By Kerry O’Donnell

The Reel Festival (formally the Reel Movement) will take place from May 28th to June 1st at the Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Square, Somerville, MA. The festival, organized by filmmakers Rod Webber, Ali Jalet and David Grophear, is a quarterly independent film showcase, featuring all genres, lengths and styles of films.

According to Webber, “The Reel Festival is a collaborative of like-minded individuals who share more than a dream. They share a mission. Our goal is to create a seed-bed for films which personify innovation, individuality and daring strokes of bold new cinema.

“Boston is known for its history and its wealth of universities and artists, but it has also got a vibrant filmmaking community, which has seen an explosion in the past couple of years, with the passing of tax incentives.” said Webber. “Being the birthplace of the American Revolution, it is no surprise that it has given birth to a new revolution in film.”

Webber said it is in that spirit that the festival organizers “hope to achieve a place for film that embodies individuality and expressiveness. Films that challenge and explore.” The festival’s formula is to headline a feature film, along with several dozen shorts. The last Reel Festival featured Webber’s controversial documentary A Man Among Giants and garnered attention from both the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe.

Webber, about whom the Boston Globe wrote, “the [director] to watch,” will be featuring his experimental film Northern Comfort, starring Webber and Greta Gerwig (Greenberg, Friends with Benefits), The film, shot in three days, is described as an existentialist character-study, in which Webber and Gerwig encounter a slice of snowy, northern Americana as they walk, talk, and drive their way to Canada for employment and health-care, respectively.

The main characters, Horace (Webber) and Cassandra (Gerwig), meet while traveling to Canada. Guided only by a set of books-on-tape of Greek philosopher Socrates, and bound together by circumstance, the mismatched duo must learn to work together or meander aimlessly throughout the frozen wilderness. When Cassandra is confronted with the reality that her sickness is worsening, she must decide whether to stick it out with Horace, or find her own way, knowing that her time is running out.

The Reel Festival is still accepting shorts of any genre for this month’s festival. Webber said they are also looking for features for the August/September showcase. For anyone wishing to submit, Webber can be reached at rod@rodwebber.com. Adds Webber, “We will consider any kind of movie. Just as long as you have something to say, we’ll help you say it.”

Keeping it Reel: A Unique Opportunity for Local Filmmakers | NewEnglandFilm.com.

Kendra Marshall @blip.tv

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq3nKQ9dqHQ

Contact info:
CarySontag.com
Cary Sontag @YouTube

The following are Michael Lynne’s opening remarks from Friday’s Independent Film Summit, presented by MoMA & indieWIRE (with Zipline Entertainment).

Ira Deutchman, Ted Hope, Michael Lynne and James Schamus at the Independent Film Summit. Photo by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE

As someone who grew up in the independent film world and helped shepherd a company from “Reefer Madness” to “Lord of the Rings,” it is a pleasure to be here today.

I think it is ironic that I have been asked to kick-off this Independent Film Summit, having been a principal in perhaps the most successful independent film company in history – which has nevertheless become one of the biggest victims of the consolidation of film production and distribution that has so negatively affected the independent film universe.  Fortunately, we are living to fight another day in our new production company, Unique Features.

There are however, several very telling points which can be made in this regard:

1 – If you are independent and value the freedom which that brings – stay independent.  There is no free lunch – if you are owned by a major studio, you will ultimately be governed by major studio guidelines and major studio decision-making.  It is kind of a Faustian bargain.  When New Line agreed to be acquired by Turner Broadcasting, we had access to wherewithal for production and distribution substantially beyond what was available to us as a free standing public company.  The ambitions which we had for New Line could be accelerated by years.  But there was a catch – as Ted Turner said to us about six months after the merger when we referred to him as our partner – “Yes, guys, we are partners in a way and we are definitely friends – but you did sell your company to me – let’s just keep that in mind as we go forward.”

2 – Independent filmmaking emerged in a significant way in the early ‘80s with the arrival of New Line, Miramax, Cannon, New World, Tri-Star and others.  Each of those companies had a game plan and a strategy for the space they would occupy in the industry landscape.  It was an earlier time of irrational exuberance and lots of capital and very expensive debt was available.  The anticipation that we were on the brink of a new generation of film companies, was palpable.  Obviously, some of those companies have left a significant film legacy, but the truth is, and this is very telling, none of them today, if they exist at all, exist in the same ownership configuration in whichthey existed then.  And none is truly independent now.

3 – Just as there was an opportunity then for independent, maverick organizations to make films for underserved audiences and to create new paradigms, the same opportunity will undoubtedly come out of the very difficult times for independent filmmaking today as fresh, out-of-the-box thinking on content and delivery, from passionate and talented filmmakers and producers, finds its way through the ambient noise of the establishment to a public hungry for the new.  It may be one of us in this room – or it may be a kid with a dream, a digital camera and a fire in his or her belly.

4 – We should be prepared to rethink all of the commonly accepted practices and pre-conceptions about film production and film distribution.  There is and will be less funding available for the production of independent films and for the release of those films.  (In fact, there will be less funding available for the production and distribution of films in general.)  We will see the conventional timing and formats for film viewing re-invented to a meaningful degree.  Where films are seen, when they are seen, who pays for them to be seen, are all going to change dramatically in the next 5 to 10 years.  Some of those changes will make the process easier and some will make it much harder.

Read more… Michael Lynne  ‘Stay independent’

Source: indieWIRE

Paul and his Mom

I Covered My Eyes (2008)

Paul Turano

I Covered My Eyes investigates childhood notions of threat and safety by juxtaposing TV news broadcasts of tragic world events with home movie footage. The project was first conceived after seeing the televised images broadcast live on September 11 2001, and wondering what children must be feeling upon witnessing this horrific act within our own borders.

Soon after, director Paul Turano wrote a list of the tragic events he distinctly remembered witnessing on TV as a child in the 1970s and early 1980s. By adopting a child’s perspective, the film evokes his experience of learning about the outside world through news broadcasts, and the accompanying realization of threatened safety from forces outside his immediate family and community. As the sense of vulnerability grows throughout the film from abstract threats to more immediate and actual ones, the seemingly innocent and idyllic world of his childhood becomes overshadowed by an increasing awareness of its fragility and precariousness.

According to the report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers, indie companies such as Lucky 7, which made film Modigliani about the life of the Italian artist and Palm Tree UK, behind feature films Lost in Landscape and Winter Warrior, have gone bust.

The company Stormrider Films, which had scheduled to bring out “a British sci-fi feature film like no other ever produced in the UK” with CGI effects, called Kaleidoscope Man, has also gone bankrupt. Christian Colson, producer of Slumdog Millionaire, fears that the trend might ultimately leave Britain drained of creativity

“It will be easier to get a 100m dollars film made than a really good 15m-dollar film,” The Independent quoted him as saying.  John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council, admitted that independent film companies “are facing something of a perfect storm”.

Read more … UK film industry facing most hostile environment in years | Entertainment and Showbiz!.

The articles that I’ve chosen for review are by Anne Thompson, columnist for Variety. Both articles detail the facts of Indie decline and are well worth your time.

Theoretically, in America we have a capitalistic financial system. In this system, some large and small businesses will fail as the economy deteriorates. Small independent businesses are especially susceptible. That’s not to say that some shouldn’t, due to poor planning, poor product and poor management. But in America today, I don’t see capitalism. I’m not sure what the system is called but I’ve observed its behavior. It props up and bails out poorly managed large businesses while letting small businesses and individuals fail, in true capitalistic form. And as if that wasn’t enough, it allows these same poorly managed large businesses to buy the assets of the small.

But what can anyone do to change this? Plenty. We in the independent media community or for that matter in any independent community can build coalitions of like-minded people and spend our dollars to support each other, our ideas, and our products. In that way, we are really supporting ourselves. At the end of the day, it really is up to us, if we’d only recognize it.

From Variety

Indie sector on shaky ground
Another Indie Bites the Dust: Tartan Shutters