo Restrepo on Los conductos

Film at Lincoln Center Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2022 32:15

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we're featuring a Q&A from the 49th New Directors/New Films, with Los conductos director Camilo Restrepo and FLC's Director of Programming Dennis Lim. A former criminal and cult member living under cloak of night in the crevices and corners of the Colombian city of Medellín makes his way back into civilization, yet is gripped by a shadowy past, in this fragmented first feature from Camilo Restrepo. After his memorable shorts Cilaos and La bouche, the director proves his mastery at economical yet expansive storytelling here, taking a complex narrative about the possibility of regeneration within a society all too willing to discard its outcasts and boiling it down to a series of precise shots, sounds, and gestures of off-handed beauty. Winner of the Best First Feature prize at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival and a New Directors/New Films 2020 selection, Los conductos opens exclusively in our theaters this Friday, with live Q&As with the director and cast during the opening weekend. For showtimes and tickets go to filmlinc.org/conductos.

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Tonya Pinkins

Real Conversations with Jacob Young

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2022 38:02

This week Jacob sits down with Tony Award Winner Tonya Pinkins. Tonya Pinkins is an American actress and filmmaker. Her award-winning debut feature film RED PILL was an official selection at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival, won the Best Black Lives Matter Feature and Best First Feature at The Mykonos International Film Festival, Best First Feature at the Luléa Film Festival, and is nominated for awards in numerous festivals around the globe. Her web-series The RED PILLING of AMERICA can be heard on her podcast "You Can't Say That!" at BPN.fm/ycst She is known for her portrayal of Livia Frye on the soap opera All My Children and for her roles on Broadway. She has been nominated for three Tony Awards (winning one), and has won Obie, Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, AUDLECO, Garland, L.A. Drama Critics Circle, Clarence Derwent, and NAACP Theater Awards. She has been nominated for the Olivier, Helen Hayes, Noel, Joseph Jefferson, NAACP Image, Soap Opera Digest, and Ovation Awards. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Jelly's Last Jam. Real Conversations with Jacob Young is brought to you by Boys Town. FOLLOW JACOB: Instagram Facebook Twitter

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7 Days / Film School Radio interview with Director Roshan Sethi

director indian optimistic ravi 7days film schools sethi soni roshan viswanathan school radio best first feature

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2022

7 DAYS jumps into the world of arranged marriages through a pre-arranged date set-up by their old-fashioned Indian parents, Ravi (Karan Soni) and Rita (Geraldine Viswanathan). With apparently nothing in common, their afternoon date, while pleasant enough, couldn't be any more awkward. Ravi's conservative and clearly nervous, while Rita's doing her best to politely keep on smiling. But then circumstances conspire and force Ravi to spend the night at Rita's place. Before long, he sees that she's not the straight-laced girl she initially pretended to be—for starters, she's quick to pound a beer for breakfast. As their time stuck together stretches towards a full week, though, Ravi and Rita develop an unlikely bond, and in the face of a heartbreaking turn of events, that bond grows into something stronger. 7 DAYS is a delightful rom-com that doubles as a showcase for its two stars, Soni and Viswanathan, both of whom carry the film with their natural charm and easygoing chemistry, and a culturally specific spin on its genre's familiar tropes. Optimistic and full of heart, director/co-writer Roshan Sethi's debut captures love in the time of isolation and will leave you on a feel-good high. Official Selection: BFI London, Tribeca Film Festival 2021 Independent Spirit Award Winner for Best First Feature

Art of the Cut, Ep. 154: "After Yang" Director/Editor, Kogonada

Art of the Cut

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2022 36:23

Art of the Cut rarely gets a chance to speak with the directors about the intent of their work as it applies to their editors. In this enlightening discussion, we get to hear from director/editor Kogonada about his work on the film After Yang. Kogonada was nominated for the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and received Independent Spirit nominations for Best First Feature and Best First Script for his film Columbus (2017). He is a South Korean-born American filmmaker who started by creating innovative video essays about cinema. Thanks to Frame.io for their support of Art of the Cut and their pledge to keep this content coming your way. Click here to read this interview along with extra content at blog.frame.io, where you'll also find expert guides, tutorials, and insights from veteran filmmakers across the film and TV industry.

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IFH 554: From Short Films to Narcos with Josef Kubota Wladyka

Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast with Alex Ferrari

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 8, 2022 75:41

Today on the show we have writer, producer, and director Josef Kubota Wladyka.Josef Kubota Wladyka's debut feature film, Manos Sucias, won Best New Narrative Director at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards, Best First Feature and Best Editing.[presto_player id=104851]Josef has also directed episodes of the acclaimed television shows, Narcos, Fear the Walking Dead, and The Terror. Residing in Brooklyn, New York, Josef holds an MFA from New York University's Graduate Film Program and was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film. He remains committed to making socially conscious genre films.[presto_player id=104843]Kaylee “K.O.” Uppashaw, a mixed Indigenous boxer, prepares for a championship fight. Her hands are wrapped, gloves taped shut, and face greased. She pounds the mitts with her trainer, Brick. The room echoes with the strength of each hit. She's preparing for the boxing match of her life. The crowd roars in the distance as the sounds crescendo into a fever pitch— Kaylee wakes up in a women's shelter from a wishful dream of a life she once had.This is her reality. A boxer struggling to pick up the pieces of her life. After her shift working at a diner, Brick drives her to a clandestine rendezvous. They meet a P.I. who presents evidence that Weeta, Kaylee's younger sister who disappeared two years ago, is possibly alive and circulating in a trafficking network.He tells her a time and place to plug herself into this dangerous world in hopes of finding her sister. Kaylee agrees and sets off on a dark and treacherous journey. Her strength and determination are tested as Kaylee fights the real fight of her life—to find Weeta and make her family whole again.Enjoy my conversation with Josef Kubota Wladyka.

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S1E36 - When You Were Young: pivoting with Bobby Miller

Textual Healing

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2022 52:37

Bobby Miller is a writer + filmmaker known for making genre-bending comedies. His short film TUB and feature debut THE CLEANSE add horror and fantasy to the mix. The films' world premiered at Sundance and SXSW and have screened at film festivals worldwide. THE CLEANSE was released in theaters by Sony Pictures in 2018 and made RottenTomatoes Top 10 Best-reviewed horror films of 2018 list. It also earned several Fangoria award nominations including “Best First Feature”. He followed it up with directing, and executive-producing CRITTERS ATTACK, a reboot of the cult horror/comedy franchise, for Warner Brothers Home Video & SY FY in 2019. Shortly before that, he wrote/directed the comedy short film: END TIMES, which played Fantastic Fest, Fantasia, and film festivals worldwide, winning several awards and premiering online as a Vimeo Staff Pick. He's also written for animated television shows such as SUMMER CAMP ISLAND for Cartoon Network and STAR VS THE FORCES OF EVIL for Disney TV. Outside of his Film/TV work, he's been a digital comedy producer for places like BuzzFeed, SuperDeluxe, MTV, SoulPancake, and Google. He's currently writing his first novel.

Interview With "Jockey" Star, Clifton Collins Jr.

Next Best Picture Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 29, 2021 12:50

"Jockey" premiered nearly a year ago at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and gave character actor Clifton Collins Jr. a leading showcase role worthy of his talents. The directorial debut from Clint Bentley tells the story of an aging jockey who is aiming for one final shot at glory while balancing his personal life. The film is now playing in limited release and has been nominated for three Film Independent Spirit Awards, including Best First Feature and Best Actor for Collins Jr. Clifton was kind enough to sit down with us to talk about his work on the film (which he also shares credit as a producer) which you can listen to down below. Be sure to check out the film as it expands to your area and enjoy! Check out more on NextBestPicture.com Please subscribe on... SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/nextbestpicturepodcast iTunes Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT And be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month at https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture

soundcloud sundance film festival clifton best actor jockey clifton collins jr film independent spirit awards best first feature nextbestpicture

BEHIND THE LENS #336: Featuring Josh Tessier

Behind The Lens

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2021 88:52

It's a full house and a mixed bag this week on BEHIND THE LENS thanks to our returning special guest JOSH TESSIER talking OVERRUN, plus our exclusive prerecorded interviews with writer/director FRAN KRANZ talking MASS, and the amazing cast of MIXTAPE – GEMMA BROOKE ALLEN, AUDREY HSIEH, and OLGA PETSA. First up, take a listen to the freshest, most effervescent, and most fun trio of actors from the new Netflix hit, MIXTAPE – GEMMA BROOKE ALLEN, AUDREY HSIEH, and OLGA PETSA. Set on the eve of Y2K, this is the story of 12-year-old Beverly who, together with her new BFF's Nicky and Ellen, sets out on a journey to find songs on a mixtape crafted by her late parents. (And folks – the soundtrack is amazing!) With none of the girls even born when this film takes place, you can really hear their amazement and joy at experiencing the hair, the clothes, and the music of the era. But most important is their very evident friendship to come from MIXTAPE. Plus, you'll hear our exclusive interview with writer/director FRAN KRANZ talking about his feature directorial debut, the powerful and compelling MASS. Picking up four HCA Film Awards nominations this week (Best First Feature, Best Indie, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Jason Isaacs), MASS is the story of the aftermath of a violent tragedy that affects the lives of two couples in very different ways and stars Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, and Reed Birney. Listen as Fran delves into, among others, the writing process and the intentional visual grammar of the film as well as conscious design to hone in on sound design with the absence of a score, extended periods of silence, and the use of calibrated distant ambiance as an auditory backdrop. Then returning to #BTLRadioShow is the wonderful writer/director JOSH TESSIER who is back talking about his latest film OVERRUN. Now available on DVD/Blu-ray just in time for holiday gift-giving, stuntman-turned-director Josh talks about this tale of hard-core mafioso battles with Russians, Italians, good cops, bad cops, and an informant caught in the middle and bringing it all to life with this feature directorial debut. http://eliasentertainmentnetwork.com

From Acting to Directing with Tonya Pinkins

The Film Hacks

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2021 44:20

Chris and James sit down with filmmaker Tonya Pinkins! About Tonya Tonya Pinkins is an American actress and filmmaker. Her award-winning debut feature film RED PILL was an official selection at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival, won the Best Black Lives Matter Feature and Best First Feature at The Mykonos International Film Festival, Best First Feature at the Luléa Film Festival, and is nominated for awards in numerous festivals around the globe. Her web-series The RED PILLING of AMERICA can be heard on her podcast "You Can't Say That!" at BPN.fm/ycst

america american acting film festival red pill lul bpn pan african film festival tonya pinkins best first feature

Writer and Director Jacob Chase Writer of Come Play for Amblin Entertainment!

Backstage Pass with Justin and Adam

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2021 70:16

Adam got to reminisce about childhood times with Jacob and they share some amazing stories. It's always a good time when we both get to meet and chat with interesting people. This is Jacob's bio which I borrowed from Jacobs website. Bio "Jacob wrote and directed Come Play for Amblin and Focus Features, based on his short film Larry. It was released Halloween 2020, coming in number one at the box office. He next directed four episodes of The Girl in the Woods for Peacock, which will be streaming Halloween 2021. Jacob sold his untitled Supernatural Spec to Paramount with The Picture Company producing and sold his spec Infinite to Sony Pictures with Original Film producing. Those scripts landed on the 2018 and 2019 Hit List for the best specs of the year. Previously, Jacob sold his musical TV show Harmony to ABC with Mandeville and ABC Studios producing. He is an alum of the 2017 Sundance Episodic Lab and was listed as one of "Hollywood's Top 100 New Writers" on the 2017 Young & Hungry List. Additionally, he has written screenplays for New Line, Amazon, The Jim Henson Company, Cirque du Soleil, among others. He won the 2016 Crash the Super Bowl contest with his commercial Doritos Dogs, which aired during the Super Bowl and earned him an exclusive directing mentorship under Zack Snyder on the set of Justice League. Jacob directed the feature film The Four-Faced Liar which premiered at Slamdance and won the HBO Audience Award for “Best First Feature” at Outfest. Jacob has directed commercials and branded content for Sony, Pandora, and Beats by Dre." Thank you always to our excellent sponsors for making us the only podcast with swag bags that contain candy and cufflinks! Ms.Merita's Hard Candy Slides for the amazing candies! and Masonic Tartan Aprons for the handmade cufflinks! #anchor #podcast #spotify #love #host #sea #emcee #sailor #instagood #ship #actor #instagram #maritime #model #news #applepodcasts #fashion #india #googlepodcasts #photography #merchantnavy #event #nautical #youtube #actress #anchors #seaman #lifeatsea #handmade #bhfyp --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/backstagepass2021/message

Beans, Bridges & Oka

Face2Face with David Peck

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 30, 2021 38:52

Tracey Deer and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new film Beans, bridges under construction, storytelling and changing the world, persistence, forgiveness, how anger can guide us for good, listening well and why trauma doesn't need to define us.TrailerFind out more about the film here and Tracey here.Synopsis:Beans is a coming-of-age story, inspired by co-writer/director Tracey Deer's own experience as a 12-year-old Mohawk girl who had to grow up fast during the 1990 Oka Crisis, a 78-day armed stand-off between the Quebec/Canadian governments and the Mohawk who were peacefully protesting a golf course expansion that would desecrate their burial ground.Since debuting at TIFF 2020, the film has reaped many accolades – among them, Berlin's Generation Kplus Crystal Bear for best film, two CSAs (Best Motion Picture and Best First Feature), TIFF Emerging Talent Award (Deer), TIFF Rising Stars (actor Rainbow Dickerson), TIFF's Canada Top Ten, VIFF's Best Canadian Film, VFCC's One to Watch (actor Kiawentiio), DGC Discovery Award, and WGC Screenwriting Award for feature film.Beans (Kiawentiio) lives with her caring parents (Rainbow Dickerson and Joel Montgrand) and her little sister (Violah Beauvais) on the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawà:ke, Quebec, where the two girls happily play in the woods. Unprepared for the racism and violence that the Oka Crisis brings, Beans decides to transform into her own kind of warrior. “I was Beans,” says Deer. Using 200 local extras and partially shot in Kahnawà:ke (where Deer grew up) and nearby Kanesatake (where the protest began), the film is a Canadian production. Its female crew includes Deer, producer Anne-Marie Gélinas, executive producers Justine Whyte and Meredith Vuchnich (also co-writer), cinematographer Marie Davignon and editor Sophie Farkas-Bolla. Note: At age 13, Kiawentiio composed and performed the song for the end credits.About Tracey:Filmmaker Tracey Deer is a Mohawk filmmaker with multiple credits to her name, as a producer, writer and director. She currently resides in Kahnawake, her home reserve in Quebec.Deer began her professional career with CanWest Broadcasting in Montreal, and later joined Rezolution Pictures to co-direct One More River: The Deal that Split the Cree, with Neil Diamond (Cree), which won the Best Documentary Award at the 2005 Rendez-vous du cinema québécois in Montreal and was nominated for Best Social/Political Documentary at the Geminis.Deer formed Mohawk Princess Pictures in 2006, which produced her first short fiction called Escape Hatch, a dramedy about the romantic misadventures of a Mohawk woman on her quest for love. She also wrote, directed and filmed Mohawk Girls, about the lives of three teenagers, and herself as a teen, growing up in Kahnawake, which won the Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award at the 2005 imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival.Currently, she has multiple projects in development, including a 3D feature documentary and a fiction feature screenplay.Tracey received a B.A. in film studies from Dartmouth College in 2000, graduating with two awards for excellence. In 2009, she shared the Don Haig Award with colleague Brett Gaylor for overall career achievement as an emerging filmmaker. In 2008, Playback Magazine declared her one of the 25 rising stars in the Canadian entertainment industry. She is also a member of The Writer's Guild of Canada."Tracey represents the next wave of native filmmaking," says Adam Symansky, NFB producer of Mohawk Girl and Club Native. "It isn't based on the past so much ason native communities taking responsibility and control of their future. That is the challenge she is putting out in her films."Image Copyright and Credit: Tracey Deer and EMA Films.F2F Music and Image Copyright: David Peck and Face2Face. Used with permission.For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.With thanks to Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

canada canadian writer berlin 3d montreal split bridges quebec deer beans guild cree rendez dartmouth college mohawk unprepared geminis nfb kahnawake escape hatch face2face oka crisis viff best first feature kanesatake kiawentiio brett gaylor

Meg LeFauve & Lorien McKenna: Brave Enough To Be Joyful

STOPTIME: Live in the Moment.

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2021 38:47 Transcription Available

Join Lisa for this "animated" conversation with Hollywood screenwriting mavens Meg LeFauve & Lorien McKenna.Meg LeFauve was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar for the Pixar blockbuster INSIDE OUT, she won an Annie Award for that screenplay. Meg also wrote Pixar's Golden Globe nominated THE GOOD DINOSAUR. She also wrote on Marvel's box office hit, CAPTAIN MARVEL. LeFauve is currently has a series in development for a major studio, as well as a film in production at Netflix- the animated film MY FATHER'S DRAGON. LeFauve began her film career as a producer and President of Egg Pictures, Jodie Foster's film company. During that time, LeFauve produced films which were nominated for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and she was awarded a Peabody for the Showtime film, “The Baby Dance.” LeFauve also produced “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys” which won the 2003 IFP Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Raised in Warren, Ohio, LeFauve graduated from the Syracuse University Newhouse School and currently lives in Studio City, California with her husband and two sons.Lorien McKenna has written for studios, streamers, and indie films including Hulu, NBC, and Disney. She is currently in development with ViacomCBS on animated tv show. She co-hosts the podcast The Screenwriting Life w/Meg LeFauve and Lorien McKenna. The show, produced by Jeffrey Graham, is dedicated to unpacking both the craft and artistic journey of pursuing a career in screenwriting. A former Story Manager at Pixar Animation Studios, McKenna worked on UP, BRAVE, INSIDE OUT and THE GOOD DINOSAUR. She was also the Associate Producer for Paramount Animation's WONDER PARK and the Co-EP for CURIOUS GEORGE. After getting her MFA in Playwriting, she founded Guilty Theater and taught playwriting, Shakespeare and Theater at St. Mary's College of California. She lives in Glendale, CA with her husband and daughter. Links:Facebook: @TheScreenwritingLife Instagram: @the_screenwriting_lifeTwitter: @_TSLpodcast @StoryMeg

The Best Director Game

Oscar Wild

Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2021 68:08

For this week’s episode, it’s all about directors nominated at the Academy Awards. Sophia and Nick play the Movie Director Game, a creation of “The Big Picture” podcast, where they choose their favorite (and runner-up) director of each decade starting with the 1950’s. The directors are categorized by the release date of their feature directorial debut and in order to be included they must have earned a Best Director nomination at The Oscars for any of their films. Follow along with the links below as they discuss the: 50’s (4:52), 60’s (12:59), 70’s (20:27), 80’s (31:17), 90’s (37:04), 2000’s (48:09), and 2010’s (55:32). Afterwards, they play a mini game where they take all of their winners and award some other superlatives, including Best First Feature and Best Best Director Win (1:00:20).Inspired by the Movie Director Game by “The Big Picture”: https://www.theringer.com/2020/2/21/21146882/introducing-movie-director-game-with-sam-esmail List of Directorial Debuts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_directorial_debutsMusic: “The Greatest Adventure” by Jonathan AdamichFollow us on Twitter and Instagram @oscarwildpod

game oscars academy awards big picture best director best first feature

Ep42 - Tonya Pinkins: "Whitney Stole My Spot!"

Josh Swallows Broadway

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 20, 2021 50:42

Tonya Pinkins is a filmmaker, writer, producer, and director. Her award-winning debut feature film RED PILL was an official selection at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival, won the Best Black Lives Matter Feature and Best First Feature at The Mykonos International Film Festival, Best First Feature at the Luléa Film Festival, and is nominated for awards in numerous festivals around the globe. Her web-series The RED PILLING of AMERICA can be heard on her podcast You Can’t Say That, also on the Broadway Podcast Network. As a television, film, and theater actress and author, she is known for her portrayal of Livia Frye on the soap opera All My Children and for her roles on Broadway. She has been nominated for three Tony Awards (winning one), and has won Obie, Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, AUDLECO, Garland, L.A. Drama Critics Circle, Clarence Derwent, and NAACP Theater Awards. She has been nominated for the Olivier, Helen Hayes, Noel, Joseph Jefferson, NAACP Image, Soap Opera Digest, and Ovation Awards. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Jelly's Last Jam. Produced by Alan Seales and Elizabeth Wheless. A proud member of the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE 34: Kasi Lemmons | Film Director

Proust Questionnaire Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2021 55:36

Kasi Lemmons is an award-winning director, writer, actress and professor who has been a staple in Hollywood for nearly three decades. Her acclaimed 1997 feature directorial debut, “Eve’s Bayou, was inducted into the National Film Registry, and is considered among the first to showcase the beauty of African American Southern culture. The film received the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and the National Board of Review bestowed her with a special first-time director award. “Eve’s Bayou” marked Samuel L. Jackson’s debut as a film producer and helped launch the careers of actresses Megan Good and Jurnee Smollett. Lemmons’ sophomore feature, “The Caveman's Valentine,” opened the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, while her third film, “Talk to Me,” earned the 2008 NAACP Image Award for outstanding directing. She also adapted Langston Hughes’ musical “Black Nativity” for the big screen in 2013. Her latest opus is “Harriet,” a deeply resonant and powerful drama based on the life of American icon Harriet Tubman. Starring Cynthia Enviro in the titular role, “Harriet” was released by Focus Features in late 2019. “Harriet” received two Academy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, and ten NAACP Award nominations Kasi was an executive producer on “Self Made,” the Madam CJ Walker limited series on Netflix starring Octavia Spencer, to which she also directed two episodes. As an actress, Lemmons appeared in such notable films as Jonathan Demme’s ‘Silence of the Lambs,” John Woo’s ‘Hard Target,” and Spike Lee’s “School Daze.” Lemmons has worked extensively as a mentor and educator, and currently serves as an Arts Professor in the Graduate Film Department at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has shared her passion for writing and teaching with institutions across the world, including Yale University, MIT, USC, UCLA, Los Angeles Film School, and The University Pristina Film School in Kosovo. Lemmons holds an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters from Salem State Collage. She has served on the board of Film Independent since 2004. Along with Academy-Award nominated composer Terrence Blanchard, Lemmons recently added librettist to her formidable body of work, creating the stage adaptation of Charles Blow’s New York Times bestselling memoir “Fire Shut up in My Bones,” for the Opera Theater of Saint Louis. We talked to Kasi about her current projects before asking her Proust's 35 questions that reveal which person Lemmons admires most, what she considers happiness, which artists inspire her, who is her greatest love, her greatest achievement, her greatest regret, and what is her motto, among other things. Find out more Kasi's family history in the most recent episode of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s, Finding Your Roots, where she appears in an episode with Pharrell Williams. ————————— ////////////////// Follow us: (THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE) INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/proust.questionnaire . (ULI BAER) TWITTER - https://twitter.com/UliBaer INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/uli.baer . (CAROLINE WEBER) TWITTER - https://twitter.com/corklinedRoom INSTAGRAM - https://twitter.com/carolineweber2020 . (KASI LEMMONS) INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/kasi_lemmons TWITTER - https://twitter.com/kasi_lemmons //////////////// Listen to the Podcast on: APPLE PODCASTS - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/proust-questionnaire-podcast/id1507215678 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/18OVlatYAqYBHlCJsUd6IV YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnaJi-J359remsMZ3Y2EJMQ //////////////// Thanks for listening! :) Uli Baer & Caroline Weber.

Acclaimed director Benny Boom talks award winning "Tazmanian Devil" directed by Solomon Onita Jr.

The Steve Harvey Morning Show

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 28, 2021 30:46 Transcription Available

My next guests are Benny Boom - directed episodes of NCIS-LA, Black Lightning and All American, and Lee Daniel's Empire on Fox and Executive produced Tazmanian Devil, which earned director Solomon Onita Jr. the inaugural John Singleton Director Award for Best First Feature at the 2020 American Black Film Festival. Benny Boom is the Executive Producer of Tazmanian Devil, and Solomon Onita Jr. is the writer and Director of Tazmanian Devil. Here is a little history on Benny Boom; he is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Benny directed the much-anticipated Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me, which has grossed over $70M worldwide for Lionsgate Films. Also dominating the television and streaming platforms, Boom has directed NCIS-LA (CBS) episodes, Black Lightning and All American, The Quad and Tales at BET, and Lee Daniel's Empire on Fox. In August 2020, Tazmanian Devil earned Solomon Onita Jr. the inaugural John Singleton Director Award for Best First Feature at the 2020 American Black Film Festival. Tazmanian Devil will be streaming is Steaming on Amazon, iTunes, and Fandango. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Benny Boom and Solomon Onita Jr.https://www.moneymakingconversations.comhttps://www.youtube.com/MoneyMakingConversationshttps://www.facebook.com/MoneyMakingConversations/https://twitter.com/moneymakingconvhttps://www.instagram.com/moneymakingconversations/Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSupport the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Acclaimed director Benny Boom talks award winning "Tazmanian Devil" directed by Solomon Onita Jr.

Money Making Conversations

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 28, 2021 28:39

My next guests are Benny Boom - directed episodes of NCIS-LA, Black Lightning and All American, and Lee Daniel's Empire on Fox and Executive produced Tazmanian Devil, which earned director Solomon Onita Jr. the inaugural John Singleton Director Award for Best First Feature at the 2020 American Black Film Festival. Benny Boom is the Executive Producer of Tazmanian Devil, and Solomon Onita Jr. is the writer and Director of Tazmanian Devil. Here is a little history on Benny Boom; he is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Benny directed the much-anticipated Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me, which has grossed over $70M worldwide for Lionsgate Films. Also dominating the television and streaming platforms, Boom has directed NCIS-LA (CBS) episodes, Black Lightning and All American, The Quad and Tales at BET, and Lee Daniel's Empire on Fox. In August 2020, Tazmanian Devil earned Solomon Onita Jr. the inaugural John Singleton Director Award for Best First Feature at the 2020 American Black Film Festival. Tazmanian Devil will be streaming is Steaming on Amazon, iTunes, and Fandango. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Benny Boom and Solomon Onita Jr.https://www.moneymakingconversations.comhttps://www.youtube.com/MoneyMakingConversationshttps://www.facebook.com/MoneyMakingConversations/https://twitter.com/moneymakingconvhttps://www.instagram.com/moneymakingconversations/ Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Creative Visionary Laurieann Gibson; real estate broker Ryan Serhant; Food Blogger Brittany Pickens; ‘Tazmanian Devil' Executive producer Benny Boom & Director Solomon Onita Jr.

The Steve Harvey Morning Show

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2021 115:04 Transcription Available

My next guest is Laurieann Gibson. She is a creative Visionary, Choreographer for Mary J. Blige, Lady Gaga, P Diddy, The Jonas Brothers, and author of "Dance Your Dance: 8 Steps to Unleash Your Passion and Live Your Dream." Laurieann Gibson is an Emmy-nominated creative visionary, choreographer, director, producer, and entrepreneur. Her new book is packed with personal anecdotes and messages of empowerment; Dance Your Dance highlights Gibson's evolution from a young dancer training in New York City to a well-respected, in-demand industry leader with an eye for cultivating music artists from the ground up. The book unveils the ultimate blueprint to achieving your dreams—a blueprint she's implemented to develop some of the world's greatest superstars, including Nicki Minaj, and Katy Perry, among others. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Laurieann Gibson. My next guest is Ryan Serhant. He is costar on Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing," New York Times Bestselling Author, and new book BME, "Big Money Energy, How to rule at work, Dominate at Life and make Millions." My next guest is Ryan Serhant. He is a costar on Bravo's hit show Million Dollar Listing New York and the author of the national bestseller, Sell It Like Serhant. Ryan made just $9,000 his first year in the business. We will be discussing his new book, BME, "Big Money Energy, How to rule at work, Dominate at Life and make Millions." People who possess Big Money Energy get that way because they are 100% committed to making their vision for themselves a reality and their vision is BIG. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Ryan Serhant. My next guests are Benny Boom - directed episodes of NCIS-LA, Black Lightning and All American, and Lee Daniel's Empire on Fox and Executive produced Tazmanian Devil, which earned director Solomon Onita Jr. the inaugural John Singleton Director Award for Best First Feature at the 2020 American Black Film Festival. Benny Boom is the Executive Producer of Tazmanian Devil, and Solomon Onita Jr. is the writer and Director of Tazmanian Devil. Here is a little history on Benny Boom; he is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Benny directed the much-anticipated Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me, which has grossed over $70M worldwide for Lionsgate Films. Also dominating the television and streaming platforms, Boom has directed NCIS-LA (CBS) episodes, Black Lightning and All American, The Quad and Tales at BET, and Lee Daniel's Empire on Fox. In August 2020, Tazmanian Devil earned Solomon Onita Jr. the inaugural John Singleton Director Award for Best First Feature at the 2020 American Black Film Festival. Tazmanian Devil will be streaming is Steaming on Amazon, iTunes, and Fandango. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Benny Boom and Solomon Onita Jr. My next guest is Brittany Pickens. She is a Food Blogger and Creator of "The Juice Girl," a variety of Organic Natural Juices, and "RUB," the perfect everyday seasoning. The Juice Girl definition is "when life gives you lemons; you make lemonade." Or, in this case, "you get juicing!" She is a Food Blogger and created Eating Anonymous to review restaurants, and is a serial entrepreneur. The Juice Girl business offers various products that energize you, boost your immune system, reduce the risk of sickness, and increase your fruit and vegetable intake. All-natural ingredients are rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Brittany Pickens.https://www.moneymakingconversations.comhttps://www.youtube.com/MoneyMakingConversationshttps://www.facebook.com/MoneyMakingConversations/https://twitter.com/moneymakingconvhttps://www.instagram.com/moneymakingconversations/Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSupport the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

music director amazon new york city film creator devil entrepreneurship tales executives empire branding boom millions masterclass lady gaga bet bravo sean combs executive producer nicki minaj dominate katy perry visionary all american rub hbcu mary j blige stephen a smith quad jonas brothers tupac shakur choreographers new york times best selling author real estate brokers black lightning fandango live your dreams gospel music pickens steaming food bloggers ryan serhant black entrepreneurs 70m million dollar listing bme all eyez on me million dollar listing new york alpha phi alpha fraternity ncis la american black film festival creative visionary onita sell it like serhant lee daniel lionsgate films big money energy best first feature benny boom laurieann gibson rushion mcdonald laurieann

Creative Visionary Laurieann Gibson; real estate broker Ryan Serhant; Food Blogger Brittany Pickens; ‘Tazmanian Devil’ Executive producer Be

Money Making Conversations

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2021 110:11

My next guest is Laurieann Gibson. She is a creative Visionary, Choreographer for Mary J. Blige, Lady Gaga, P Diddy, The Jonas Brothers, and author of "Dance Your Dance: 8 Steps to Unleash Your Passion and Live Your Dream." Laurieann Gibson is an Emmy-nominated creative visionary, choreographer, director, producer, and entrepreneur. Her new book is packed with personal anecdotes and messages of empowerment; Dance Your Dance highlights Gibson's evolution from a young dancer training in New York City to a well-respected, in-demand industry leader with an eye for cultivating music artists from the ground up. The book unveils the ultimate blueprint to achieving your dreams—a blueprint she's implemented to develop some of the world's greatest superstars, including Nicki Minaj, and Katy Perry, among others. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Laurieann Gibson. My next guest is Ryan Serhant. He is costar on Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing," New York Times Bestselling Author, and new book BME, "Big Money Energy, How to rule at work, Dominate at Life and make Millions." My next guest is Ryan Serhant. He is a costar on Bravo's hit show Million Dollar Listing New York and the author of the national bestseller, Sell It Like Serhant. Ryan made just $9,000 his first year in the business. We will be discussing his new book, BME, "Big Money Energy, How to rule at work, Dominate at Life and make Millions." People who possess Big Money Energy get that way because they are 100% committed to making their vision for themselves a reality and their vision is BIG. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Ryan Serhant. My next guests are Benny Boom - directed episodes of NCIS-LA, Black Lightning and All American, and Lee Daniel's Empire on Fox and Executive produced Tazmanian Devil, which earned director Solomon Onita Jr. the inaugural John Singleton Director Award for Best First Feature at the 2020 American Black Film Festival. Benny Boom is the Executive Producer of Tazmanian Devil, and Solomon Onita Jr. is the writer and Director of Tazmanian Devil. Here is a little history on Benny Boom; he is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Benny directed the much-anticipated Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me, which has grossed over $70M worldwide for Lionsgate Films. Also dominating the television and streaming platforms, Boom has directed NCIS-LA (CBS) episodes, Black Lightning and All American, The Quad and Tales at BET, and Lee Daniel's Empire on Fox. In August 2020, Tazmanian Devil earned Solomon Onita Jr. the inaugural John Singleton Director Award for Best First Feature at the 2020 American Black Film Festival. Tazmanian Devil will be streaming is Steaming on Amazon, iTunes, and Fandango. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Benny Boom and Solomon Onita Jr. My next guest is Brittany Pickens. She is a Food Blogger and Creator of "The Juice Girl," a variety of Organic Natural Juices, and "RUB," the perfect everyday seasoning. The Juice Girl definition is "when life gives you lemons; you make lemonade." Or, in this case, "you get juicing!" She is a Food Blogger and created Eating Anonymous to review restaurants, and is a serial entrepreneur. The Juice Girl business offers various products that energize you, boost your immune system, reduce the risk of sickness, and increase your fruit and vegetable intake. All-natural ingredients are rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Brittany Pickens.https://www.moneymakingconversations.comhttps://www.youtube.com/MoneyMakingConversationshttps://www.facebook.com/MoneyMakingConversations/https://twitter.com/moneymakingconvhttps://www.instagram.com/moneymakingconversations/ Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Meth Head & Crazy Bitches with Jane Clark

The Satin Lounge Interviews

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 6, 2020 37:12

#JaneClark www.thesatinlounge.com Best of The Satin Lounge with Kia René welcomes the Director, Writer, and Producer Jane Clark to Pillow Talk. Discusses her films Meth Head, Crazy Bitches, Elena Undone and finding creative control her work. Jane Clark is a filmmaker residing in Los Angeles. Her digital series Crazy Bitches - Seasons 1 & 2 released August 2019. Her short film, Dinner For Four is enjoying an active festival run. She is currently in post on a VR narrative short film, based on her feature script, Don't Come Over. Her first feature as a director was Meth Head. The film played over 30 international festivals, won 12 awards including, Best Feature, Best First Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay. and released June 2014 through Random Media. Her second feature as director, Crazy Bitches earned the dubious distinction of being one of the top ten illegally downloaded films its opening weekend. The film played over 25 international festivals in 6 months, won Best Ensemble Cast and was nominated for Best Feature, Best Supporting Actress and Best Soundtrack. The film released in February 2015 through Gravitas Ventures. Jane also produced Elena Undone for writer/director Nicole Conn, (Little Man, Claire of the Moon.) The film has played successfully on the festival circuit and is a best seller with Wolfe Releasing. www.filmmcqueen.com FACEBOOK @DirectorJaneClark TWITTER @dir_janeclark INSTAGRAM @JaneClark OUR SOCIALS www.thesatinlounge.com YouTube Channel #TheSatinLoungeLive INSTAGRAM @_thesatinlounge TWITTER @_thesatinlounge FACEBOOK @TheSatinLoungewithKiaRene www.kiarene.com INSTAGRAM @iamkiarene TWITTER @KiaRene FACEBOOK @iamkiarene --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thesatinlounge/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thesatinlounge/support

director los angeles moon writer vr best director pillow talk little man best supporting actress best screenplay best feature meth heads gravitas ventures best soundtrack come over jane clark best first feature crazy bitches nicole conn

Nicole Weider Talks New Movie - SWITCHED - switchedmovie.com

I Am Refocused Podcast Show

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2020 9:39

Nicole Weider is a Salem, Oregon native who moved to Los Angeles and quickly found success as a fashion model at the age of 17. Today, Nicole is an active wife, mom, producer, actress and author and has made it her mission to share her personal story, the bright moments and the challenges, with young women around the world. Nicole founded Project Inspired with a goal to share her faith with a wider audience in hopes of inspiring others to live out the abundant lives God has called them to. Project Inspired is a home for hope, inspiration, frank discussion, spirituality and truth – and we don't forget to mix in just the right amount of humor and fun.https://switchedmovie.com/VERTICAL ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF ‘SWITCHED’ AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL AND VIDEO ON DEMAND SEPTEMBER 4AND DVD OCTOBER 6 LOS ANGELES (August 3, 2020) – Vertical Entertainment announces the release of the new faith-based film SWITCHED, debuting on Digital and Video On Demand September 4 and coming to DVD October 6. From the production studios of Mustard Seed Entertainment and Weider Entertainment, SWITCHED features a cast including Miya Horcher (KILLER IN SUBURBIA, “The Rookie”), Madeleine Byrne (“Twenties”), John Schneider (“The Dukes of Hazzard,” “Smallville”), Vanessa Merrell (“Jane the Virgin,” LIKE A BOSS, THE STANDOFF), Laurine Price (“American Crime Story,” “This Close”), Denise Richards (THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, STARSHIP TROOPERS) and Nicole Weider (CATCHING FAITH 2). Tired of being bullied, Cassandra Evans prays that her nemesis Katie Sharp, the queen bee of social media, would know what it's like to walk a day in her shoes. Her prayer is answered in an unexpected way when they get "Switched." When Cassandra Evans and Katie Sharp wake up to discover they’ve switched bodies, the two girls must learn to appreciate both the blessings and struggles the other faces on a daily basis, in school and at home. Packed with life lessons of forgiveness, perspective, encouragement and understanding, SWITCHED will help teenagers who are searching for their worth in looks and popularity to find their true identity in Christ.“SWITCHED has the power to change people’s lives and give perspective to students who are struggling with bullying and comparison in school,” says Executive Producer and Founder of Project Inspired, Nicole Weider. “I am so excited to see the ways this film will positively impact the lives of young women.”Project Inspired will release bullying resources for students, in addition to companion materials for youth groups, churches and high schools to use alongside the film to teach students about the importance of loving one another. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @SwitchedtheFilm and online at switchedmovie.comAbout Vertical EntertainmentVertical Entertainment is a global independent distributor that offers a unique combination of full-service marketing and sales services. Dedicated to providing highly-effective and collaborative solutions, Vertical leverages unparalleled relationships to maximize revenue across all streams. The marketing and sales expertise from Vertical’s seasoned team gives content partners a wealth of experience minus the studio costs. Vertical won a Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress for Molly Shannon’s role in “Other People” and the film won a GLAAD Award for “Outstanding Film Limited Release” as well. Vertical also had four other Indie Spirit nominations – three more for “Other People” (Best Lead Actor for Jesse Plemons, and Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay for filmmaker Chris Kelly) and one for Best International Film for Babak Anvari’s “Under the Shadow,” which was also the official UK submission for the 2017 Oscars, in addition to winning one BAFTA Award and three British Independent Film Awards as well. Upcoming Vertical releases include “Hard Kill” starring Bruce Willis and Jesse Metcalfe; “The Big Ugly” starring Ron Perlman, Vinnie Jones and Malcolm McDowell; and “Skylin3s”, the third installment of the Skyline franchise. Other notable recent releases include “Yes, God, Yes” starring Natalia Dyer, Timothy Simons, and Alisha Boe; “Archive” starring Theo James and Stacy Martin; “A Nice Girl Like You” starring Lucy Hale, Jackie Cruz and Mindy Cohn; “Inheritance” starring Lily Collins, Simon Pegg, Chace Crawford and Connie Nielsen; “Human Capital” starring Liev Schreiber, Marisa Tomei, Peter Saarsgard and Maya Hawke, “Code 8” starring Stephen Amell, Robbie Amell, and Sung Kang, “Can You Keep A Secret?” starring Alexandra Daddario, Tyler Hoechlin and Laverne Cox, “American Woman” starring Sienna Miller, Aaron Paul and Christina Hendricks; “The Professor and the Madman” starring Mel Gibson, Sean Penn and Natalie Dormer “Drunk Parents” starring Alec Baldwin, Salma Hayek, Jim Gaffigan, Ben Platt and Joe Manganiello; “Lying and Stealing” starring Theo James and Emily Ratajkowski; Keith Behrman’s “Giant Little Ones” starring Josh Wiggins, Kyle Maclachlan, and Maria Bello; Rob Reiner’s “Shock and Awe” starring Woody Harrelson, James Marsden, Milla Jovovich, Jessica Biel, and Tommy Lee Jones; and Kevin Connolly’s “Gotti” starring John Travolta, Kelly Preston and Chris Mulkey.About Mustard Seed EntertainmentMustard Seed Entertainment was founded in 2014 by Alexandra Boylan, John K.D. Graham and Andrea Polnaszek with the mission to create visually stimulating films that honor Jesus and start conversations for their audiences. Mustard Seed's films hold to Judeo-Christian values that can be enjoyed by the entire family. Past films include Catching Faith 1 & 2, and Wish For Christmas, which have been released globally. In 2018, Mustard Seed's founders won the Kairos Pro Prize at the Movieguide Awards for the screenplay of "Switched." Mustard Seed is currently in production of their latest film "The Inheritance." About Weider Entertainment:Founded by Nicole Weider, Weider Entertainment collaborates with other successful directors, producers and screenwriters to produce films offering a message of family, faith and purpose. Through each project, the ultimate mission is to glorify God. Nicole previously worked as a teen model and established the popular brand Project Inspired, encompassing the largest online community of young, female Christians. Nicole is passionate about inspiring others and is a devoted wife and mother.About Project Inspired: Project Inspired is a vibrant community of girls, young ladies and successful women. Founded and launched by producer, actress, model and author Nicole Weider, Project Inspired is a safe place to find clear, inspiring and positive messages of hope, victory and promise in a culture where it can sometimes be tough to navigate relationships, Christian-living and social media. Drawing from her own experience and Project Inspired's community of contributors, we want you to know that no one journeys alone. Get all the latest inspiring Christian content from Project Inspired at projectinspired.comhttps://switchedmovie.com/For more interviews visit: www.iamrefocusedradio.comRadio Sponsor: DOCUmation is a family-owned technology solutions company that provides IT, print, and software-managed services to business and other organizations throughout Texas. Headquartered in San Antonio, TX, our company has been serving customers for nearly 30 years.https://www.mation.com/who-we-are/Podcast Sponsors:Rockafellas Barber Shop San AntonioRico Rodriguez (Owner)www.facebook.com/Rockafellas-Barber-Shop-105026620034718/?ref=page_internal1733 BabcockSan Antonio, Texas 78229Phone: (210) 782-5188The Dear Agency specializes in helping you understand your coverage BEFORE you need it!We offer all lines of personal and commercial insurance, including Auto, Home and Life.Contact Dawn Dear at 210-507-2169 and visit us at 7529 N Loop 1604 in Live Oak, TX or farmersagent.com/ddear

god jesus christ founders texas movies uk los angeles media news professor digital christians story home radio oregon oscars drawing shadow code tx auto rookies san antonio lying actress founded shock inheritance stealing dedicated salem virgin executive producer archive identity in christ packed bruce willis alec baldwin mel gibson vertical john travolta mustard seeds awe woody harrelson madman like a boss new movies starship troopers sean penn standoff smallville skyline tommy lee jones switched rob reiner simon pegg salma hayek human capital judeo christian jim gaffigan hazzard headquartered gotti ron perlman jessica biel marisa tomei milla jovovich best supporting actress aaron paul james marsden jesse plemons laverne cox american woman emily ratajkowski malcolm mcdowell stephen amell ben platt liev schreiber bafta awards kyle maclachlan lily collins joe manganiello molly shannon chris kelly vinnie jones sienna miller maya hawke live oak john k kelly preston lucy hale christina hendricks connie nielsen robbie amell sung kang alexandra daddario theo james maria bello kevin connolly glaad award tyler hoechlin big ugly weider chace crawford this close natalia dyer jesse metcalfe timothy simons stacy martin babak anvari british independent film awards chris mulkey best first feature indie spirit mindy cohn jackie cruz alexandra boylan giant little ones best first screenplay josh wiggins katie sharp

Nicole Weider Talks New Movie - SWITCHED - switchedmovie.com

I Am Refocused Podcast Show

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2020 9:39

Nicole Weider is a Salem, Oregon native who moved to Los Angeles and quickly found success as a fashion model at the age of 17. Today, Nicole is an active wife, mom, producer, actress and author and has made it her mission to share her personal story, the bright moments and the challenges, with young women around the world. Nicole founded Project Inspired with a goal to share her faith with a wider audience in hopes of inspiring others to live out the abundant lives God has called them to. Project Inspired is a home for hope, inspiration, frank discussion, spirituality and truth – and we don't forget to mix in just the right amount of humor and fun.https://switchedmovie.com/VERTICAL ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF ‘SWITCHED’ AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL AND VIDEO ON DEMAND SEPTEMBER 4AND DVD OCTOBER 6 LOS ANGELES (August 3, 2020) – Vertical Entertainment announces the release of the new faith-based film SWITCHED, debuting on Digital and Video On Demand September 4 and coming to DVD October 6. From the production studios of Mustard Seed Entertainment and Weider Entertainment, SWITCHED features a cast including Miya Horcher (KILLER IN SUBURBIA, “The Rookie”), Madeleine Byrne (“Twenties”), John Schneider (“The Dukes of Hazzard,” “Smallville”), Vanessa Merrell (“Jane the Virgin,” LIKE A BOSS, THE STANDOFF), Laurine Price (“American Crime Story,” “This Close”), Denise Richards (THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, STARSHIP TROOPERS) and Nicole Weider (CATCHING FAITH 2). Tired of being bullied, Cassandra Evans prays that her nemesis Katie Sharp, the queen bee of social media, would know what it's like to walk a day in her shoes. Her prayer is answered in an unexpected way when they get "Switched." When Cassandra Evans and Katie Sharp wake up to discover they’ve switched bodies, the two girls must learn to appreciate both the blessings and struggles the other faces on a daily basis, in school and at home. Packed with life lessons of forgiveness, perspective, encouragement and understanding, SWITCHED will help teenagers who are searching for their worth in looks and popularity to find their true identity in Christ.“SWITCHED has the power to change people’s lives and give perspective to students who are struggling with bullying and comparison in school,” says Executive Producer and Founder of Project Inspired, Nicole Weider. “I am so excited to see the ways this film will positively impact the lives of young women.”Project Inspired will release bullying resources for students, in addition to companion materials for youth groups, churches and high schools to use alongside the film to teach students about the importance of loving one another. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @SwitchedtheFilm and online at switchedmovie.comAbout Vertical EntertainmentVertical Entertainment is a global independent distributor that offers a unique combination of full-service marketing and sales services. Dedicated to providing highly-effective and collaborative solutions, Vertical leverages unparalleled relationships to maximize revenue across all streams. The marketing and sales expertise from Vertical’s seasoned team gives content partners a wealth of experience minus the studio costs. Vertical won a Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress for Molly Shannon’s role in “Other People” and the film won a GLAAD Award for “Outstanding Film Limited Release” as well. Vertical also had four other Indie Spirit nominations – three more for “Other People” (Best Lead Actor for Jesse Plemons, and Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay for filmmaker Chris Kelly) and one for Best International Film for Babak Anvari’s “Under the Shadow,” which was also the official UK submission for the 2017 Oscars, in addition to winning one BAFTA Award and three British Independent Film Awards as well. Upcoming Vertical releases include “Hard Kill” starring Bruce Willis and Jesse Metcalfe; “The Big Ugly” starring Ron Perlman, Vinnie Jones and Malcolm McDowell; and “Skylin3s”, the third installment of the Skyline franchise. Other notable recent releases include “Yes, God, Yes” starring Natalia Dyer, Timothy Simons, and Alisha Boe; “Archive” starring Theo James and Stacy Martin; “A Nice Girl Like You” starring Lucy Hale, Jackie Cruz and Mindy Cohn; “Inheritance” starring Lily Collins, Simon Pegg, Chace Crawford and Connie Nielsen; “Human Capital” starring Liev Schreiber, Marisa Tomei, Peter Saarsgard and Maya Hawke, “Code 8” starring Stephen Amell, Robbie Amell, and Sung Kang, “Can You Keep A Secret?” starring Alexandra Daddario, Tyler Hoechlin and Laverne Cox, “American Woman” starring Sienna Miller, Aaron Paul and Christina Hendricks; “The Professor and the Madman” starring Mel Gibson, Sean Penn and Natalie Dormer “Drunk Parents” starring Alec Baldwin, Salma Hayek, Jim Gaffigan, Ben Platt and Joe Manganiello; “Lying and Stealing” starring Theo James and Emily Ratajkowski; Keith Behrman’s “Giant Little Ones” starring Josh Wiggins, Kyle Maclachlan, and Maria Bello; Rob Reiner’s “Shock and Awe” starring Woody Harrelson, James Marsden, Milla Jovovich, Jessica Biel, and Tommy Lee Jones; and Kevin Connolly’s “Gotti” starring John Travolta, Kelly Preston and Chris Mulkey.About Mustard Seed EntertainmentMustard Seed Entertainment was founded in 2014 by Alexandra Boylan, John K.D. Graham and Andrea Polnaszek with the mission to create visually stimulating films that honor Jesus and start conversations for their audiences. Mustard Seed's films hold to Judeo-Christian values that can be enjoyed by the entire family. Past films include Catching Faith 1 & 2, and Wish For Christmas, which have been released globally. In 2018, Mustard Seed's founders won the Kairos Pro Prize at the Movieguide Awards for the screenplay of "Switched." Mustard Seed is currently in production of their latest film "The Inheritance." About Weider Entertainment:Founded by Nicole Weider, Weider Entertainment collaborates with other successful directors, producers and screenwriters to produce films offering a message of family, faith and purpose. Through each project, the ultimate mission is to glorify God. Nicole previously worked as a teen model and established the popular brand Project Inspired, encompassing the largest online community of young, female Christians. Nicole is passionate about inspiring others and is a devoted wife and mother.About Project Inspired: Project Inspired is a vibrant community of girls, young ladies and successful women. Founded and launched by producer, actress, model and author Nicole Weider, Project Inspired is a safe place to find clear, inspiring and positive messages of hope, victory and promise in a culture where it can sometimes be tough to navigate relationships, Christian-living and social media. Drawing from her own experience and Project Inspired's community of contributors, we want you to know that no one journeys alone. Get all the latest inspiring Christian content from Project Inspired at projectinspired.comhttps://switchedmovie.com/For more interviews visit: www.iamrefocusedradio.comRadio Sponsor: DOCUmation is a family-owned technology solutions company that provides IT, print, and software-managed services to business and other organizations throughout Texas. Headquartered in San Antonio, TX, our company has been serving customers for nearly 30 years.https://www.mation.com/who-we-are/Podcast Sponsors:Rockafellas Barber Shop San AntonioRico Rodriguez (Owner)www.facebook.com/Rockafellas-Barber-Shop-105026620034718/?ref=page_internal1733 BabcockSan Antonio, Texas 78229Phone: (210) 782-5188The Dear Agency specializes in helping you understand your coverage BEFORE you need it!We offer all lines of personal and commercial insurance, including Auto, Home and Life.Contact Dawn Dear at 210-507-2169 and visit us at 7529 N Loop 1604 in Live Oak, TX or farmersagent.com/ddear

god jesus christ founders texas movies uk los angeles media news professor digital christians story home radio oregon oscars drawing shadow code tx tired auto rookies san antonio lying actress founded shock inheritance stealing dedicated salem virgin executive producer archive identity in christ packed bruce willis alec baldwin mel gibson vertical john travolta mustard seeds awe woody harrelson madman like a boss new movies starship troopers sean penn standoff smallville skyline tommy lee jones switched rob reiner simon pegg salma hayek human capital judeo christian jim gaffigan hazzard headquartered gotti ron perlman jessica biel marisa tomei milla jovovich best supporting actress aaron paul james marsden jesse plemons laverne cox american woman emily ratajkowski malcolm mcdowell stephen amell ben platt liev schreiber bafta awards kyle maclachlan lily collins joe manganiello molly shannon chris kelly vinnie jones sienna miller maya hawke live oak john k kelly preston lucy hale christina hendricks connie nielsen robbie amell sung kang alexandra daddario theo james maria bello kevin connolly glaad award tyler hoechlin big ugly weider chace crawford this close natalia dyer jesse metcalfe timothy simons stacy martin babak anvari british independent film awards chris mulkey best first feature mindy cohn indie spirit jackie cruz alexandra boylan giant little ones best first screenplay los angeles august josh wiggins katie sharp

Bentonville Film Festival Movie Review: Farewell

Movie Trailer Reviews

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2020 20:14

Getting a group of friends together is always a great way to set the stage for drama. So, the premise behind writer/director Chris Chalk's debut feature length film Farewell opens the door for its story to turn in almost any direction. It's a solid choice, for the sneaky thriller it ultimately becomes. Farewell: Social Circles and Secrets Grace and Chance Charles need to celebrate. Grace accepted a new job that'll take the couple overseas. Her devoted husband's all-in for whatever she needs. Their both writers, but her career's on the rise leaving her overworked and on deadline for her next book. The couple's friends decide to throw them an Anniversary Send-Off. As the group comes together, it's immediately clear, these friendships aren't all sweetness and light. Farewell explores the relationship dynamics between these friends with just the right amount of the unconventional to be refreshingly engaging. Friends and Being Dragged for Filth Typically when a film stars a mostly Black cast and centers it's story around a get-together among close friends, the story direction leans towards the comedic. Nut Chalk's directorial debut veers into the awkwardness in ties that not only bind but strangle. Over the course of a night that starts upbeat swiftly gives way to biting sarcasm, low-key shade, and snide remarks. The dragging (and there's just so very much of it) is so on brand for Black folks that authenticity far out-weights the fact the dialogue and scene pacing could've done with another pass. As the night takes a turn into the sinister - and of course you can see it coming - these friends don't band together to make it through. Poor decision-making and all those secrets bubbling just beneath the surface of all the shade and messiness make for more than a few situations that test your ability to believe. That is until you remember no one is who they tell you they'll be in a crisis. Watching the role reversals, acting out, and revelations all given with such solid performances - especially the notable the chemistry between the leads - Farewell is a technically impressive feature and a horror-tinged (the sound production does it's job a touch too well at times) good time. If we're backing husband/wife producing teams in this pandemic, the Chalk's just edged the Franco's out of the top spot for the MTR crew. Of course, that may just have something to do with our desire to never be seen as a bad friend by either.... Listen in as Kriss and Ro dig into why this narrative feature left them with high hopes for whatever Chris Chalk may choose to write next. Director(s): Chris Chalk Writer(s): Chris Chalk Producer(s): Chris Chalk, K.D. Chalk Editor(s): Lex Kimbrough Cinematographer(s): Lex Kimbrough Production Designer(s): Prisca Choe Music Composer(s): Daniel Clive McCallum Cast: K. D. Chalk (Grace), Chris Chalk (Chance), Cesa Pledger (Mila), Eden Marryshow (Remy), Chantal Nchako (Kit), Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut ( Stacey), and Natalie Woolams-Torres (Laila) Farewell is the The Bentonville Film Festival Winner for Best First Feature, Narrative. Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode! Follow us on Twitter: @Phenomblak @InsanityReport @TheMTRNetwork Our shirts are now on TeePublic. https://teepublic.com/stores/mtr-network Want more podcast greatness? Sign up for a MTR Premium Account!

black movies poor narrative farewell ro chalk teepublic kriss mtr bentonville film festival best first feature movie trailer reviews mtr premium account

Farewell - Movie Trailer Reviews

MTR Network Main Feed

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2020 20:14

Getting a group of friends together is always a great way to set the stage for drama. So, the premise behind writer/director Chris Chalk's debut feature length film Farewell opens the door for its story to turn in almost any direction. It's a solid choice, for the sneaky thriller it ultimately becomes. Farewell: Social Circles and Secrets Grace and Chance Charles need to celebrate. Grace accepted a new job that'll take the couple overseas. Her devoted husband's all-in for whatever she needs. Their both writers, but her career's on the rise leaving her overworked and on deadline for her next book. The couple's friends decide to throw them an Anniversary Send-Off. As the group comes together, it's immediately clear, these friendships aren't all sweetness and light. Farewell explores the relationship dynamics between these friends with just the right amount of the unconventional to be refreshingly engaging. Friends and Being Dragged for Filth Typically when a film stars a mostly Black cast and centers it's story around a get-together among close friends, the story direction leans towards the comedic. Nut Chalk's directorial debut veers into the awkwardness in ties that not only bind but strangle. Over the course of a night that starts upbeat swiftly gives way to biting sarcasm, low-key shade, and snide remarks. The dragging (and there's just so very much of it) is so on brand for Black folks that authenticity far out-weights the fact the dialogue and scene pacing could've done with another pass. As the night takes a turn into the sinister - and of course you can see it coming - these friends don't band together to make it through. Poor decision-making and all those secrets bubbling just beneath the surface of all the shade and messiness make for more than a few situations that test your ability to believe. That is until you remember no one is who they tell you they'll be in a crisis. Watching the role reversals, acting out, and revelations all given with such solid performances - especially the notable the chemistry between the leads - Farewell is a technically impressive feature and a horror-tinged (the sound production does it's job a touch too well at times) good time. If we're backing husband/wife producing teams in this pandemic, the Chalk's just edged the Franco's out of the top spot for the MTR crew. Of course, that may just have something to do with our desire to never be seen as a bad friend by either.... Listen in as Kriss and Ro dig into why this narrative feature left them with high hopes for whatever Chris Chalk may choose to write next. Director(s): Chris Chalk Writer(s): Chris Chalk Producer(s): Chris Chalk, K.D. Chalk Editor(s): Lex Kimbrough Cinematographer(s): Lex Kimbrough Production Designer(s): Prisca Choe Music Composer(s): Daniel Clive McCallum Cast: K. D. Chalk (Grace), Chris Chalk (Chance), Cesa Pledger (Mila), Eden Marryshow (Remy), Chantal Nchako (Kit), Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut ( Stacey), and Natalie Woolams-Torres (Laila) Farewell is the The Bentonville Film Festival Winner for Best First Feature, Narrative. Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode! Follow us on Twitter: @Phenomblak @InsanityReport @TheMTRNetwork Our shirts are now on TeePublic. https://teepublic.com/stores/mtr-network Want more podcast greatness? Sign up for a MTR Premium Account!

black movies poor narrative farewell ro chalk movie trailers teepublic kriss mtr bentonville film festival best first feature movie trailer reviews mtr premium account

#117 | Phillip Doherty, Emma Foley and Tamryn Reinecke. Galway Film Fleadh, Best First Feature and Best Irish Feature Winners 2020.

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2020 75:46

#BONUS EPISODE TIME On this extra episode; Seán T. Ó Meallaigh (Flying solo) went to Galway and Dublin respectively to interview Phillip Doherty, Emma Foley and Tamryn Reinecke of Pale Rebel Productions to chat about their recent success with their debut feature made for just 40,000 and with a bucket of Cavan good will, Redemption of a Rogue Phillip Doherty is a playwright and director. Two-time winner of the RTE PJ O'Connor Radio drama Award, Philip Doherty a native of Cavan Town, holds an MA in Drama and Theatre Studies from NUI Galway where he developed his writing and honed his unique voice. He is artistic director of the Gonzo Theatre Company. This is Phillips first Feature Film. Redemption of a Rogue is set in Cavan and stars Aaron Monaghan (Maze, Assassin's Creed) as Jimmy, a man who "embarks on a sacrificial and outlandish journey to rid himself of his guilt and shame from the past, ultimately redeeming himself through love". The cast also includes Aisling O'Mara, Kieran Roche, Kevin McGahern, Shane Connaughton and Pat McCabe. Redemption of a Rogue won Best Irish Film and Best Irish First Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh at the weekend. It is due for release in cinemas later in the year. Producers Emma Foley and Tamryn Reinecke of Pale Rebel Productions. PRP strive to develop creative content from the ground up, working collaboratively with filmmakers from concept through to completion. They are focused on projects that put the creative process at the centre, with the goal of producing unique audience driven content. Emma and Tamryn were also nominated for the Bingham Ray New Talent Award at the Galway Film Fleadh. Become a patron/Supporter of Fni on: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fni FNI@Home is back on the 19th of August. Self Care and Confidence with Nick Dunning, Helena Walsh and Nichola Culloty. Self Care and Confidence Fni@ home is a practical evening of discussion, debate, and empathetic analysis, Looking at our current stop start situation and a potential future of confusion through a lens of Mindfulness, Neuro linguistic programming and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. And of course networking as always after. Places are limited. www.WeAreFNI.com Sign up now. Please share with a friend or colleague and Share/Subscribe for more content. Available on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. #WeAreFni #YouAreFNI #StaySafe #StayInformed #StayPositive WWW.WEAREFNI.COM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#117 | Phillip Doherty, Emma Foley and Tamryn Reinecke. Galway Film Fleadh, Best First Feature and Best Irish Feature Winners 2020.

Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast with Alex Ferrari

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2020 74:01

#BONUS EPISODE TIME On this extra episode; Seán T. Ó Meallaigh (Flying solo) went to Galway and Dublin respectively to interview Phillip Doherty, Emma Foley and Tamryn Reinecke of Pale Rebel Productions to chat about their recent success with their debut feature made for just 40,000 and with a bucket of Cavan good will, Redemption of a Rogue Phillip Doherty is a playwright and director. Two-time winner of the RTE PJ O'Connor Radio drama Award, Philip Doherty a native of Cavan Town, holds an MA in Drama and Theatre Studies from NUI Galway where he developed his writing and honed his unique voice. He is artistic director of the Gonzo Theatre Company. This is Phillips first Feature Film. Redemption of a Rogue is set in Cavan and stars Aaron Monaghan (Maze, Assassin's Creed) as Jimmy, a man who "embarks on a sacrificial and outlandish journey to rid himself of his guilt and shame from the past, ultimately redeeming himself through love". The cast also includes Aisling O'Mara, Kieran Roche, Kevin McGahern, Shane Connaughton and Pat McCabe. Redemption of a Rogue won Best Irish Film and Best Irish First Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh at the weekend. It is due for release in cinemas later in the year. Producers Emma Foley and Tamryn Reinecke of Pale Rebel Productions. PRP strive to develop creative content from the ground up, working collaboratively with filmmakers from concept through to completion. They are focused on projects that put the creative process at the centre, with the goal of producing unique audience driven content. Emma and Tamryn were also nominated for the Bingham Ray New Talent Award at the Galway Film Fleadh. Become a patron/Supporter of Fni on: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fni (https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buymeacoffee.com%2Ffni%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0kD26R2Tl0YB1WDhfTcIk2kaxFGtra86l3Xn0H5jRead4ww-duXIwz0CY&h=AT3uA2oZ5jDFvi92seoFmEO8IoWlVgC2C8FDMiyt456_btk9OP4WtC3wseLJ8RyjRZdhdZ9U4BZ_E6jetVxgHrB_W1KlESGGuASgTO8wH2H9mpPIRPoC6JA4ijDM22CznS1Vx2QZ1CSwue35GUMSNrqZPSyL) FNI@Home is back on the 19th of August. Self Care and Confidence with Nick Dunning, Helena Walsh and Nichola Culloty. Self Care and Confidence Fni@ home is a practical evening of discussion, debate, and empathetic analysis, Looking at our current stop start situation and a potential future of confusion through a lens of Mindfulness, Neuro linguistic programming and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. And of course networking as always after. Places are limited. www.WeAreFNI.com (http://www.wearefni.com/) Sign up now. Please share with a friend or colleague and Share/Subscribe for more content. Available on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. #WeAreFni (https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/wearefni?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG) #YouAreFNI (https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/youarefni?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG) #StaySafe (https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/staysafe?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG) #StayInformed (https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/stayinformed?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG) #StayPositive (https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/staypositive?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG) WWW.WEAREFNI.COM (https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2FWWW.WEAREFNI.COM%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3O86-JGARQ-lEhbDk1tI4iPs-IveYXswBmtrbLFxlCQR87TtNfcUt7IEU&h=AT3aoqXPN-Ji0hWcR7b1U8F1WKOD6ksGhmepWBN4J4fN1fd4U_ZxOnvRmBah-5hEK2uiv1f-OEJzyYl4lIqzYHUv3plISZZxaS3s6YeRNhnBStz1ainqVe67it4j8FxV7BrNOVGO6U51IWACerTgSVYiAaU9)

IFH 381: How to Shoot in an Impossible Location with Peter Bishai

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2020 69:50

What if you were given permission to shoot most of your film in one of the busiest and iconic streets in the world, Times Square. Well, today's guest did just that. He shot most of his new film Rapid Eye Movement.Peter Bishai wrote and directed the epic true-life saga Colors of Heaven (aka A Million Colours). It is the winner of two South African Academy Awards, Best Foreign Film at the WorldFest Houston Film Festival and was the Opening Night Gala film at the Hollywood Black Film Festival. He also directed the comedy-adventure The Dueling Accountant, which won Best Comedy Film at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival and Best First Feature at the Long Island International Film Expo.It is profiled in the book Fervid Filmmaking: 66 Cult Pictures of Vision, Verve and No Self-Restraint. His newest film is the psychological thriller Rapid Eye Movement. He lives in New York City.

new york city vision impossible shoot location colors filmmaking times square verve best foreign film rapid eye movement best first feature philadelphia independent film festival hollywood black film festival opening night gala

Best Director '19/20 Category Review - Did The DGA Play Exterminator? - Ep 270

Mike, Mike, and Oscar

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 27, 2020 58:45

The DGA Awards have spoken. We review the winners, & what it means for Oscar Sunday. Mike1 also finally blows his stack about Tarantino’s awards season, and he goes pro wrestling on all our candy asses. Recapping the DGA Awards - Top of Show (Where’s MMOW? - 2:39) Will Mike1 Ever Be Wrong? - 4:22 TRADITIONAL MMO CATEGORY REVIEW FORMAT: BEST DIRECTOR: Snubs - 4:54 (Including AlsoMike’s Takes on For Sama) Category Review Format - 13:33 Bong Joon-Ho: Why He’ll Win - 14:03 Why He Won’t/Why Sam Mendes Will Win - 18:35 Sam Mendes: Why He’ll Lose - 25:30 Todd Phillips: Why He’ll Win - 31:00 Why He Won’t - 33:50 Martin Scorsese: Why He’ll Win - 36:30 Why He Won’t - 38:47 Quentin Tarantino: Why He’ll Win - 42:15 Why He Won’t - 46:48 PERFECTING PERFECTION: RE-RANKING THE NOMS: What is Perfecting Perfection? - 48:44 The Re-Rank - 49:15 Your Homework/Our Socials - 54:14 What’s Next From MMO/Words of Wisdom - 54:50 Post Episode Kobe Thoughts - 56:00 We begin the episode with a recap of the Directors Guild of America Awards. Alma Ha’rel wins Best First Feature, and we end our opening segment by talking about all our snubs. American Factory won for Best Documentary, and we discuss how it stacks up next to other contenders like For Sama, which we review here as well. But we also breakdown the main event as Sam Mendes won his second DGA Award and what it means for 1917, Mike1’s predictions this awards season, and how predictive the DGA Awards are for the Oscars. After our snubs segment, we go into our traditional category overview format of why each nominee will win or lose before counting down how we’d rank the nominees. Will the technical achievements of 1917 win over the directors branch the way they did the DGA? Could Bong Joon Ho’s movie of the moment pull off an upset? Will a perfect storm erupt for Todd Phillips? Or could Scorsese or Tarantino defy the precursors and the stats to do the impossible? If you enjoyed this episode, then we also hoped you had fun watching the Royal Rumble. So do please leave us 5 stars on Apple Podcasts. Let us know your thoughts on Best Director or anything & everything we debated in this episode. We’re @MMandOscar on Twitter, and we are on Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Gmail. You can subscribe / rate / review / like / share / & listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Tune In, Spotify, and just about wherever you might listen. We’re Mike, Mike, & Oscar, and we’re making awards season year round, without the stuffiness. Thanks for listening.

Episode 646 - "I Lost My Body" (2019)

One Movie Punch

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 19, 2019 9:59

Hi everyone! Today, we’re welcoming back Keith Lyons to the podcast, to begin an occasional series of reviews for films featured at the Philadelphia Film Festival. Today he’ll be covering “I Lost My Body”, an animated offering currently streaming on Netflix. For a few other films reviewed by Keith, check out “Birds of Passage” (Episode #571), “Maria” (Episode #514), and his guest review for Reign of Terror 2019, covering “Son of Frankenstein” (Episode #622), along with his spectral assistance to help me escape. Before the review, we’ll have a promo from the Fab Figmentals podcast. Every episode, Lindsey Morse delivers all sorts of lore about mythical and magical creatures. Don’t miss their recent episode on the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. And definitely make sure to catch One Movie Punch Episode #598 for Lindsey’s review of “Scream” and her best scary movie phone call voice during Reign of Terror 2019. You can find them on Twitter @figmentals and on Instagram @fabfigmentals. Subscribe to stay current with the latest releases. Contribute at Patreon for exclusive content. Connect with us over social media to continue the conversation. Here we go! ///// Hi, Philly Film Fan here with another review for One Movie Punch. You can follow me on Twitter @PhillyFilmFan. Today’s movie is “I Lost My Body”, one of the films nominated for the Archie Award for Best First Feature at the Philadelphia Film Festival (also, I hear it won an award at Cannes but I didn’t make it out to that festival). The Philadelphia Film Festival began 28 years ago and I’ve been attending for the last 17. The first year I went, I wound up seeing 25 films and every year after I’ve exceeded that number. I can’t express how important this festival has been in developing my tastes as a cinefile and the important role it played in introducing me to modern filmmakers from all around the world. In the coming months I hope to share with you more of the films that I was able to see this year but for now I’m going to focus on just one: “I Lost My Body”, directed by Jérémy Clapin and based on the novel by Guillaume Laurant. The screenplay was co-written by the author and the director. No spoilers. First of all, I should note that I saw this film in French with English subtitles, where the role of Naoufel, the hapless pizza boy, is played by Hakim Faris; Gabrielle, his potential love interest, is played by Victoire Du Bois; and Gigi, a kindly old carpenter, is played by Patrick D’Assumçao. However, an English dub of this film also exists with Dev Patel as the guy, Alia Shawkat as the girl, and George Wendt as the old man. But in any language the beautiful 2D animation will be the same and that’s the real draw here. The film oscillates between a creepy sci-fi tale and a sweet coming-of-age story and the 2D animation works beautifully for both, tying them together with a melancholy string. This is a bifurcated film but its heart rests in the relationship between Naoufel and Gabrielle. Naoufel’s north African heritage has made him a bit of an outsider in his native Paris and this has clearly resulted in a shy, thoughtful young man who never seems to catch a break. He works for a pizza parlor that offers free pies for late orders and Naoufel never seems to be able to make his deliveries on time. On one particularly bad night, after riding his scooter through the rain he rolls up late to yet another address. It’s a large building and when he pushes the button for the call box, Gabrielle answers. She gently chastises him for the delay and tries to buzz him in, but Naoufel can never get the timing right for the door. The two continue to talk through the intercom and although their conversation isn’t particularly flirty, the two do manage to make a genuine human connection. Naoufel leaves without ever seeing her but Gabrielle has clearly made an impression. Not content to have this encounter simply be one of “two ships passing in the night”, Naoufel begins a naive (and somewhat misguided) attempt to rekindle their brief spark. Okay, I’m afraid that I have buried the lede here. Everything I have just described unfolds in flashback but this film has a framing device, which tells a story about, well, a severed hand. The hand has apparently been separated from Naoufel’s body but we are given no clues as to what has become of the rest of him. Oh, and this is no ordinary hand. It has sprung to life and crawls around using its fingers in a manner very reminiscent of Thing from the 90s “Addams Family” films. After awakening in a shady looking medical facility, the hand makes a daring escape and then begins a quest to reunite with the rest of its body as the film becomes a macabre version of “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey”, starring a severed body part. It’s a strange journey full of imaginative encounters that are perfectly captured by the animation. “I Lost My Body” is certainly an unconventional film. The flashbacks of Naoufel’s attempted courtship of Gabrielle, which make up most of its runtime, could actually stand on their own as a non-supernatural drama about young people finding their way in this world. But what really makes this film unique is the bizarre odyssey undertaken by a disembodied hand desperately seeking to be made whole again. And while the hand’s expedition on its own could make for an intriguing short film, it really needs the flashbacks to add depth and meaning to these events. These seemingly disparate parts were truly meant to be together and woe be to the editor who tries to cut the hand from the rest of the film. Rotten Tomatoes: 92% Metacritic: 81 One Movie Punch: 8.0/10 “I Lost My Body” (2019) is unrated and is currently playing in select theaters. It will be available to stream on Netflix starting November 29th. This jawn was brought to you by Philly Film Fan. For more movie reviews, follow me on Twitter @PhillyFilmFan where I’m participating in the #365Movies challenge. That’s P-H-I-L-L-Y-F-I-L-M-F-A-N. Thanks for listening.

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Doubting Thomas / Film School Radio interview with Director Will McFadden

director black los angeles joseph campbell best actor mcfadden doubting thomas film schools audience award best screenplay gravitas ventures sarah butler school radio best first feature

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 17, 2019

Black babies don’t come from white people. Except this one just did. That’s what Jen (Sarah Butler) tells her husband Tom (Will McFadden). He says he believes her. But soon, amidst a constant barrage of questions from everyone, Tom’s doubts and worst fears take hold. Both new parents are scared by the thoughts entering their minds, and scared to share them with each other. Baby Liam seems to love their dear friend Ron (Jamie Hector) – but why does that make it harder for Tom? And why do people keep confusing Ron for Liam’s father? Maybe because they’re both black. By the time a twist is revealed that could explain the baby’s appearance, it may be too late. Before Tom and Jen can accept their child, they’ll have to accept themselves… or face living their lives apart. Starring Will McFadden, Sarah Butler, Jamie Hector, Rob Belushi, Zach Cregger, James Morrison, and Melora Walters. Doubting Thomas, winner of Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Audience Award, Best First Feature, will begin its theatrical run in Los Angeles on Friday, October 11th, ahead of its North American VOD / Digital release on October 15th, 2019 through Gravitas Ventures. Will McFadden’s directorial debut, DOUBTING THOMAS brings unconscious racism home in the innocence of a baby. A complex tale that touches on institutional racism and assumed privilege, the concept for the film was born from the true story of a black man killed in police custody in a racially charged incident. That man's son, Joseph Campbell, shares story by credit with McFadden. Director / Co-writer / Producer and Lead Actor Will McFadden joins us to talk about his thought provoking drama that raises a multitude of questions about the relevance of family history, trust and race. For news, screenings and updates go to: doubtingthomasmovie.com Social Media: facebook.com/doubtingthomasmovie twitter.com/DoubtingMovie instagram.com/doubtingthomasmovie

(Next Up Extras: Being John Malkovich)

Next Up

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 21, 2019 18:44

Release date: October 29, 1999 (USA) Director: Spike Jonze Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman Nominations: Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, MORE Awards: Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, MORE --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/n3xtup/support

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BONUS: Neil Labute — The Best Idea Wins—Process Over Product

That One Audition with Alyshia Ochse

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 10, 2019 75:55

Today we’re taking a journey into the minds of one of the most prolific American playwrights of contemporary theater. If you’ve ever read any of his plays, had the privilege to work on any of his scripts, or sit in the audience of one of his shows, then you know the power of Neil Labute and his extraordinary body of work. His imaginative use of language, his complicated and deeply human characters, and his provocative and sometimes shocking themes are widely celebrated, sometimes criticized, but always ignite a visceral reaction from audiences world-wide. His endless body of work includes plays like Reasons to be Pretty, Fat Pig, Some Girl(s), and The Shape of Things. Neil N. LaBute is an American playwright, film director, and screenwriter. He is best-known for a play that he wrote and later adapted for film, In the Company of Men, which won awards from the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the New York Film Critics Circle. He has made himself a force to be reckoned with and a name to watch. With his true-to-life cynical and self-absorbed characters and all-too-true social themes, he has firmly established himself as an unforgiving judge of the ugliest side of human nature. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in dramatic writing from New York University and was the recipient of a literary fellowship to study at the Royal Court Theatre, London. He also attended the Sundance Institute’s Playwrights Lab and is the Playwright-in-Residence with MCC Theatre in New York City. LaBute’s plays include: BASH: LATTER-DAY PLAYS, THE SHAPE OF THINGS, THE MERCY SEAT, THE DISTANCE FROM HERE, AUTOBAHN, FAT PIG (Olivier Award nominated for Best Comedy), SOME GIRL(S), THIS IS HOW IT GOES, WRECKS, FILTHY TALK FOR TROUBLED TIMES, IN A DARK DARK HOUSE, REASONS TO BE PRETTY (Tony Award nominated for Best Play) and THE BREAK OF NOON. In 2011 his play IN A FOREST, DARK AND DEEP premiered in London’s West End. LaBute is also the author of Seconds of Pleasure, a collection of short fiction which was published by Grove Atlantic. His films include In the Company of Men (New York Critics’ Circle Award for Best First Feature and the Filmmaker Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival), Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty, Possession, The Shape of Things, a film adaptation of his play of the same title, The Wicker Man, Lakeview Terrace and Death at a Funeral. Currently, Neil Labute's show The I-land is streaming on Netflix. LINKS: IMDB: Neil's Profile BROADWAY PLAY PUBLISHING: Neil's Author Page NETFLIX: The I-Land #FABFITFUNPARTNER: Interested in becoming a FabFitFun member? Be sure to use the code 'TOA' at checkout on FabFitFun.com and get $10 off your first box! #fabfitfunpartner

'The Innocents' with 'The Babadook' and 'The Nightingale' Director Jennifer Kent

Switchblade Sisters

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2019 44:05

Jennifer Kent is probably best known for directing her 2014 film, The Babadook. The film screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014 to critical and audience acclaim, and has won over 50 international and domestic awards, including the Australian Director's Guild award for Best Director, the Australian Academy Award (AACTA) for Best Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Film, and the New York Critics Circle Awards for Best First Feature. This year now sees the release of her second feature, The Nightingale, a brutal colonial revenge tale about a woman who loses everything and joins up with an aboriginal tracker to find and inflict punishment on the men who wronged her. The movie that Jennifer has chosen to discuss is the 1961 classic, The Innocents. Jennifer elaborates on the aspects of the film that she used as direct influence for her own films. She talks about taking the young actor Noah Wiseman to the zoo in order to prepare him for the truly horrifying scenes in The Babadook. Plus, she divulges how the misconceptions about her film The Nightingale have really hurt her personally. She tells a story about how one journalist at the Venice Film festival even called her a "whore" for directing the film. And finally, if you listen all the way through the episode, you get to hear Jennifer's impeccable impression of a Tasamanian devil. You can see The Nightingale in select theaters now. And if you haven't seen The Innocents yet, go watch it! With April Wolfe and Jennifer Kent. You can let us know what you think of Switchblade Sisters on Twitter or Facebook. Or email us at switchbladesisters@maximumfun.org. Produced by Casey O'Brien and Laura Swisher for MaximumFun.org.

director sundance film festival best director best films best screenplay jennifer kent best direction switchblade sisters best first feature noah wiseman

David Reale- Start Being Passionate And Stop Trying To Be Unique

Cue To Cue: The Performers' Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2019 85:48

Actor, David Reale is joining the conversation on Cut To Cue!! David’s passion, insight-fullness, and playful spirit cut through all the noise. David has spent thousands of hours on set, teaching, and in the audition room (on both sides of the table), and today he opens up about how he personally navigates the twists and turns of the industry and shares his own personal struggles as an artist. This is NOT an episode for those who are looking to make excuses or play a victim in their lives. Today is for those who are ready to take responsibility and empower themselves to start taking action. Let’s get it!! In this episode: why you stop trying to be unique in auditions how to get your nerves to work for you and propel you to take more risks in your work how shame can rob you from fully exploring your creativity and stunt your growth as an artist How pulling an epic audition prank on a close colleague and friend turned into one of the greatest artistic experience of his life how being tenacious as an artist is directly linked to being confident as an artist What is actually happening on the otter side of the audition table A little about David: David Reale is a Toronto born actor working in film, television and theatre. Recently he starred as the title character in My Name is Asher Lev (The Segal Centre/The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre co-production). Other theatre credits include The Great Gatsby (Lower Ossington Theatre), SHEETS(The Theatre Centre) and Mirvish Productions’ Ghost Stories. He co-produced and starred in Pvt. Wars and George Bernard Shaw's The Fatal Gazogene with indie theatre stalwarts The Red One Theatre Collective. Reale starred in the critically acclaimed film BANG BANG BABY, which won Best First Feature at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. He is featured in Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, Molly’s Game and the upcoming film GEORGETOWN, directed by and starring Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz. Some of David’s television credits include recurring as Benjamin “The I.T Guy” on SUITS (USA), and guest appearances in MURDOCH MYSTERIES(CBC), The Boys (Amazon) and many more. Reale plays Charlie Cole in the Ubisoft video game franchise Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist. As a teacher, David leads classes based in the Meisner technique at the studio of his mentor, John Riven, at George Brown College’s Acting for Media and Theatre programs and at AMAW Toronto

Oh Lucy! / FIlm School interview with Director Atsuko Hirayanagi

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2018

Oh Lucy! follows Setsuko (Shinobu Terajima in an Independent Spirit Award-nominated performance), a single, emotionally unfulfilled woman, seemingly stuck with a drab, meaningless life in Tokyo. At least until she's convinced by her niece, Mika to enroll in an unorthodox English class that requires her to wear a blonde wig and take on an American alter ego named "Lucy." This new identity awakens something dormant in Setsuko, and she quickly develops romantic feelings for her American instructor, John (Josh Hartnett). When John suddenly disappears from class and Setsuko learns that he and her niece were secretly dating, Setsuko enlists the help of her sister, Ayako and the pair fly halfway across the world to the outskirts of Southern California in search of the runaway couple. In a brave new world of tattoo parlors and seedy motels, family ties and past lives are tested as Setsuko struggles to preserve the dream and promise of “Lucy.” Director Atsuko Hirayanagi (Spirit Award nominee for Best First Feature) joins us for a conversation on the challenges of making her multi-cultural comedy / drama and working with the film’s Executive Producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. For news and updates go to: ohlucyfilm.com

american director english tokyo southern california mika adam mckay film schools independent spirit awards atsuko ayako best first feature oh lucy

Wiebke von Carolsfeld - Film Editor, Writer, and Director - The Five Senses, Marion Bridge, Wrecked, Stay, and The Saver

Talking Pictures with Paul Booth

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 15, 2018 29:01

Wiebke was born and raised in Germany, eventually moving to Toronto, and starting out as an Assistant Editor for Ron Sanders on David Cronenberg's M. Butterfly. Wiebke made her directorial debut with Marion Bridge, starring Molly Parker, Rebecca Jenkins, and Ellen Page, with by Daniel MacIvor, which won Best First Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival. Other films Wiebke wrote as well as directed include the documentary Walk with Us, the Canadian/Irish co-production Stay, and more recently The Saver, starring Imajyn Cardinal and Brandon Oakes. Wiebke's credits as Film Editor include: Shoemaker, The Five Senses, Eisenstein, The Bay of Love and Sorrows, Fugitive Pieces, and Wrecked.

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Talking Pictures: Director Li Lu interview for THERE IS A NEW WORLD SOMEWHERE

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 4, 2016 59:43

Host Paul Booth interviews Director Li Lu of THERE IS A NEW WORLD SOMEWHERE. It hit VOD this week (Tuesday August 2nd) and has been doing very well on the Festival Circuit. WINNER: Best Feature Film at the Boonies International Film Festival, 2015 WINNER: Special Jury Award, Best First Feature at the Las Vegas Film Festival, 2015 WINNER: Special Jury Award, Best First Feature at the 31st LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2015 Top 10 Films of 2015 by Asian American Directors, Asia Pacific Arts Magazine

director films new world vod lilu talking pictures best first feature

Talking Pictures: (Review) There Is A New World Somewhere

Talking Pictures with Paul Booth

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2016 12:24

Host Paul Booth reviews THERE IS A NEW WORLD SOMEWHERE. It hits VOD today (August 2nd) and has been doing very well on the Festival Circuit. We will interview the Director on Thursday at 1pm PST. WINNER: Best Feature Film at the Boonies International Film Festival, 2015 WINNER: Special Jury Award, Best First Feature at the Las Vegas Film Festival, 2015 WINNER: Special Jury Award, Best First Feature at the 31st LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2015 Top 10 Films of 2015 by Asian American Directors, Asia Pacific Arts Magazine

director films new world vod talking pictures best first feature

Mina Shum & Shelwyn Jacob - 2nd Visit

Face2Face with David Peck

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 10, 2016 47:49

Photo credit: Véro Boncompagni Check out the trailer of their new NFB film Ninth Floor making its world premiere at TIFF 2015. Synopsis of Film It started quietly when a group of Caribbean students, strangers in a cold new land, began to suspect their professor of racism. It ended in the most explosive student uprising Canada had ever known. Over four decades later, Ninth Floor reopens the file on the Sir George Williams Riot – a watershed moment in Canadian race relations and one of the most contested episodes in the nation’s history. It was the late 60s, change was in the air, and a restless new generation was claiming its place– but nobody at Sir George Williams University would foresee the chaos to come. On February 11, 1969, riot police stormed the occupied floors of the main building, making multiple arrests. As fire consumed the 9th floor computer centre, a torrent of debris rained onto counter-protesters chanting racist slogans – and scores of young lives were thrown into turmoil. Making a sophisticated and audacious foray into meta-documentary, writer and director Mina Shum meets the original protagonists in clandestine locations throughout Trinidad and Montreal, the wintry city where it all went down. And she listens. Can we hope to make peace with such a painful past? What lessons have we learned? What really happened on the 9th floor? In a cinematic gesture of redemption and reckoning, Shum attends as her subjects set the record straight – and lay their burden down. Cinematography by John Price evokes a taut sense of subterfuge and paranoia, while a spacious soundscape by Miguel Nunes and Brent Belke echoes with the lonely sound of the coldest wind in the world. Mina Shum: Biography Born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, Mina Shum is an independent filmmaker and artist. “I’m the child of the Praxis Screenwriting Workshop, Cineworks Independent Film Co-op, the Canadian Film Centre and working class immigrant parents,” she says. With Ninth Floor, a production of the National Film Board of Canada, Shum has written and directed her fourth feature film and first feature documentary. Her first feature Double Happiness (1994) – developed while she was resident director at the Canadian Film Centre – premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Citation for Best Canadian Feature Film and the Toronto Metro Media Prize. It went on to win Best First Feature at the Berlin Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Torino Film Festival. Following its American premiere at Sundance, it was released theatrically in the U.S. by Fine Line/New Line Features. It was nominated for multiple Genie Awards, Canada’s top film honour, winning Best Actress for Sandra Oh, and Best Editing for Alison Grace. Shum’s second and third features – Drive, She Said (1997) and Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity (2002) – also premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity was subsequently invited to both Sundance and the Vancouver Film Festival, where it won a Special Citation for Best Screenplay (shared with co-writer Dennis Foon). It was released theatrically in Canada and the U.S. Shum’s short films include Shortchanged; Love In; Hunger; Thirsty; Me, Mom and Mona, which won a Special Jury Citation the 1993 Toronto Film Festival; Picture Perfect, nominated for Best Short Drama at the Yorkton Film Festival; and most recently I Saw Writer’s Guild Award. Her TV work ranges from Mob Princess, a TV movie produced for Brightlight Pictures/W Network, to episodic directing on About A Girl, Noah’s Arc, Exes and Oh’s, Bliss, The Shield Stories and Da Vinci’s Inquest. Shum’s interests extend beyond film and television. Her immersive video installation You Are What You Eat was held over at the Vancouver Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Centre A, and her cinematic theatre piece All, created in collaboration with the Standing Wave Music Ensemble, was presented at the 2011 Push Festival. She has hosted sold-out events for the experimental Pecha Kucha program, and her Internet hit Hip Hop Mom was featured in Calgary’s official Canada Day celebrations. In 2004 she was invited to deliver the inaugural UBC/Laurier Institute Multicultural Lecture, entitled New Day Rising: Journey of a Hyphenated Girl, and in 2011 she was the recipient of the Sondra Kelly Writer’s Guild of Canada Award. She is currently preparing her next feature, Meditation Park. Selwyn Jacob: Biography Selwyn Jacob was born in Trinidad and came to Canada in 1968 with the dream of becoming a filmmaker. It was a dream that wouldn’t die: he became a teacher and eventually a school principal but eventually chose to leave the security of that career to educate a wider audience through film. He has been a producer with the National Film Board of Canada since 1997. His early work as an independent director includes We Remember Amber Valley, a documentary about the black community that existed near Lac La Biche in Alberta. Prior to joining the NFB, he directed two award-winning NFB releases – Carol’s Mirror, and The Road Taken, which won the Canada Award at the 1998 Gemini Awards. In 1997 he joined the NFB’s Pacific & Yukon Studio in Vancouver, and has gone on to produce close to 50 NFB films. Among his many credits are Crazywater, directed by the Inuvialuit filmmaker Dennis Allen; Hue: A Matter of Colour, a co-production with Sepia Films, directed by Vic Sarin; Mighty Jerome, written and directed by Charles Officer; and the digital interactive project Circa 1948, by Vancouver artist Stan Douglas. Released in 2010, Mighty Jerome addresses issues of race and nationalism while paying tribute to Harry Jerome, one of the most remarkable athletes in Canadian history. The film went on to win multiple honours, including a Leo Award for Best Feature Length Documentary and the 2012 Regional Emmy Award for Best Historical Documentary. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

tv american canada internet canadian happiness drive mom hong kong vancouver caribbean montreal hunger mirror released prosperity calgary arc trinidad thirsty colour guild sundance exes da vinci canada day circa best actress synopsis cinematography long life toronto international film festival picture perfect she said sandra oh inquest audience award best screenplay dennis allen john price nfb toronto film festival pecha kucha national film board you are what you eat berlin film festival shum her tv best editing gemini award guild award shortchanged torino film festival double happiness leo award best first feature canadian film centre canada award stan douglas film it inuvialuit charles officer ninth floor vancouver film festival push festival special citation mina shum miguel nunes best short drama

Mina Shum and Selwyn Jacobs

Face2Face with David Peck

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 15, 2015

Photo credit: Véro BoncompagniListen in today as these filmmakers, Mina Shum and Selwyn Jacobs, talk about Canada’s hidden history, implicit and explicit racism, why we need to listen to others and why they’re confident we can overcome our fears.Check out the trailer of their new NFB film Ninth Floor making its world premiere at TIFF 2015.Synopsis of FilmIt started quietly when a group of Caribbean students, strangers in a cold new land, began to suspect their professor of racism. It ended in the most explosive student uprising Canada had ever known. Over four decades later, Ninth Floor reopens the file on the Sir George Williams Riot – a watershed moment in Canadian race relations and one of the most contested episodes in the nation’s history.It was the late 60s, change was in the air, and a restless new generation was claiming its place– but nobody at Sir George Williams University would foresee the chaos to come.On February 11, 1969, riot police stormed the occupied floors of the main building, making multiple arrests. As fire consumed the 9th floor computer centre, a torrent of debris rained onto counter-protesters chanting racist slogans – and scores of young lives were thrown into turmoil. Making a sophisticated and audacious foray into meta-documentary, writer and director Mina Shum meets the original protagonists in clandestine locations throughout Trinidad and Montreal, the wintry city where it all went down. And she listens. Can we hope to make peace with such a painful past? What lessons have we learned? What really happened on the 9th floor?In a cinematic gesture of redemption and reckoning, Shum attends as her subjects set the record straight – and lay their burden down. Cinematography by John Price evokes a taut sense of subterfuge and paranoia, while a spacious soundscape by Miguel Nunes and Brent Belke echoes with the lonely sound of the coldest wind in the world.Mina Shum: BiographyBorn in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, Mina Shum is an independent filmmaker and artist. “I’m the child of the Praxis Screenwriting Workshop, Cineworks Independent Film Co-op, the Canadian Film Centre and working class immigrant parents,” she says.With Ninth Floor, a production of the National Film Board of Canada, Shum has written and directed her fourth feature film and first feature documentary.Her first feature Double Happiness (1994) – developed while she was resident director at the Canadian Film Centre – premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Citation for Best Canadian Feature Film and the Toronto Metro Media Prize. It went on to win Best First Feature at the Berlin Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Torino Film Festival. Following its American premiere at Sundance, it was released theatrically in the U.S. by Fine Line/New Line Features. It was nominated for multiple Genie Awards, Canada’s top film honour, winning Best Actress for Sandra Oh, and Best Editing for Alison Grace.Shum’s second and third features – Drive, She Said (1997) and Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity (2002) – also premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity was subsequently invited to both Sundance and the Vancouver Film Festival, where it won a Special Citation for Best Screenplay (shared with co-writer Dennis Foon). It was released theatrically in Canada and the U.S.Shum’s short films include Shortchanged; Love In; Hunger; Thirsty; Me, Mom and Mona, which won a Special Jury Citation the 1993 Toronto Film Festival; Picture Perfect, nominated for Best Short Drama at the Yorkton Film Festival; and most recently I Saw Writer’s Guild Award.Her TV work ranges from Mob Princess, a TV movie produced for Brightlight Pictures/W Network, to episodic directing on About A Girl, Noah’s Arc, Exes and Oh’s, Bliss, The Shield Stories and Da Vinci’s Inquest.Shum’s interests extend beyond film and television. Her immersive video installation You Are What You Eat was held over at the Vancouver Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Centre A, and her cinematic theatre piece All, created in collaboration with the Standing Wave Music Ensemble, was presented at the 2011 Push Festival. She has hosted sold-out events for the experimental Pecha Kucha program, and her Internet hit Hip Hop Mom was featured in Calgary’s official Canada Day celebrations.In 2004 she was invited to deliver the inaugural UBC/Laurier Institute Multicultural Lecture, entitled New Day Rising: Journey of a Hyphenated Girl, and in 2011 she was the recipient of the Sondra Kelly Writer’s Guild of Canada Award.She is currently preparing her next feature, Meditation Park.Selwyn Jacob: BiographySelwyn Jacob was born in Trinidad and came to Canada in 1968 with the dream of becoming a filmmaker. It was a dream that wouldn’t die: he became a teacher and eventually a school principal but eventually chose to leave the security of that career to educate a wider audience through film. He has been a producer with the National Film Board of Canada since 1997.His early work as an independent director includes We Remember Amber Valley, a documentary about the black community that existed near Lac La Biche in Alberta. Prior to joining the NFB, he directed two award-winning NFB releases – Carol’s Mirror, and The Road Taken, which won the Canada Award at the 1998 Gemini Awards.In 1997 he joined the NFB’s Pacific & Yukon Studio in Vancouver, and has gone on to produce close to 50 NFB films. Among his many credits are Crazywater, directed by the Inuvialuit filmmaker Dennis Allen; Hue: A Matter of Colour, a co-production with Sepia Films, directed by Vic Sarin; Mighty Jerome, written and directed by Charles Officer; and the digital interactive project Circa 1948, by Vancouver artist Stan Douglas.Released in 2010, Mighty Jerome addresses issues of race and nationalism while paying tribute to Harry Jerome, one of the most remarkable athletes in Canadian history. The film went on to win multiple honours, including a Leo Award for Best Feature Length Documentary and the 2012 Regional Emmy Award for Best Historical Documentary. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

tv american canada internet canadian happiness drive mom hong kong vancouver caribbean montreal hunger mirror released prosperity calgary arc jacobs trinidad thirsty colour guild sundance exes da vinci canada day circa best actress synopsis cinematography long life toronto international film festival picture perfect she said sandra oh inquest audience award best screenplay dennis allen selwyn john price nfb toronto film festival pecha kucha national film board you are what you eat berlin film festival shum her tv best editing gemini award guild award shortchanged torino film festival double happiness leo award best first feature canadian film centre canada award stan douglas inuvialuit charles officer vancouver film festival push festival ninth floor special citation mina shum miguel nunes best short drama

E203: Scare LA Prep- Jacob Chase on Creating a Compelling Narrative in Your Haunt

Haunted Attraction Network

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2015 15:41

To have show notes automatically emailed to you, text “NOTES203” to 33444. In this mini-series we’ll be prepping you to attend Scare LA, and if you can’t attend then you’ll still get a few takeaways to practice in your own haunt! In this podcast, Jacob discusses his upcoming class and the importance of storytelling suspense to deliver maximum fear in your haunt. Key Points: Keep it simple Repetition is crucial Suspense can be more impactful than jump scares Suspense dissipates with jump scares, which makes your Haunt's Rhythm important Proper scare plot testing is important What's the one thing any haunter can do right now? Have a key villain character; hold that character back the entire time until the finale. Jacob Chase is one of the key minds behind "Big Worm's Sherwood Scare," a non-profit haunted house that raises money for Big Worm's Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He’s a writer/director whose first feature film THE FOUR-FACED LIAR premiered at Slamdance and went on to win the HBO Audience Award for “Best First Feature” at Outfest 2010. Jacob will be teaching “Plotting Suspense: Creating a Compelling Narrative in Your Haunt” on Sunday August 9th at 5Pm for the upcoming Scare LA this weekend (August 8-9 of 2015). Seminar Link: http://sched.co/3iov Connect With Jacob: Jacob's Website: http://www.jacob-chase.com/Landing.html Jacob's Resume: http://www.jacob-chase.com/Editor_Reel_files/Jacob_Chase_Editor_Resume_0415.pdf Sherwood Scare: http://sherwoodscare.com/ Jacob on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0153774/?ref_=nmmd_md_nm Jacob's film "Amy": https://vimeo.com/127628027 The Four-Faced Liar: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1174693/

narrative prep landing imdb compelling haunt slamdance outfest best first feature scarela key points keep editor reel

Terry McMahon - Irish Writer/Director - Charlie Casanova and Patrick's Day

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2015 29:01

Writer-Director Terry McMahon’s controversial debut Charlie Casanova won Best First Feature at Galway Film Fleadh and was distributed by Studio Canal. His follow up feature, Patrick’s Day, won The Directors Guild of America Finders Series Award, The Grand Jury Prize at Woodstock Film Festival, Best Film at Galway Film Fleadh and the Audience Award at Cork Film Festival. Patrick’s Day is about a young man with mental health issues who become intimate with a suicidal flight attendant and his obsessive mother enlists a dysfunctional cop to separate them.

irish casanova writer director best films grand jury prize best first feature terry mcmahon

InConversation With Terry McMahon

Film Ireland Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2014 81:50

This episode of InConversation features writer/director Terry McMahon, who made his feature debut with the hugely controversial Charlie Casanova. Winner of ‘Best First Feature’ at The Galway Film Fleadh, nominated for four Irish Film and Television Awards, and picked up for distribution by Studio Canal, Charlie Casanova broke the mould for Irish independent film. McMahon followed that up with Patrick’s Day, which had its world premiere at SXSW and his next feature, the scabrously black romantic comedy, Oliver Twisted is currently in development with The Irish Film Board and producer Tim Palmer. Awarded Best Director at Melbourne Underground Film Festival and winner of the RKO Pictures Hartley-Merrill International Screenwriting Award in Cannes, the Tiernan MacBride Screenwriting Award and nominated for The Irish Screenwriters and Playwrights Guild Award, McMahon has also lectured on screenwriting and acting in Trinity College Dublin, IADT, UCD, The John Huston Film School and The Casa del Cinema in Rome.

movies film ireland irish rome winner casa cinema dublin sxsw cannes mcmahon trinity college dublin ucd studiocanal tim palmer irish film television awards galway film fleadh iadt best first feature irish film board terry mcmahon melbourne underground film festival filmbase

Davy Rothbart - Magazine Editor, Author, Radio Producer, and Filmmaker - Medora - Available on iTunes

kansas montana filmmakers davy magazine editors radio producer medora best first feature davy rothbart

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 7, 2014 29:01

Davy is the creator and editor of FOUND Magazine, author of My Heart Is An Idiot, a book of personal essays, and The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas, a collection of stories, and he is a frequent contributor to public radio’s This American Life. Davy’s work also appears in GQ, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Grantland. Davy’s directed two documentaries about the punk rock band Rise Against and videos for the Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project. In 2010, the film Easier With Practice, adapted from one of his GQ articles, and starring Brian Geraghty as Davy, won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Davy’s most recent documentary is the upcoming film, Medora, is an in-depth, deeply personal look at small-town life, a thrilling, underdog basketball story, and an inspiring tale of a community refusing to give up hope despite the brutal odds stacked against them. Medora has screened in festivals and threaters around the US and is available on streaming via iTunes worldwide.

Davy Rothbart - Magazine Editor, Author, Radio Producer, and Filmmaker