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INDIEPIX SPONSORS ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL
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Ann Arbor, Michigan. A land of snowy flakes collapsing on the ground ... a ground comprised of concrete ... concrete holding up a row of small shops ... small shops that close early, sneakily leaving you hungry if you stay up past midnight and happen to find yourself without the charm of a trusty refrigerator filled to the brim with food. Luckily, that same street is book-ended by two of the coolest theaters I've been to in recent memory (excluding Austin's Alamo Drafthouse, of course). The Michigan theater and the Michigan State theater served as home to the 46th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival, a hotspot of experimental film activity.
Reminding me very much of a night at the Anthology Film Archives, the fest served up a stew of edgy and outré soup. Let it be known that this was the first time I entered a packed house of over a hundred people watching zig-zagging lines set to bleeping sounds. Which, in my book, is a beautiful thing.
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THE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL SUMMIT - London, April 15-16
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The INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL SUMMIT (known as IFFS) is a conference of festival directors who meet discretely to discuss their mutual problems and opportunities. It's not easy being a festival director these days, when 60 to 70 percent of the cost of the festival comes from sponsors and grantors and only 30 to 40 percent of the costs are covered by festival attendees. And yet the directors of these events represent the broader interests of the independent film community in finding and promoting the newest filmmakers and the best work available. In our view, they are heroes!
IndiePix has been a sponsor of the IFFS at their US meeting in Las Vegas in the late fall and this year at their London meeting. Attending were directors from Sheffield, London, Glasgow, Monaco, Dublin and 15 others. IndiePix was a co-sponsor along with "Without A Box" -- the festival applications facilitator that contributes mightily to the smooth functioning of these events.
Bob was on a panel with the festival director from the RainDance Festival (in London) and the creative director from Babelgum. They talked about new forms of distribution and how festivals might be able to benefit from that. [An IndiePix "White Paper" on new distribution will be available on request.] Write us at newsletter@indiepix.net. We are totally focused on the year-round function of these festivals and are working directly with Big Sky in Montana, the Ann Arbor Festival in Michigan, and have recently had talks with Full Frame on this topic. The IFFS stages and manages these events very well. They are small, focused, informal and productive. We were very happy to be part of this one.
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SKID ROW SCREENS IN BROOKLYN WITH MORE DATES TO FOLLOW!
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SKID ROW, the expose on the Los Angeles homelessness epidemic distributed by IndiePix and Nelson Madison Films/IndieRights, screened for the organization Black Professionals in the City at NY Perks in Brooklyn on April 16th.
Ms. Kathy Ollivierre brought the film to this influential group to share a disturbing but hopeful message. In LA County African Americans make up 9% of the total population, but over 40% of the homeless population. Yet people like Orlando Ward, himself once homeless and living on Skid Row, now an anti-poverty activist working for the Midnight Mission are proof that change is possible.
The screening was a complete success, and was the first in an ever-increasing slate of screenings to be hosted by private individuals to raise awareness about the film and the issues at stake. IndiePix has partnered with Brave New Theaters to organize and host these screenings all over the country. Currently there are two more scheduled in Brooklyn, and another upcoming in Arizona. Check out Brave New Theaters for the latest available screenings, or purchase the Skid Row Activist Edition to get involved in hosting your own screening and fundraising events.
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INDIEPIX SPONSORS PARTY AT FULL FRAME DOC FILM FESTIVAL
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Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Gray skies and drizzly raindroplets. Raindroplets falling on the heads of filmgoers... the heads of filmgoers that contain eyeballs. Eyeballs watching documentary films. Wonderful documentary films. This is the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Though some have called it more of a conference than a festival, Full Frame continues to uphold their tradition of using a sleepy North Carolina town as the setting for showing powerful documentary films. We happened to be a sponsor again this year, putting on a party for filmmakers at the much loved American Tobacco Campus. In attendance were James Marsh (MAN ON WIRE), Jesse Epstein (34 x 24 x 36), William Greaves (SYMBIO-PSYCHOTAXIPLASM), Tanaz Eshaghian (BE LIKE OTHERS), and Jon Reiss (BOMB IT), all amazing filmmakers in and of themselves - but all together in a room, almost too much to handle!
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DANIELLE GOES TO HOT DOCS
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| Head programmer Sean Farnel and his unstoppable team proved yet again that Toronto's Hot Docs is a nonfiction forced to be reckoned with; a must-stop on any true documentary professional's festival schedule. IndiePix's resident docu-nerd, Danielle DiGiacomo, attended with a number of her pals and colleagues, most notably Tribeca Gucci Fund/independent producer Ryan Harrington and filmmaker Lucia Small, whose award-winning film AN AXE IN THE ATTIC, will be released by IndiePix in the fall. During an action-packed 5 days, DiGiacomo saw a number of promising works-in-progress (which shall remain unnamed at this juncture) as well as numerous finished ones. Highlights included SEAVIEW, Nicky Gogan and Paul Rowley's exploration of a former holiday camp turned holding centre for international asylum seekers (which Danielle had seen when the film was called MOSNEY at last fall's IFP); Alison Murray's CARNEY, a beautifully shot, slow-burning study of the lives of travelling fairground workers; and the short UK gem, PETER AND BEN, a rumination on a solitary man's friendship with his sheep that becomes a meditation on love in general. Several other films (viewed by our intrepid IndiePixer at other festivals) worth mentioning are Cynthia Lester's MY MOTHER'S GARDEN (check out AJ Schnack's take here, Greg Koh's SONG SUNG BLUE (which one both major documentary awards at Slamdance), and Steve James' AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR. Not a "party" festival (meetings are the name of the game here), there was still much fun to be had at the Sutton Place bar and daily cocktail mixer. Dinners with lovely folks such as Shooting People's Ingrid Kopp, BritDocs' lovely Maxyne Franklin, SnagFilms guru Andrew Mer, Cactus 3's Krysanne Katsoulis, Participant Production's Courtney Sexton, and Channel 4's Sandra Whipman were both delicious and productive! HotDocs -- yet another reason to love Canada.
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INDIEPIX HEADS TO IFFB WITH DANIELLE SPEAKING ON DISTRIBUTION PANEL
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The Independent Film Festival of Boston, always brilliantly curated by a man of good taste Adam Roffman, had one of the best short film line-ups I've seen all year. From the gorgeously lush GLORY AT SEA - a love letter to Katrina victims - to the unexpected romance imbued in a zombie killer flick in I LOVE SARAH JANE, to Jesse Epstein's epic observations on the female body as seen through the eyes of a mannequin factory in 34 x 25 x 36; to the shockingly hilarious tragic car crash of SPIDER; to the delicate blueness of "AQUARIUM"...these films gave me a new respect and love for everything cortometraje.
Danielle was on hand at the distribution panel moderated by Amy Dotson, manager of programming for IFP. Held at the Burro (one of my favorite Bostonian hangouts), attendees were genuinely hungry for help. Topics addressed ranged from who to look up if you have a hot horror film to the politics of the educational market. Speaking alongside IndiePix were reps from Current TV, Spout.com, and Ourstage.
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INDIEPIXER GAURI ATTENDS INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL IN LOS ANGELES
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IndiePix's Gauri Sathe (who also heads our Indie-India initiative) was called to be a part of the One-on-One sessions at the Indian Film festival of Los Angeles that took place from April 22-27. She came back not only impressed at how prepared the filmmakers were to pitch their projects, but also at the great line up of films and other events surrounding the film festival.
One event worth a special mention is the presentation by PricewaterhouseCoopers at the CAA on the growth in the Indian media industry over the next five years. A brilliant presentation with facts, figures and analysis was an eye-opener on the possibilities for IndiePix within that market. The panel included Manny Nunez and Marcel Fenez discussing the opportunities for big name studios and smaller niche companies in this country of one billion film fans.
The quality of films at IFFLA was better than most Indian festivals in the US. Chris Smith's THE POOL, Santosh Sivan's BEFORE THE RAINS, Manish Acharya's LOINS OF PUNJAB, along with strong short programs made the film viewing experience a real pleasure during Gauri's short stay of 3 days. We definitely want to be involved in the festival much more in the coming years.
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EVERY GOOD THING TO RUST AND DEPLOYMENT STRATEGY SCREEN AT THE ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES NEWFILMMAKER's SERIES
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IndiePix was proud to support two of its filmmakers, John Yost and Mark Cheng as they screened their films EVERY GOOD THING TO RUST and DEPLOYMENT STRATEGY as part of the Anthology Film Archives weekly NewFilmmakers Series. The April 30th edition was a highly-entertaining night of fantasy and horror programming, and the NewFilmmakers audience was treated to five hours of films for only $5. DEPLOYMENT'S STRATEGY, Mark Cheng's innovative science fiction short exploring the moral issues surrounding artificial intelligence, was part of the 7pm shorts program. EVERY GOOD THING TO RUST, John Yost's feature film detailing the breakdown of friendships and basic humanity in the face of an unknown cataclysmic event, rounded out the event. Mr. Yost discussed the film afterwards in a lively Q&A.
Attendance to the event was down with events for the Tribeca Film Festival in full swing all over town (thank you Mr. Deniro!), but for those who missed it, both films are now available on DVD and Download-to-Own. Check out www.indiepixfilms.com/everygoodthingtorust, and www.indiepixfilms.com/deploymentstrategy for film and festival information, trailers, stills, and to purchase these incredible independent films for your home collection.
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