This first feature of Kirsten Tan premiered in Sundance ‘17 World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Its provenance is Singapore but it takes place in Thailand. It continued onward to the Hivos Tiger Competition at Iffr (R’dam).
The thrill of interviewing here in Sundance is that you see a film; you have an impression and while it is still fresh you meet the filmmakers without having much time for any research or reflection. And then you get to see them again as “old friends” when you meet again in Rotterdam.
As Kirsten, her producer Weijie Lai and I sat down at the Sundance Co-op on Main Street here in Park City, I really had little idea of where the interview would take us, somewhat analogously to her film in which an architect, disenchanted with life in general, being put aside as “old” in his own highly successful architectural firm and in a stale relationship with his wife,...
The thrill of interviewing here in Sundance is that you see a film; you have an impression and while it is still fresh you meet the filmmakers without having much time for any research or reflection. And then you get to see them again as “old friends” when you meet again in Rotterdam.
As Kirsten, her producer Weijie Lai and I sat down at the Sundance Co-op on Main Street here in Park City, I really had little idea of where the interview would take us, somewhat analogously to her film in which an architect, disenchanted with life in general, being put aside as “old” in his own highly successful architectural firm and in a stale relationship with his wife,...
- 2/7/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Stephen Elliott’s After Adderall, a non-documentary account of what happens when James Franco enters your life, will close this year’s Slamdance festival in Park City, Utah, on January 26. Elliott’s The Adderall Diaries, an offbeat blend of addiction memoir and true crime story, was a critical darling and bestseller in 2009. The 2015 James Franco-starring movie version, which debuted at that year’s Tribeca Film Festival, not so much. In After Adderall, Elliott directs a…...
- 1/10/2017
- Deadline
In 2015, Stephen Elliott sat in a dark theater during the Tribeca Film Festival and watched what was supposed to be the movie of his life. The film was “The Adderall Diaries,” based on Elliott’s 2009 memoir “The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir of Mood, Masochism, and Murder.” It’s a raw journalistic exploration of memory versus truth and how a young man deals with his troubled childhood, his time in group homes as a ward of the state and his damaged relationship with his abusive father.
Continue reading Author/Director Stephen Elliott Talks ‘The Adderall Diaries’ Adaptation, ‘After Adderall,’ James Franco & More at The Playlist.
Continue reading Author/Director Stephen Elliott Talks ‘The Adderall Diaries’ Adaptation, ‘After Adderall,’ James Franco & More at The Playlist.
- 9/22/2016
- by Lora Grillo
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Raindance chief picks five films to look out for at the forthcoming festival.Scroll down for picks
Raindance founder Elliot Grove has selected his five must-see films of this year’s edition (Sept 21 - Oct 2), which was unveiled yesterday.
Grove told Screen about this year’s selection: “This year, we received a record-breaking number of submissions from 98 countries. This has given our programmers the heart-breaking job of deciding which of the many films submitted should be shown. This has become a huge responsibility. Programmers know that a Raindance screening is a launch pad to Europe and America.
“The Raindance mission is to discover new talent from wherever it comes – and it does arrive from the most unexpected quarters. We also look for deeply passionate and personal stories told in an entertaining manner. We favour extreme topics told in extreme ways – the types of films that don’t get made inside the industry system. And of course...
Raindance founder Elliot Grove has selected his five must-see films of this year’s edition (Sept 21 - Oct 2), which was unveiled yesterday.
Grove told Screen about this year’s selection: “This year, we received a record-breaking number of submissions from 98 countries. This has given our programmers the heart-breaking job of deciding which of the many films submitted should be shown. This has become a huge responsibility. Programmers know that a Raindance screening is a launch pad to Europe and America.
“The Raindance mission is to discover new talent from wherever it comes – and it does arrive from the most unexpected quarters. We also look for deeply passionate and personal stories told in an entertaining manner. We favour extreme topics told in extreme ways – the types of films that don’t get made inside the industry system. And of course...
- 8/26/2016
- ScreenDaily
This year’s festival will include an inaugural virtual reality strand and a co-production forum focused on UK-Ibero-American relations.Scroll down for line-up
The 24th Raindance Film Festival has revealed its line-up, with 90 feature films set to be screened in London September 21 – October 2.
This year’s jury will be comprised of Stephen Fry (V For Vendetta), Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous), Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), Jodie Whittaker (Broadchurch), Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies), Jack Davenport (Pirates Of The Caribbean), Nicholas Pinnock (Top Boy) and American artist David Datuna.
They will preside over awards for a competition line-up that features the international premiere of Stephen Elliott’s After Adderall, a semi-autobiographical story about the production of the film adaptation of Elliott’s memoirs. Receiving its European premiere will be Japanese director Yoshiyuki Kishi’s A Double Life, about a young woman who is assigned to follow a stranger.
Among the seven UK premieres playing in competition are Indian drama [link=tt...
The 24th Raindance Film Festival has revealed its line-up, with 90 feature films set to be screened in London September 21 – October 2.
This year’s jury will be comprised of Stephen Fry (V For Vendetta), Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous), Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), Jodie Whittaker (Broadchurch), Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies), Jack Davenport (Pirates Of The Caribbean), Nicholas Pinnock (Top Boy) and American artist David Datuna.
They will preside over awards for a competition line-up that features the international premiere of Stephen Elliott’s After Adderall, a semi-autobiographical story about the production of the film adaptation of Elliott’s memoirs. Receiving its European premiere will be Japanese director Yoshiyuki Kishi’s A Double Life, about a young woman who is assigned to follow a stranger.
Among the seven UK premieres playing in competition are Indian drama [link=tt...
- 8/25/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Title: The Adderall Diaries Lionsgate Director: Pamela Romanowsky Writer: Stephen Elliott, Pamela Romanowsky Cast: Amber Heard, James Franco, Christian Slater, Ed Harris, Jim Parrack, Wilmer Valderrama, Cynthia Nixon Running Time: 87 min Rated: R (Language, Drug Use, Sexuality) Special Features: Deleted Scenes; A Director’s Perspective Featurette; Audio Commentary with Director Pamela Romanowsky Available On Blu-ray: July 12 Stephen Elliot (James Franco; 127 Hours) is a bestselling writer with an over abundance of offers from publishers. While working on his next book, famous tech nerd Hans Reiser (Christian Slater, Mr. Robot) stands trial accused of murdering his wife and Stephen smells a great story. He meets another writer, Lana (Amber Heard, [ Read More ]
The post The Adderall Diaries Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post The Adderall Diaries Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 7/31/2016
- by juliana
- ShockYa
The debut edition of The Rumpus Lo-Fi Film Festival unspools this coming Saturday, July 30, at the Brewery Arts Complex in Los Angeles. Encompassing four features and two panels, the one-day event is, according to author, filmmaker and The Rumpus founder Stephen Elliott, an extension of the literary site’s personality and ethos into the film festival world as well as a kind of a Diy battle cry. Frustrated by the festival rejection notices he was receiving for his third feature, After Adderall, Elliot surveyed other filmmakers about their festival submission experiences. He published the results in a much-debated blog post […]...
- 7/24/2016
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
“Franco and Harris are blistering as a father and son confronting their past.” — says Dan Callahan of The Wrap on the new thriller The Adderall Diaries.
The Adderall Diaries is A Twisted Journey Through Sex, Drugs, and Lies that Unfolds on Blu-ray™ and DVD on July 5 from Lionsgate
Follow a troubled author’s journey to uncover the truth of his past in the sexy, gritty film The Adderall Diaries, arriving on Blu-ray and DVD July 5 from Lionsgate. Theatrically released by A24, the film stars Academy Award® nominee James Franco (Best Actor, 127 Hours, 2010), four-time Academy Award® nominee Ed Harris (Best Supporting Actor, Apollo 13, 1995), Amber Heard (The Danish Girl), with Cynthia Nixon (HBO’s “Sex and the City”), and Golden Globe® winner Christian Slater (TV’s “Mr. Robot”). Nominated for Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, The Adderall Diaries is written and directed by Pamela Romanowsky (The Color of Time) and executive produced by Robert Redford (A Walk in the Woods). Oscar® nominee James Franco is riveting as a famous but troubled author whose fascination with a high-profile murder case brings his own dark past into focus. Based on the best-selling book by Stephen Elliott,The Adderall Diaries follows one man’s desperate journey through sex, drugs, and lies as he tries to separate fact from fiction and ignite a life-changing romance. Ed Harris and Amber Heard costar in this gritty story about the shocking discoveries that lie beneath the truth.
Enter for a chance to win the The Adderall Diaries Blu-ray
1. You must have a U.S. mailing address.
2. No purchase necessary.
Now you can own a Free Blu-ray of The Adderall Diaries.We Are Movie geeks has two copies to give away. All you have to do is to leave a comment below and state your favorite James Franco movie (mine is The Interview!)
The home entertainment release of The Adderall Diaries includes audio commentary with the director, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and deleted scenes. The Adderall Diaries will be available on Blu-ray and DVD for the suggested retail price of $24.99 and $19.98, respectively.
Blu-ray/DVD Special Features*
Deleted Scenes Audio Commentary with Director Pamela Romanowsky “The Adderall Diaries: A Director’s Perspective” Featurette
The post Wamg Giveaway – Win The Adderall Diaries Blu-ray – Stars James Franco appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.
The Adderall Diaries is A Twisted Journey Through Sex, Drugs, and Lies that Unfolds on Blu-ray™ and DVD on July 5 from Lionsgate
Follow a troubled author’s journey to uncover the truth of his past in the sexy, gritty film The Adderall Diaries, arriving on Blu-ray and DVD July 5 from Lionsgate. Theatrically released by A24, the film stars Academy Award® nominee James Franco (Best Actor, 127 Hours, 2010), four-time Academy Award® nominee Ed Harris (Best Supporting Actor, Apollo 13, 1995), Amber Heard (The Danish Girl), with Cynthia Nixon (HBO’s “Sex and the City”), and Golden Globe® winner Christian Slater (TV’s “Mr. Robot”). Nominated for Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, The Adderall Diaries is written and directed by Pamela Romanowsky (The Color of Time) and executive produced by Robert Redford (A Walk in the Woods). Oscar® nominee James Franco is riveting as a famous but troubled author whose fascination with a high-profile murder case brings his own dark past into focus. Based on the best-selling book by Stephen Elliott,The Adderall Diaries follows one man’s desperate journey through sex, drugs, and lies as he tries to separate fact from fiction and ignite a life-changing romance. Ed Harris and Amber Heard costar in this gritty story about the shocking discoveries that lie beneath the truth.
Enter for a chance to win the The Adderall Diaries Blu-ray
1. You must have a U.S. mailing address.
2. No purchase necessary.
Now you can own a Free Blu-ray of The Adderall Diaries.We Are Movie geeks has two copies to give away. All you have to do is to leave a comment below and state your favorite James Franco movie (mine is The Interview!)
The home entertainment release of The Adderall Diaries includes audio commentary with the director, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and deleted scenes. The Adderall Diaries will be available on Blu-ray and DVD for the suggested retail price of $24.99 and $19.98, respectively.
Blu-ray/DVD Special Features*
Deleted Scenes Audio Commentary with Director Pamela Romanowsky “The Adderall Diaries: A Director’s Perspective” Featurette
The post Wamg Giveaway – Win The Adderall Diaries Blu-ray – Stars James Franco appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.
- 6/15/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Stephen Elliott is an author, filmmaker, and founding editor of the respected literary web site, The Rumpus. He co-wrote and directed the James Franco-starring About Cherry, which premiered at The Berlin International Film Festival in 2012 before screening at other festivals. And the film The Adderall Diaries, based on his memoir of the same name, premiered at Tribeca in 2015. With these credentials, he (rightly?) assumed that his own second feature, Happy Baby, based on his novel of the same name, had a reasonable chance of getting accepted into one of the more than 15 film festivals he submitted to. But, it […]...
- 6/10/2016
- by Paula Bernstein
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
It’s one trippy life.
Based on the best-selling Stephen Elliott’s memoir called The Adderall Diaries, James Franco stars as a successful writer suffering from writer’s block due to his substance abuse, father issues and relationship problems. To overcome his writing issues, he investigates the 2007 trial of Hans Reiser, who murdered his wife and involves himself in a new romantic relationship.
The film also stars Amber Heard, Christian Slater, Wilmer Valderrama, Ed Harris and Cynthia Nixon.
Latino-Review had a sit-down interview with Franco and director Pamela Romanowsky about the project.
The Adderall Diaries is out in select theaters today.
Watch the interview below.
Source: Latino-Review.co...
Based on the best-selling Stephen Elliott’s memoir called The Adderall Diaries, James Franco stars as a successful writer suffering from writer’s block due to his substance abuse, father issues and relationship problems. To overcome his writing issues, he investigates the 2007 trial of Hans Reiser, who murdered his wife and involves himself in a new romantic relationship.
The film also stars Amber Heard, Christian Slater, Wilmer Valderrama, Ed Harris and Cynthia Nixon.
Latino-Review had a sit-down interview with Franco and director Pamela Romanowsky about the project.
The Adderall Diaries is out in select theaters today.
Watch the interview below.
Source: Latino-Review.co...
- 4/16/2016
- by Gig Patta
- LRMonline.com
To combat the long festering consequences of childhood trauma, James Franco’s character in The Adderall Diaries, Stephen Elliott turns to any number of distractions. He dilutes his pain with drug abuse, copious sexual encounters and even wayfaring creative pursuits. We meet Elliott, a nonfiction author suffering from writer’s block, just as he begins to deviate from focus on his proposed memoir to a strange family’s high-profile courtroom battle. Whereas this defense mechanism functions as tantamount to lifeblood for Franco’s character, it’s damn near toxic to The Adderall Diaries itself. (It eventually ends up proving toxic to Elliott, too, as anyone who’s taken a psych class would presume—the process is a lot quicker when it comes to the film).
We’re assured from the get-go that the meat of Elliott’s story, no matter what tangent it may occupy at any given time, lies...
We’re assured from the get-go that the meat of Elliott’s story, no matter what tangent it may occupy at any given time, lies...
- 4/14/2016
- by Michael Arbeiter
- We Got This Covered
Suncoast Credit Union Gasparilla International Film Festival (Giff) has announced the official program for its 10th year anniversary in Tampa, Florida. The 10th annual festival will be held March 30-April 3 at the Tampa Theater and Ybor City’s Carmike Cinemas. With 115 films, the festival will host international and regional premieres of narrative features, documentaries and short films around the world, special tributes, master classes, panel discussions and much more.
This year’s special tribute will celebrate the many accomplishments of Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, Golden Globe and Tony winner Rita Moreno. Giff will honor Moreno with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Also, her film, "Remember Me" will screen at the festival.
A jury of industry professionals and acclaimed filmmakers will be presenting awards to competition films in the following categories: Narrative Feature, Documentary, Spotlight and Shorts.
Highlights include:
Opening Night Film (Narrative)
"Eye in the Sky" (UK): Academy Award winner Helen Mirren stars alongside Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman and Iain Glen in this timely thriller about a terrorist-targeting drone mission that becomes a flashpoint when a civilian girl enters the kill zone. Directed by Gavin Hood.
Closing Night Film (Narrative)
"Everybody Wants Some" (USA): A group of college baseball players navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood. Starring Zoey Deutch, Tyler Hoechlin, Ryan Guzman, Blake Jenner. Directed by Richard Linklater
Narrative Features:
"Precious Cargo" (World Premiere) : After a botched heist, Eddie, a murderous crime boss, hunts down the seductive thief Karen who failed him. In order to win back Eddie’s trust, Karen recruits her ex-lover and premier thief Jack. Starring Bruce Willis, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Claire Forlani. Directed by Max Adams. "Embrace Of The Serpent" (Colombia. Florida Premiere): Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. The story of the relationship between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his people, and two scientists who work together over the course of 40 years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant. Starring: Jan Bijvoet, Antonio Bolivar. Directed by Ciro Guerra "Ma Ma" (Spain. Florida Premiere): A woman recently diagnosed with cancer forms an unexpected bond with a soccer scout (Luis Tosar) whose wife has been gravely injured in a car accident. Starring: Academy Award winner Penélope Cruz. Directed by Julio Medem "Love and Friendship" (France/Netherlands. Florida Premiere): In the 18th century, the seductive and manipulative Lady Susan uses devious tactics to win the heart of the eligible Reginald De Courcy. Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Chloe Sevigny. Directed by Whit Stillman. "The Daughter" (Australia. Florida Premiere): A young man returns to his dying hometown and discovers a dark family secret that could tear apart the lives of those he left behind, in this contemporary adaptation of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. Starring: Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush, Ewen Leslie, Paul Schneider, Miranda Otto, Anna Torv, with Odessa Young and Sam Neill. Directed by Simon Stone. "The Debt" (USA. Florida Premiere): A hedge-fund honcho puts through the deal of a lifetime: the redemption of a billion-dollar debt owed by the Peruvian government to its citizens. The quick buck soon turns into a nightmare. Starring: Stephen Dorff, Alberto Ammann, Carlos Bardem, and David Strathairn. Directed by Barney Elliott"The Adderall Diaries" (USA. Florida Premiere): Based on the bestselling memoir by Stephen Elliott, The Adderall Diaries is the story of an author paralyzed by writer's block and an escalating drug dependency who is sucked down the rabbit hole of a high-profile murder case. Starring:James Franco, Ed Harris and Amber Heard. Written and directed by Pamela Romanowsky"One More Time" (USA. Florida Premiere): After one too many big city problems, Jude heads to the Hamptons home of her father, an over-the-hill crooner desperately charting his musical comeback. Starring: Amber Heard, Kelli Garner and Christopher Walken. Directed by Robert Edwards. "Little Men" (USA. Florida Premiere): Jake is a quiet, sensitive middle schooler when he meets the affably brash Tony at his grandfather's funeral. The budding friendship is put at risk, however, when a rent dispute between Jake's father, Brian and Tony's mother, Leonor, threatens to become contentious. Starring: Greg Kinnear, Theo Taplitz, Michael Barbieri and Alfred Molina. Directed by Ira Sachs "A Beautiful Now" (USA. Florida Premiere): As a beautiful dancer balances between reality and fantasy, she asks her friends to help her figure out the passions and relationships that have shaped her identity. Starring: Abigail Spencer, Cheyenne Jackson, Collette Wolfe. Directed by: Daniela Amavia "Puerto Ricans in Paris" (USA. Florida Premiere): Two Puerto Rican NYPD detectives head to Paris to track down a stolen handbag. Starring: Luiz Guzman, Rosie Perez, Rosario Dawson. Directed by Ian Edelman "The Black Coat’s Daughter" (USA. Florida Premiere): Beautiful and haunted Joan makes a pilgrimage across a frozen landscape toward a prestigious all girls prep school where Rose and Kat find themselves stranded after their parents mysteriously fail to retrieve them for winter break. Starring: Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, James Remar, Lauren Holly. Directed by Osgood Perkins "The Truth About Lies" (USA. Florida Premiere): A desperate, unemployed man (Fran Kranz) who lives with his mother weaves an ever-growing web of lies to impress a beautiful woman. Starring: Fran Kranz, Odette Annable. Directed by Phil Allocco. Documentaries
"Hair I Go Again" (World Premiere): Facing a mid-life crossroads, two longtime friends risk everything as they set out to fulfill their dreams of achieving rock & roll stardom. Directed by: Steve McClure. "Hano! A Century in the Bleachers" (Florida Premiere): Meet Arnold Hano, 93, legendary sportswriter and social activist. Baseball fan, war veteran and storyteller emeritus: few have lived and chronicled the American experience as extensively. Directed by: Jon Leonoudakis. "Smart" (Florida Premiere): Groundbreaking feature-length documentary about a group of highly trained, adrenaline-fueled professionals who risk life and limb to rescue animals. They're Los Angeles' Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team! Directed by Justin Zimmerman "No Greater Love" (Florida Premiere): U.S. Army Chaplain Justin Roberts goes on missions with the legendary No Slack battalion in Afghanistan in 2010/2011 armed with only a camera. Directed by Justin Roberts.
Cuban Sidebar: Films focusing on Cuba
"Craving Cuba" (World Premiere): A Cuban-American woman seeks to understand her true identity. Directed by: Zuzy Martin Lynch "The Forbidden Shore" (World Premiere)- The amazing diversity of contemporary Cuban music is gorgeously explored in Ron Chapman’s third documentary feature. Chapman captures the full gamut of what’s happening now in Cuba, both the most exciting artists and the distinct musical scenes they move In. Directed by Ron Chapman. "Havana Motor Club" (Florida Premiere): Reforms have offered opportunity in Cuba but the children of the Revolution are unsure of the best route forward. For a half-dozen drag racers, this means last-minute changes to their beloved American muscle cars, as they prepare for the first sanctioned race in Cuba since 1960. Directed by Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt
Florida Focus : World premiere of independent films made in Florida
"Waiting on Mary" : A struggling actor, traumatized by a brutal divorce, assumes the personality of a colonial character he played at a failed amusement park as a way of retreating from his pain. Directed by: Corey Horton "Bear With Us" : A modern farce about a guy who attempts to propose to his girlfriend in the most romantic way possible, but his plan falls apart when a ravenous bear stumbles on their charming cabin in the woods. Directed by: William Stribling. "Dooder And the Lighthouse" : Dooder Parker is eighty-six and full of life. When the historic lighthouse in his hometown becomes doomed to fall into the Gulf, his recounting of local history evolves into a reflection on his love for his wife. Stories intertwine to paint a portrait of a vanishing way of life. Directed by: Clayton Long & Lisa Long In addition to feature length films, Giff will present over 70 short films. Short film blocks include:
“Lol”: Comedic short films · “Films on a Mission”: Short films focusing on a specific cause
· “Thrill Ride”: Thriller, action, and horror short films.
· “Love is In the Air”: Romantic short films
· “ Motion Tunes”: Short films related to music
· “Save the Drama”: Drama short films
· “Films 101”: College made short films
· “High School Film Showcase”: Giff’s high school filmmaking competition sponsored by Suncoast Credit Union
Additionally, Gasparilla will feature in-depth, informative Industry Panels, including, Meet The Press, Casting Directors, “The Performance” Actor’s panel, Special Effects, Do’s, Don’ts for a Film Festival Run and “The Pitch.” Additionally, Giff is proud to welcome Academy Award nominated animator Bill Plympton (1987’s Your Face).
For more information on all the films to be screened and industry events, please go to:
www.gasparillafilmfestival.com...
This year’s special tribute will celebrate the many accomplishments of Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, Golden Globe and Tony winner Rita Moreno. Giff will honor Moreno with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Also, her film, "Remember Me" will screen at the festival.
A jury of industry professionals and acclaimed filmmakers will be presenting awards to competition films in the following categories: Narrative Feature, Documentary, Spotlight and Shorts.
Highlights include:
Opening Night Film (Narrative)
"Eye in the Sky" (UK): Academy Award winner Helen Mirren stars alongside Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman and Iain Glen in this timely thriller about a terrorist-targeting drone mission that becomes a flashpoint when a civilian girl enters the kill zone. Directed by Gavin Hood.
Closing Night Film (Narrative)
"Everybody Wants Some" (USA): A group of college baseball players navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood. Starring Zoey Deutch, Tyler Hoechlin, Ryan Guzman, Blake Jenner. Directed by Richard Linklater
Narrative Features:
"Precious Cargo" (World Premiere) : After a botched heist, Eddie, a murderous crime boss, hunts down the seductive thief Karen who failed him. In order to win back Eddie’s trust, Karen recruits her ex-lover and premier thief Jack. Starring Bruce Willis, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Claire Forlani. Directed by Max Adams. "Embrace Of The Serpent" (Colombia. Florida Premiere): Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. The story of the relationship between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his people, and two scientists who work together over the course of 40 years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant. Starring: Jan Bijvoet, Antonio Bolivar. Directed by Ciro Guerra "Ma Ma" (Spain. Florida Premiere): A woman recently diagnosed with cancer forms an unexpected bond with a soccer scout (Luis Tosar) whose wife has been gravely injured in a car accident. Starring: Academy Award winner Penélope Cruz. Directed by Julio Medem "Love and Friendship" (France/Netherlands. Florida Premiere): In the 18th century, the seductive and manipulative Lady Susan uses devious tactics to win the heart of the eligible Reginald De Courcy. Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Chloe Sevigny. Directed by Whit Stillman. "The Daughter" (Australia. Florida Premiere): A young man returns to his dying hometown and discovers a dark family secret that could tear apart the lives of those he left behind, in this contemporary adaptation of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. Starring: Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush, Ewen Leslie, Paul Schneider, Miranda Otto, Anna Torv, with Odessa Young and Sam Neill. Directed by Simon Stone. "The Debt" (USA. Florida Premiere): A hedge-fund honcho puts through the deal of a lifetime: the redemption of a billion-dollar debt owed by the Peruvian government to its citizens. The quick buck soon turns into a nightmare. Starring: Stephen Dorff, Alberto Ammann, Carlos Bardem, and David Strathairn. Directed by Barney Elliott"The Adderall Diaries" (USA. Florida Premiere): Based on the bestselling memoir by Stephen Elliott, The Adderall Diaries is the story of an author paralyzed by writer's block and an escalating drug dependency who is sucked down the rabbit hole of a high-profile murder case. Starring:James Franco, Ed Harris and Amber Heard. Written and directed by Pamela Romanowsky"One More Time" (USA. Florida Premiere): After one too many big city problems, Jude heads to the Hamptons home of her father, an over-the-hill crooner desperately charting his musical comeback. Starring: Amber Heard, Kelli Garner and Christopher Walken. Directed by Robert Edwards. "Little Men" (USA. Florida Premiere): Jake is a quiet, sensitive middle schooler when he meets the affably brash Tony at his grandfather's funeral. The budding friendship is put at risk, however, when a rent dispute between Jake's father, Brian and Tony's mother, Leonor, threatens to become contentious. Starring: Greg Kinnear, Theo Taplitz, Michael Barbieri and Alfred Molina. Directed by Ira Sachs "A Beautiful Now" (USA. Florida Premiere): As a beautiful dancer balances between reality and fantasy, she asks her friends to help her figure out the passions and relationships that have shaped her identity. Starring: Abigail Spencer, Cheyenne Jackson, Collette Wolfe. Directed by: Daniela Amavia "Puerto Ricans in Paris" (USA. Florida Premiere): Two Puerto Rican NYPD detectives head to Paris to track down a stolen handbag. Starring: Luiz Guzman, Rosie Perez, Rosario Dawson. Directed by Ian Edelman "The Black Coat’s Daughter" (USA. Florida Premiere): Beautiful and haunted Joan makes a pilgrimage across a frozen landscape toward a prestigious all girls prep school where Rose and Kat find themselves stranded after their parents mysteriously fail to retrieve them for winter break. Starring: Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, James Remar, Lauren Holly. Directed by Osgood Perkins "The Truth About Lies" (USA. Florida Premiere): A desperate, unemployed man (Fran Kranz) who lives with his mother weaves an ever-growing web of lies to impress a beautiful woman. Starring: Fran Kranz, Odette Annable. Directed by Phil Allocco. Documentaries
"Hair I Go Again" (World Premiere): Facing a mid-life crossroads, two longtime friends risk everything as they set out to fulfill their dreams of achieving rock & roll stardom. Directed by: Steve McClure. "Hano! A Century in the Bleachers" (Florida Premiere): Meet Arnold Hano, 93, legendary sportswriter and social activist. Baseball fan, war veteran and storyteller emeritus: few have lived and chronicled the American experience as extensively. Directed by: Jon Leonoudakis. "Smart" (Florida Premiere): Groundbreaking feature-length documentary about a group of highly trained, adrenaline-fueled professionals who risk life and limb to rescue animals. They're Los Angeles' Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team! Directed by Justin Zimmerman "No Greater Love" (Florida Premiere): U.S. Army Chaplain Justin Roberts goes on missions with the legendary No Slack battalion in Afghanistan in 2010/2011 armed with only a camera. Directed by Justin Roberts.
Cuban Sidebar: Films focusing on Cuba
"Craving Cuba" (World Premiere): A Cuban-American woman seeks to understand her true identity. Directed by: Zuzy Martin Lynch "The Forbidden Shore" (World Premiere)- The amazing diversity of contemporary Cuban music is gorgeously explored in Ron Chapman’s third documentary feature. Chapman captures the full gamut of what’s happening now in Cuba, both the most exciting artists and the distinct musical scenes they move In. Directed by Ron Chapman. "Havana Motor Club" (Florida Premiere): Reforms have offered opportunity in Cuba but the children of the Revolution are unsure of the best route forward. For a half-dozen drag racers, this means last-minute changes to their beloved American muscle cars, as they prepare for the first sanctioned race in Cuba since 1960. Directed by Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt
Florida Focus : World premiere of independent films made in Florida
"Waiting on Mary" : A struggling actor, traumatized by a brutal divorce, assumes the personality of a colonial character he played at a failed amusement park as a way of retreating from his pain. Directed by: Corey Horton "Bear With Us" : A modern farce about a guy who attempts to propose to his girlfriend in the most romantic way possible, but his plan falls apart when a ravenous bear stumbles on their charming cabin in the woods. Directed by: William Stribling. "Dooder And the Lighthouse" : Dooder Parker is eighty-six and full of life. When the historic lighthouse in his hometown becomes doomed to fall into the Gulf, his recounting of local history evolves into a reflection on his love for his wife. Stories intertwine to paint a portrait of a vanishing way of life. Directed by: Clayton Long & Lisa Long In addition to feature length films, Giff will present over 70 short films. Short film blocks include:
“Lol”: Comedic short films · “Films on a Mission”: Short films focusing on a specific cause
· “Thrill Ride”: Thriller, action, and horror short films.
· “Love is In the Air”: Romantic short films
· “ Motion Tunes”: Short films related to music
· “Save the Drama”: Drama short films
· “Films 101”: College made short films
· “High School Film Showcase”: Giff’s high school filmmaking competition sponsored by Suncoast Credit Union
Additionally, Gasparilla will feature in-depth, informative Industry Panels, including, Meet The Press, Casting Directors, “The Performance” Actor’s panel, Special Effects, Do’s, Don’ts for a Film Festival Run and “The Pitch.” Additionally, Giff is proud to welcome Academy Award nominated animator Bill Plympton (1987’s Your Face).
For more information on all the films to be screened and industry events, please go to:
www.gasparillafilmfestival.com...
- 3/23/2016
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Coming off of a triple Oscar win with Ex Machina, Room, and Amy, as well as a successful wide release of The Witch, A24 is easily the biggest success story when it comes to new independent distributors. Next month they’ll release Pamela Romanowsky’s The Adderall Diaries, a drama which premiered at Tribeca last year and features James Franco, Amber Heard, Ed Harris, Christian Slater, and Cynthia Nixon. Ahead of the release, we now have the first trailer for the drama.
We said in our review, “Style trumps substance in writer-director Pamela Romanowsky’s The Adderall Diaries, a pet project involving Franco that perhaps seems to write the wrongs of his previous bomb about the writing process, Third Person. Inspired by a memoir from the real Stephen Elliott, his process here is a tortured one as he blames his father for his addictions in this cinematic equivalent of a Staind song.
We said in our review, “Style trumps substance in writer-director Pamela Romanowsky’s The Adderall Diaries, a pet project involving Franco that perhaps seems to write the wrongs of his previous bomb about the writing process, Third Person. Inspired by a memoir from the real Stephen Elliott, his process here is a tortured one as he blames his father for his addictions in this cinematic equivalent of a Staind song.
- 3/9/2016
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Pamela Romanowsky’s adaptation of Stephen Elliott’s meta-memoir, The Adderall Diaries, gets a pulse-pounding trailer from A24. The film tells the story of a writer, Elliott, navigating writer’s block while reporting on a murder trial taking place within San Francisco’s Sm community. James Franco, who originally optioned Elliott’s book, plays the writer; Amber Heard is the journalist who gains his access to the case; and Ed Harris plays Elliott’s father, whose rageful relationship with his son provides the film’s emotional throughline. The film premieres on DirectTV on March 10 and in theaters April 15.
- 3/9/2016
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
A24 has released a new trailer for “The Adderall Diaries,” which stars James Franco and Amber Heard. The film will debut as a DirecTV Exclusive on March 10 before it receives a theatrical release on April 15. Pamela Romanowsky wrote and directed the indie drama based on the best-selling memoir by Stephen Elliott. Franco produced alongside Vince Jolivette, Joseph McKelheer and James Reach. Ed Harris, Christian Slater and Cynthia Nixon co-star in the film, which chronicles how an author’s fascination with a high-profile murder case leads him to come to terms with his troubled past while embarking on a potentially life-changing.
- 3/8/2016
- by Jeff Sneider
- The Wrap
Yes, it's James Franco Movie #9564 — B. The prolific actor/writer/director/producer/artist seems to have a new project dropping every other week, so all is forgiven if you forgot about his starring role in "The Adderall Diaries." The film made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, and not much has been heard since, but now it's getting ready to head out in the world and a U.K. trailer has dropped. The Pamela Romanowsky directed adaptation of Stephen Elliott's memoir tracks the story of the author through his bruising childhood and beyond. We called the picture "a workable portrait of pain and addiction, one that’s bizarrely entertaining even in its most brutal moments" in our review from Tribeca, so it's one worth investigating. Here's the synopsis: Read More: Tribeca Review: 'The Adderall Diaries' Starring James Franco, Ed Harris, Amber Heard & More Based...
- 3/8/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Over five years ago actor, writer, and director James Franco optioned the rights to Stephen Elliott‘s memoir The Adderall Diaries. In addition to starring in the film, it was presumed Franco would write and produce the feature as well, but The Adderall Diaries is written and directed by Pamela Romanowsky. Watch The Adderall Diaries trailer below. The drama/thriller is Romanowsky’s feature directorial debut, which premiered at […]
The post ‘The Adderall Diaries’ Trailer: You Don’t Have to Bury The Past appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘The Adderall Diaries’ Trailer: You Don’t Have to Bury The Past appeared first on /Film.
- 3/5/2016
- by Jack Giroux
- Slash Film
Arrow Films UK has released the first international trailer for "The Adderall Diaries " (aka. "True Deception), director Pamela Romanowsky's adaptation of Stephen Elliott's novel.
James Franco, Ed Harris, Amber Heard, Christian Slater, Wilmer Valderrama and Cynthia Nixon star in the non-linear story about a real-life investigation into the 2007 murder trial of Hans Reiser (Slater) who was accused of killing his wife, and the ensuing confession of his friend Sean Sturgeon - a killer who admits to multiple murders but not that of Reiser's wife.
The film will also serve as a twisted autobiography of Elliott (Franco) framed against the literary investigation for his book. A24 is giving the film a limited release in the U.S. on April 15th.
James Franco, Ed Harris, Amber Heard, Christian Slater, Wilmer Valderrama and Cynthia Nixon star in the non-linear story about a real-life investigation into the 2007 murder trial of Hans Reiser (Slater) who was accused of killing his wife, and the ensuing confession of his friend Sean Sturgeon - a killer who admits to multiple murders but not that of Reiser's wife.
The film will also serve as a twisted autobiography of Elliott (Franco) framed against the literary investigation for his book. A24 is giving the film a limited release in the U.S. on April 15th.
- 3/4/2016
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Stars: Amber Heard, James Franco, Christian Slater, Ed Harris, Wilmer Valderrama, Cynthia Nixon, Jim Parrack, Timothée Chalamet, Danny Flaherty, Michael Cristofer, Tonya Glanz, Jessica Leccia, Gabriela Fresquez, Casper Andreas, Jimmy Gary Jr. | Written by Stephen Elliott, Pamela Romanowsky | Directed by Pamela Romanowsky
Adderall: now coming to a college campus near you. Well besides its intended usage for concentration in individuals who have Add, Adderall plays a part in the aptly titled The Adderall Diaries, a film, starring Amber Heard, Christian Slater, Ed Harris and James Franco, that follows a writer who is emotionally and creatively depressed, all the while dealing with a terrible childhood and contemplating his relationships with the people who have entered and left from his life.
The Adderall Diaries is adapted from Stephen Elliott’s book of the same name, which is about the author writing about the Hans Reiser murder trial all the while coming to...
Adderall: now coming to a college campus near you. Well besides its intended usage for concentration in individuals who have Add, Adderall plays a part in the aptly titled The Adderall Diaries, a film, starring Amber Heard, Christian Slater, Ed Harris and James Franco, that follows a writer who is emotionally and creatively depressed, all the while dealing with a terrible childhood and contemplating his relationships with the people who have entered and left from his life.
The Adderall Diaries is adapted from Stephen Elliott’s book of the same name, which is about the author writing about the Hans Reiser murder trial all the while coming to...
- 1/17/2016
- by Catherina Gioino
- Nerdly
Of the hundreds of films screened at festivals across the nation only a handful will wind up at your local theaters, and that goes for those lucky enough to have been viewed at the growingly prestigious Tribeca Film Festival (Tff).
A month has passed, and the media has already unremembered the 14th edition of Tribeca, which had an overall attendance of 467,000 -- and now it's beginning to forget Cannes and its offerings, such as Todd Haynes' Carol, which already has a 2016 Oscar buzz surrounding it. And by tomorrow, anticipation will start growing for the Telluride, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals, and so forth. A sisyphean cycle if there ever was one. But thanks to some wise studios distributing several of Tribeca's offerings, this year's Fest's imprint might last a little longer.
There's the hauntingly exuberant documentary The Wolfpack (opening June 12th) that, pre-tff, started garnering plaudits at Sundance.
A month has passed, and the media has already unremembered the 14th edition of Tribeca, which had an overall attendance of 467,000 -- and now it's beginning to forget Cannes and its offerings, such as Todd Haynes' Carol, which already has a 2016 Oscar buzz surrounding it. And by tomorrow, anticipation will start growing for the Telluride, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals, and so forth. A sisyphean cycle if there ever was one. But thanks to some wise studios distributing several of Tribeca's offerings, this year's Fest's imprint might last a little longer.
There's the hauntingly exuberant documentary The Wolfpack (opening June 12th) that, pre-tff, started garnering plaudits at Sundance.
- 5/31/2015
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Tribeca Festival coverage. Here's Joe Reid, who you know and love from the podcast...
The Adderall Diaries
We sometimes joke around about James Franco's insane output over the last five years -- he's been in Well Over 30 movies since 127 Hours, with a whopping 21 of them playing film festivals. That's an average of five films a year playing in some festival or another.
For a lesser-known actor, this kind of heavy indie output might be a better idea. Throw yourself into as many projects as possible, increasing your odds that one of them will hit. Franco's already established, though. He's had his hits. What starring in so many festival indies does for him it's the opposite: it ups his odds that he'll end up in at least a few total stinkers, every year. It's gotten to the point where Franco's presence in an indie feels like the promise of disappointment.
The Adderall Diaries
We sometimes joke around about James Franco's insane output over the last five years -- he's been in Well Over 30 movies since 127 Hours, with a whopping 21 of them playing film festivals. That's an average of five films a year playing in some festival or another.
For a lesser-known actor, this kind of heavy indie output might be a better idea. Throw yourself into as many projects as possible, increasing your odds that one of them will hit. Franco's already established, though. He's had his hits. What starring in so many festival indies does for him it's the opposite: it ups his odds that he'll end up in at least a few total stinkers, every year. It's gotten to the point where Franco's presence in an indie feels like the promise of disappointment.
- 4/21/2015
- by Joe Reid
- FilmExperience
This past weekend I saw my life on the screen for the first time, when the movie version of my memoir The Adderall Diaries premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. For the record, I’m grateful — primarily, to be frank, I’m grateful for the money, which changed my life more than the seven books I've published. And, from a less crass and self-serving angle, I'm grateful that my own art was deemed a worthy stepping stone for someone else's art. I support art being made from art. Still, what I saw rattled me. What I saw was a very different Stephen Elliott than the person I believe myself to be, and it made me question some of my fundamental beliefs about art.There are facts and there are memories and there are interpretations. You could add that there is honesty and there is truth. You could write an essay...
- 4/21/2015
- by Stephen Elliott
- Vulture
Before there was James Frey, there was Stephen Elliott. Two years before Frey’s bestselling, Oprah-approved “A Million Little Pieces” hit shelves in 2003 (only to be notoriously debunked three years later), Elliott’s “A Life Without Consequences” arrived. A mish-mash of memoir and autobiography and fiction and imagination, Elliott’s book detailed his (or was it his? the details are muddy and they stay muddy) childhood experiences of abuse, deprivation, homelessness, and drug addiction. That not all of it was exactly true wasn’t the points— and, Elliott, who continues to write fiction and non-fiction, both on the printed page and on the web, doesn’t argue that — but it is the crux of Pamela Romanowsky’s “The Adderall Diaries,” the filmmaker’s feature film version of Elliott’s 2010 “memoir” of the same name. Read More: Amber Heard Joins James Franco's 'The Adderall Diaries' In “The Adderall Diaries,...
- 4/18/2015
- by Kate Erbland
- The Playlist
James Franco and Amber Heard are at it again. Seven years after having appeared together in Pineapple Express, the two have reunited for The Adderall Diaries, a film adaptation of Stephen Elliott's best-selling memoir of the same name. "James and Amber have great chemistry," the movie's director Pamela Romanowsky told us Thursday at the Adderall premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. "As a director, it's really exciting to see two people who haven't spent much time together come into a room to do a scene and find this connection and electricity between them. It was really exciting to watch." Franco stars as in the movie as writer with many issues, including substance abuse...
- 4/18/2015
- E! Online
“Live from New York, it’s the Tribeca Film Festival.”
I’m sure that is how some people’s coverage of this year’s Tff started off. It makes sense considering the opening night film was a documentary about Saturday Night Live! Plus, some writers can’t help but resort to puns and cheap gimmicks to appear witty. Hell, I used it and haven’t even seen the film yet. But my TriBeCa experience didn’t start off with belly laughs. Instead it began with a double feature of films about shitty parents.
The Adderall Diaries stars James Franco as an author struggling with writer’s block, which could be the inspiration for my deconstruction of an opening to this recap. The film is based on the memoir of the same title by Stephen Elliott. Franco’s version of Elliott deals with drug addiction (mostly Adderall), a Bdsm fetish that could ruin a burgeoning relationship,...
I’m sure that is how some people’s coverage of this year’s Tff started off. It makes sense considering the opening night film was a documentary about Saturday Night Live! Plus, some writers can’t help but resort to puns and cheap gimmicks to appear witty. Hell, I used it and haven’t even seen the film yet. But my TriBeCa experience didn’t start off with belly laughs. Instead it began with a double feature of films about shitty parents.
The Adderall Diaries stars James Franco as an author struggling with writer’s block, which could be the inspiration for my deconstruction of an opening to this recap. The film is based on the memoir of the same title by Stephen Elliott. Franco’s version of Elliott deals with drug addiction (mostly Adderall), a Bdsm fetish that could ruin a burgeoning relationship,...
- 4/18/2015
- by Jerry Cavallaro
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Adderall Diaries was the first book James Franco optioned, but when it came time to bring Stephen Elliott's best-selling memoir to the big screen, he offered it to his Nyu grad-school pal Pamela Romanowsky, who wrote and directed the big-screen version for her feature directorial debut. At the film's world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday, Franco talked to The Hollywood Reporter about how his role in the project evolved and why he felt Romanowsky was the right person to take the reins. Read More Tribeca 2015: George Lucas on "Hubris" of Corporate Creatives
read more...
read more...
- 4/17/2015
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
James Franco is no stranger to playing troubled souls. Lately, it seems he prefers to play them in troubled films, too. Pamela Romanowsky's "The Adderall Diaries," adapted from the best-selling memoir by Stephen Elliott, is a valiant but unsuccessful effort in genre-bending. Much like its protagonist, the film suffers from an identity crisis. "We're all victims of our fathers," writes a scruffy and tattooed Stephen Elliott (Franco). He's sitting pretty at the top of newfound literary success, having published a critically-acclaimed memoir about the abuse he suffered at the hands of his sadistic father (Ed Harris). Up next is a series of publishing deals that promise more money and fame, but Elliott is more interested in a high-profile murder trial he sees on the news. He latches on to the story, convinced this will rescue him from writer's block. ("It'll be my 'In Cold Blood,' he says to his editor.
- 4/17/2015
- by Emily Buder
- Indiewire
Just as True Story enters its commercial release, James Franco returns to the world of unreliable narrators in The Adderall Diaries, playing a memoirist forced to confront the malleability of his own childhood recollections. Playing Stephen Elliott, the real-world author of the book Pamela Romanowsky adapts here, Franco smolders and argues and gets itchy when trying to write, but the movie comes closest to working only when he's on screen with Ed Harris, who plays his ill-tempered and estranged father. Even these scenes take place in a familiar family-drama format that is much more conventional than Elliott's
read more...
read more...
- 4/17/2015
- by John DeFore
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Read More: Tribeca: Watch Indiewire Talk to Ethan Hawke, Taylor Schilling, Olivia Wilde and More at the Apple Store "The Adderall Diaries"James Franco is back playing a troubled artist in "The Adderall Diaries," based on the true-crime memoir by Stephen Elliott. The film chronicles the writer protagonist's obsession with a San Francisco murder trial; his internal struggles with drugs, relationships, and writers' block increase with the intensity of the investigation. If the movie is anywhere as gripping and candid as the book, it will be a wild ride. Franco has recently struggled to find the right roles, but the all-consuming commitment required to portray this masochistic character has his name written all over it. First-timer Pamela Romanowsky directs a strong supporting cast of Amber Heard, Christian Slater, and Ed Harris. "Among the Believers"With the growing threats of militant groups like Isis and Boko Haram extending throughout the world,...
- 4/13/2015
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
Read More: Meet the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival Filmmakers Americans love a good story but hate a liar, or so we'd like to think. What happens when a writer needs pills and embellishments to work? What happens after it all comes crashing down? What's more entertaining than a disaster?What's your film about in 140 characters or less? 'The Adderall Diaries' is about Stephen Elliott, a memoir writer accused of fabricating his past by his estranged father. In an effort to avoid his problems, Stephen immerses himself in a high profile murder case while his relationships with his girlfriend, best friend and editor fall apart around him. Now what's it Really about? It's about how we edit our memories to fit the identity we've written for ourselves. Tell us briefly about yourself. I've lived in New York for ten years now, but I'm originally from Minnesota. It allows me to...
- 4/9/2015
- by Elizabeth Logan
- Indiewire
Despite the lottery-esque sounding odds, the U.S Dramatic Competition section which produces the finest American indie specimens such as Frozen River, Winter’s Bone, Blue Valentine, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station and Whiplash is fairly consistent in terms of quality. Last year’s crop of sixteen have almost all had their theatrical releases with Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter being the last one out of the gates (pegged with an early 2015 release). Last week we individually looked at our top 80 Sundance Film Fest Predictions (you’ll find 30 other titles worth considering in our intro) and below, we’ve split the list into narrative and non-fiction film items and have both identified and color-coded our picks in an AtoZ cheat sheet. You’ll find 2015′s answer to Whiplash located somewhere in the stack below. Click on the individual titles below, for the film’s profile.
- 11/19/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
The perpetually busy James Franco might just begin his 2015 with the Park City launch-padding of (among others) Pamela Romanowsky’s sophomore film which comes across as an interplay between fiction and fact. Prior to landing The Adderall Diaries at (count ‘em four) Sundance Institute’s Screenwriter’s Lab, the Director’s Lab, the Producer’s Summit, and the Film Music and Sound Design Lab at Skywalker Sound all in 2013, Romanowsky directed Franco in The Color of Time (formerly titled “Tar”) which also starred Mila Kunis, Jessica Chastain and Zach Braff. Shooting began in May of this year, with Franco leading a cast comprised of Amber Heard and Christian Slater. Worth noting is Robert Redford has an executive producer cred, could it follow in the same fest berth as his last executive produced film, Drunktown’s Finest?
Gist: Writer Stephen Elliott (Franco) reaches a low point when his estranged father (Ed Harris) resurfaces,...
Gist: Writer Stephen Elliott (Franco) reaches a low point when his estranged father (Ed Harris) resurfaces,...
- 11/11/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Short Term 12 and Big Easy Express took home top prizes at the 4th American Film Festival in Wroclaw.
The American Film Festival (Aff) in Wrocław, Poland has awarded the audience award for Best Narrative Feature ($10,000) to Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12.
The audience award for the Best Documentary Feature ($5,000) went to Emmett Malloy for Big Easy Express.
The festival, focused entirely on independent American cinema, closed with the Polish premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra on Oct 27.
A total of 80 films were screened at the Nowe Horyzonty cinema in Wrocław, of which 52 films received their Polish premiere such as Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, As I Lay Dying by James Franco and Don Jon by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. There were three European premieres and one world premiere, Blue Highway by Kyle Smith.
The number of admissions exceeded 17,000 for the second consecutive year.
The Aff also featured a retrospective of Shirley Clarke, a mini-retrospective...
The American Film Festival (Aff) in Wrocław, Poland has awarded the audience award for Best Narrative Feature ($10,000) to Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12.
The audience award for the Best Documentary Feature ($5,000) went to Emmett Malloy for Big Easy Express.
The festival, focused entirely on independent American cinema, closed with the Polish premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra on Oct 27.
A total of 80 films were screened at the Nowe Horyzonty cinema in Wrocław, of which 52 films received their Polish premiere such as Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, As I Lay Dying by James Franco and Don Jon by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. There were three European premieres and one world premiere, Blue Highway by Kyle Smith.
The number of admissions exceeded 17,000 for the second consecutive year.
The Aff also featured a retrospective of Shirley Clarke, a mini-retrospective...
- 10/31/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Sun Belt Express and Lake Los Angeles win main prizes.
The third Us in Progress Wrocław - a works-in-progress event targeted at Us independent filmmakers and European buyers - has handed its main prizes to Sun Belt Express and Lake Los Angeles.
This year, six films selected from around 40 submissions competed for prizes consisting of post-production and promotional services worth $60,000.
The main awards went to Sun Belt Express by Evan Wolf Buxbaum, produced by Noah Lang and Iyabo Boyd, and Lake Los Angeles by Mike Ott, produced by Athina Rachel Tsangari.
Sun Belt Express received Di image post-production from Platige Image studio (Warsaw), foley from Aeroplan Studio (Warsaw), final sound mix from Alvernia Studios (Kraków) and soundtrack from composer Maciej Zieliński of Soundflower Studio (Warsaw).
Lake Los Angeles was offered Di image post-production from Di Factory studio (Warsaw), foley from Aeroplan Studio (Warsaw), Dcp creation from Dcinex, subtitling from Vsi Paris/Chinkel and the promotional award from Europa...
The third Us in Progress Wrocław - a works-in-progress event targeted at Us independent filmmakers and European buyers - has handed its main prizes to Sun Belt Express and Lake Los Angeles.
This year, six films selected from around 40 submissions competed for prizes consisting of post-production and promotional services worth $60,000.
The main awards went to Sun Belt Express by Evan Wolf Buxbaum, produced by Noah Lang and Iyabo Boyd, and Lake Los Angeles by Mike Ott, produced by Athina Rachel Tsangari.
Sun Belt Express received Di image post-production from Platige Image studio (Warsaw), foley from Aeroplan Studio (Warsaw), final sound mix from Alvernia Studios (Kraków) and soundtrack from composer Maciej Zieliński of Soundflower Studio (Warsaw).
Lake Los Angeles was offered Di image post-production from Di Factory studio (Warsaw), foley from Aeroplan Studio (Warsaw), Dcp creation from Dcinex, subtitling from Vsi Paris/Chinkel and the promotional award from Europa...
- 10/27/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Opening with Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive the latest edition of the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland (22-27 October 2013) has screened some of the most important American independent films of the year. Being the only festival of its class in Eastern and Central Europe the festival has become the most important venue to connect American filmmakers with European buyers and audiences through programs like U.S. in Progress Wrocław (23-25 October 2013).
This year's program taking place at the New Horizons cinema presented 80 movies out of which 42 are Polish premieres, 3 are European premieres and 1 is a World Premiere. Among them 10 documentaries and 17 feature films competed for cash prizes in the audience-vote competitions.
The first competitive section - Spectrum ($10,000 audience award for the Best Narrative Feature) included films that have been well-received here in the U.S such as A Teacher by Hannah Fidell, Blue Caprice by Alexandre Moors, Afternoon Delight by Jill Soloway, Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton, The Spectacular Now by James Ponsoldt, and Bluebird by Lance Edmands. The second competition - American Docs ($5,000 audience award for Best Documentary Feature) had a selection of films depicting varied current issues in American society including Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia by Nicholas Wrathall, The Armstrong Lie by Alex Gibney, Our Nixon by Penny Lane, Northern Light by Nick Bentgen, Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton by Eric Slade and Stephen Silha and Before You Know It by Pj Raval.
The American Film Festival also ran a retrospective of Shirley Clarke and presented Polish premieres of high-profile films such as As I Lay Dying by James Franco, Quentin Dupieux’s Wrong Cops, Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein’s Lovelace, Much Ado About Nothing by Joss Whedon, Touchy Feely by Lynn Shelton, At Any Price by Ramin Bahrani, and Maladies by Carter. The festival also screened Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Sundance hit Don Jon along several U.S. in Progress participants and festival hits like I Used to be Darker by Matt Porterfier and Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Patrick Carbone. Lastly, a special section titled 'Masterpieces of American Cinema 90 Years of Warner Bros." showed 14 digitally-remastered productions by the studio from The Jazz Singer by Alan Crosland (1927) through A Clockwork Orange ,The Exorcist and Christopher Nolan’s Inception
The festival will close on October 27th with Steven Soderbergh's Emmy Award-winning film Behind the Candelabra.
All competitions titles:
Spectrum
American Milkshake by David Andalman, Mariko Munro, USA 2012, 82'
Blue Highway by Kyle Smith, USA 2013, 70'
Coldwater by Vincent Grashaw, USA 2013, 104'
The Spectacular Now by James Ponsoldt, USA 2013, 95'
Drinking Buddies by Joe Swanberg, USA 2013, 90'
Lily by Matt Creed, USA 2013, 85'
A Teacher by Hannah Fidell, USA 2013, 75'
Blue Caprice by Alexandre Moors, USA 2013, 93'
Pearblossom Hwy by Mike Ott, USA 2012, 78'
Afternoon Delight by Jill Soloway, USA 2013, 105'
Stand Clear of the Closing Doors by Sam Fleischner, USA 2013, 102'
Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton, USA 2013, 96'
The Cold Lands by Tom Gilroy, USA 2013, 100'
In a World... by Lake Bell, USA 2013, 93'
A Song Still Inside by Gregory Collins, USA 2013, 82'
Bluebird by Lance Edmands, USA 2013, 90'
American Docs
Big Easy Express by Emmett Malloy, USA 2012
Off Label by Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher, USA 2012
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia by Nicholas Wrathall, USA, Italy 2013
Fall and Winter by Matt Anderson, USA 2013
The Armstrong Lie by Alex Gibney, USA 2013
Lenny Cooke by Ben Safdie, Joshua Safdie, USA 2012
Our Nixon by Penny Lane, USA 2013
Northern Light by Nick Bentgen, USA 2013
Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton by Eric Slade, Stephen Silha, USA 2013
Before You Know It by Pj Raval, USA 2012
U.S. Progress Projects
This year 6 projects in the final production stages were chosen to take part in the two-day workshop knows as U.S. in Progress Wroclaw (23-25 October, 2013). The event presents the American independent projects to European buyers, post-production houses and festivals in order to help them achieve completion and to foster the circulation and distribution of these films in Europe.
Selected from over 40 submission the chosen projects are the dramas Lake Los Angeles by Mike Ott (produced by Athina Rachel Tsangari), Happy Baby by Stephen Elliott (produced by Jessica Caldwell ) and Some Beasts by Cameron Nelson (produced by Ashley Maynor and Courtney Ware), crime story Wild Canaries by Lawrence Michael Levine (produced by Sophia Takal, Kim Sherman and McCabe Walsh), frontier black comedy Sun Belt Express by Evan Wolf Buxbaum (producers: Noah Lang and Iyabo Boyd) and Summer of Blood – a New York vampire comedy by director-producer Onur Tukel.
The prizes are awarded by a jury of professionals and include post-production services from European partner companies worth almost $60.000 and promotional services from other partners. Us in Progress’ partners are: Platige Image (Warsaw), Di Factory (Warsaw), Alvernia Studios (Krakow), composer Maciej Zielinski of Soundflower Studio (Warsaw), Soundplace (Warsaw), DCinex (Belgium), Vsi (Paris), Europa Distribution, Cicae and Cannes Marche du Film’s Producers Network.
U.S. in Progress Wrocław (formerly Gotham in Progress) was started in 2011 by the New Horizons Association and Black Rabbit Film. Previous films presented at the event included, among others: I Used To Be Darker by Matt Porterfield, American Milkshake by David Andalman (both shown at Sundance Ff in 2013), Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Carbone (Berlinale Generation, Tribeca), Bluebird by Lance Edmands (Tribeca, Karlovy Vary), Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin’s Now, Forager: a Film About Love and Fungi (Rotterdam, New Directors/New Films, Gotham Awards nominee), Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine (SXSW, Edinburgh Iff, Gotham Awards nominee) and Devyn Waitt’s Not Waving But Drowning (Sarasota Ff).
U.S. in Progress Wrocław is supported by the City of Wrocław, American Embassy in Warsaw and Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
For more information on the American Film Festival and the U.S. in Progress projects visit Here...
This year's program taking place at the New Horizons cinema presented 80 movies out of which 42 are Polish premieres, 3 are European premieres and 1 is a World Premiere. Among them 10 documentaries and 17 feature films competed for cash prizes in the audience-vote competitions.
The first competitive section - Spectrum ($10,000 audience award for the Best Narrative Feature) included films that have been well-received here in the U.S such as A Teacher by Hannah Fidell, Blue Caprice by Alexandre Moors, Afternoon Delight by Jill Soloway, Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton, The Spectacular Now by James Ponsoldt, and Bluebird by Lance Edmands. The second competition - American Docs ($5,000 audience award for Best Documentary Feature) had a selection of films depicting varied current issues in American society including Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia by Nicholas Wrathall, The Armstrong Lie by Alex Gibney, Our Nixon by Penny Lane, Northern Light by Nick Bentgen, Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton by Eric Slade and Stephen Silha and Before You Know It by Pj Raval.
The American Film Festival also ran a retrospective of Shirley Clarke and presented Polish premieres of high-profile films such as As I Lay Dying by James Franco, Quentin Dupieux’s Wrong Cops, Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein’s Lovelace, Much Ado About Nothing by Joss Whedon, Touchy Feely by Lynn Shelton, At Any Price by Ramin Bahrani, and Maladies by Carter. The festival also screened Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Sundance hit Don Jon along several U.S. in Progress participants and festival hits like I Used to be Darker by Matt Porterfier and Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Patrick Carbone. Lastly, a special section titled 'Masterpieces of American Cinema 90 Years of Warner Bros." showed 14 digitally-remastered productions by the studio from The Jazz Singer by Alan Crosland (1927) through A Clockwork Orange ,The Exorcist and Christopher Nolan’s Inception
The festival will close on October 27th with Steven Soderbergh's Emmy Award-winning film Behind the Candelabra.
All competitions titles:
Spectrum
American Milkshake by David Andalman, Mariko Munro, USA 2012, 82'
Blue Highway by Kyle Smith, USA 2013, 70'
Coldwater by Vincent Grashaw, USA 2013, 104'
The Spectacular Now by James Ponsoldt, USA 2013, 95'
Drinking Buddies by Joe Swanberg, USA 2013, 90'
Lily by Matt Creed, USA 2013, 85'
A Teacher by Hannah Fidell, USA 2013, 75'
Blue Caprice by Alexandre Moors, USA 2013, 93'
Pearblossom Hwy by Mike Ott, USA 2012, 78'
Afternoon Delight by Jill Soloway, USA 2013, 105'
Stand Clear of the Closing Doors by Sam Fleischner, USA 2013, 102'
Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton, USA 2013, 96'
The Cold Lands by Tom Gilroy, USA 2013, 100'
In a World... by Lake Bell, USA 2013, 93'
A Song Still Inside by Gregory Collins, USA 2013, 82'
Bluebird by Lance Edmands, USA 2013, 90'
American Docs
Big Easy Express by Emmett Malloy, USA 2012
Off Label by Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher, USA 2012
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia by Nicholas Wrathall, USA, Italy 2013
Fall and Winter by Matt Anderson, USA 2013
The Armstrong Lie by Alex Gibney, USA 2013
Lenny Cooke by Ben Safdie, Joshua Safdie, USA 2012
Our Nixon by Penny Lane, USA 2013
Northern Light by Nick Bentgen, USA 2013
Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton by Eric Slade, Stephen Silha, USA 2013
Before You Know It by Pj Raval, USA 2012
U.S. Progress Projects
This year 6 projects in the final production stages were chosen to take part in the two-day workshop knows as U.S. in Progress Wroclaw (23-25 October, 2013). The event presents the American independent projects to European buyers, post-production houses and festivals in order to help them achieve completion and to foster the circulation and distribution of these films in Europe.
Selected from over 40 submission the chosen projects are the dramas Lake Los Angeles by Mike Ott (produced by Athina Rachel Tsangari), Happy Baby by Stephen Elliott (produced by Jessica Caldwell ) and Some Beasts by Cameron Nelson (produced by Ashley Maynor and Courtney Ware), crime story Wild Canaries by Lawrence Michael Levine (produced by Sophia Takal, Kim Sherman and McCabe Walsh), frontier black comedy Sun Belt Express by Evan Wolf Buxbaum (producers: Noah Lang and Iyabo Boyd) and Summer of Blood – a New York vampire comedy by director-producer Onur Tukel.
The prizes are awarded by a jury of professionals and include post-production services from European partner companies worth almost $60.000 and promotional services from other partners. Us in Progress’ partners are: Platige Image (Warsaw), Di Factory (Warsaw), Alvernia Studios (Krakow), composer Maciej Zielinski of Soundflower Studio (Warsaw), Soundplace (Warsaw), DCinex (Belgium), Vsi (Paris), Europa Distribution, Cicae and Cannes Marche du Film’s Producers Network.
U.S. in Progress Wrocław (formerly Gotham in Progress) was started in 2011 by the New Horizons Association and Black Rabbit Film. Previous films presented at the event included, among others: I Used To Be Darker by Matt Porterfield, American Milkshake by David Andalman (both shown at Sundance Ff in 2013), Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Carbone (Berlinale Generation, Tribeca), Bluebird by Lance Edmands (Tribeca, Karlovy Vary), Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin’s Now, Forager: a Film About Love and Fungi (Rotterdam, New Directors/New Films, Gotham Awards nominee), Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine (SXSW, Edinburgh Iff, Gotham Awards nominee) and Devyn Waitt’s Not Waving But Drowning (Sarasota Ff).
U.S. in Progress Wrocław is supported by the City of Wrocław, American Embassy in Warsaw and Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
For more information on the American Film Festival and the U.S. in Progress projects visit Here...
- 10/26/2013
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Pierogis and paczkis aside, another thing we like about the Polish is the Wroclaw’s Us in Progress initiative, which is already at year three (fifth edition if you include the Paris) and reported by Screen Daily, have selected the lucky six projects (October 23rd-25th) where filmmaker/producing teams will take part in what is essentially: first looks of U.S. indie films for European buyers with a cash prize (post production coin) decided by a jury. Among the noteworthy names we have the likes of Littlerock‘s Mike Ott, Gabi on the Roof in July‘s Lawrence Levine and Onur Tukel (writer on Michael Tully’s Septien, director behind 2012′s Richard’s Wedding). Here is our researched look at the six (of which we can expect a couple of items to end up at Sundance next January).
Happy Baby
Director/Writer: Stephen Elliott
Producer: Jessica Caldwell (Electrick Children...
Happy Baby
Director/Writer: Stephen Elliott
Producer: Jessica Caldwell (Electrick Children...
- 9/27/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Six projects selected for this year’s works-in-progress event targeted at Us independent filmmakers and European buyers.
Poland’s Us in Progress Wrocław event has announced the six projects that will feature in its 2013 edition.
The two-day works-in-progress event presents Us films in the final stages of production stages to European buyers, post-production houses and festivals in order to help them achieve completion and to foster the circulation and distribution of Us indie films in Europe.
The invite-only screenings and one-to-one meetings will take place as part of of the 4th American Film Festival in Wrocław, Poland (Oct 23-25).
The films, selected from around 40 submissions, include:
Lake Los Angeles by Mike Ott (produced by Athina Rachel Tsangari),
Happy Baby by Stephen Elliott (produced by Jessica Caldwell )
Some Beasts by Cameron Nelson (produced by Ashley Maynor and Courtney Ware)
Wild Canaries by Lawrence Michael Levine (produced by Sophia Takal, Kim Sherman and McCabe Walsh)
Sun Belt Express by [link...
Poland’s Us in Progress Wrocław event has announced the six projects that will feature in its 2013 edition.
The two-day works-in-progress event presents Us films in the final stages of production stages to European buyers, post-production houses and festivals in order to help them achieve completion and to foster the circulation and distribution of Us indie films in Europe.
The invite-only screenings and one-to-one meetings will take place as part of of the 4th American Film Festival in Wrocław, Poland (Oct 23-25).
The films, selected from around 40 submissions, include:
Lake Los Angeles by Mike Ott (produced by Athina Rachel Tsangari),
Happy Baby by Stephen Elliott (produced by Jessica Caldwell )
Some Beasts by Cameron Nelson (produced by Ashley Maynor and Courtney Ware)
Wild Canaries by Lawrence Michael Levine (produced by Sophia Takal, Kim Sherman and McCabe Walsh)
Sun Belt Express by [link...
- 9/27/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Writer/director Pamela Romanowsky is currently at the Sundance Directors Lab this month with her adaptation of Stephen Elliott’s memoir The Adderall Diaries. The following is what she wrote about her experiences at the Lab. It’s just after lunch, and we’re driving up the mountain road to the house we’ve been rehearsing in. My actors Luke Kirby and Megan Boone are in the back seat. Luke cracks a joke and we all laugh. I turn around to announce that I’m stealing that line for the next scene, and through the frame of the back window, a man in a denim jacket …...
- 6/19/2013
- by Pamela Romanowsky
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Sundance is always on the move. Skywalker and George Lucas himself are refocusing on the indies and choosing sound design as their point of entry.
Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound recently announced that the Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound will take place at Skywalker Ranch in 2013 and 2014 and also listed the artists that will participate in the 2013 Labs. This is the first time the two organizations will collaborate to support independent filmmakers and film composers and marks a significant expansion of the Institute’s existing Composers Labs to include sound design.
The Institute has hosted its Composers Labs at Sundance Resort for fiction feature films since 1999 and documentaries since 2005, allowing composers and independent filmmakers to collaboratively explore the process of writing music for film. Fellows also participate in workshops and creative exercises under the guidance of leading film composers and film music professionals acting as Creative Advisors.
Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, “Hosting the Composers Labs at Skywalker Ranch allows an expansion of the program to include sound design, giving further insight into the powerful ways that sound and music can impact independent films. We are deeply grateful to the Skywalker team for working with us to provide our Fellows with the tremendous benefit of accessing this legendary facility”
Josh Lowden, General Manager of Skywalker Sound, said, “We’re very excited to formalize this relationship. Sundance Institute is virtually synonymous with independent film, and Keri and her team have done an amazing job to honor the Institute’s legacy. Twenty-five years ago Skywalker was founded by a filmmaker for filmmakers, and we have never forgotten our roots. We continue to believe in independent filmmaking, and are thrilled to deepen our relationship with the Institute by hosting these Labs at Skywalker.”
The Composers Lab for fiction feature films is a joint initiative of the Institute’s Film Music Program and Feature Film Program, and the Composers Lab for documentaries is hosted by the Film Music Program and Documentary Film Program and Fund.
Peter Golub, Director of the Sundance Institute Film Music Program, said, “Skywalker Sound is a leader in the field of post-production and sound design, and their world-class facilities offer the ideal environment for our Composers Labs. Lab fellows will have access to Skywalker’s sound designers and mixers for ongoing collaboration, as well as the state-of-the-art facility during their stay.”
Artists and projects selected for the 2013 Sundance Music And Sound Design Lab – Documentary (June 3-10) are:
Filmmakers
Director: Kirsten Johnson
A Blind Eye (U.S.) — The voice of an American camerawoman explores the nature of cinematography and what she has failed to see while filming in Afghanistan through her encounters with two Afghan teenagers. Najeeb, a one-eyed boy, struggles to hide what really haunts him, while a bold teenage girl must decide how much she will risk to be visible. A U.S. Military surveillance blimp in the sky over Kabul tracks their every move.
Director: Judith Ehrlich
Open (U.S.) — The fight for free speech in the 21st century is being fought in cyberspace, and its most dramatic story may be unfolding in Iceland. Open follows trailblazing Internet revolutionary Birgitta Jónsdóttir and three generations of digital “hacktivists” as their stories converge in the tiny island nation now poised to become the world’s first haven for freedom of information and transparency online and off.
Director: Thomas Allen Harris
Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (U.S.) — A 90-minute documentary film with an innovative companion transmedia project that explores the ways black communities have used the medium of photography to construct political, aesthetic and cultural representations of themselves and their world. This will be the first film to vividly bring to life the individual photographers, photographic collectives, and anonymous and celebrated subjects, whose work has transformed the lives of African Americans through the magic and power of the camera lens.
Director: Mark Grieco
Marmato (Canada/Colombia) — A peaceful gold-mining town in rural Colombia confronts destruction by a Canadian multinational mining company.
Composers
Kathryn Bostic
Kathryn Bostic is a prolific composer, pianist and singer-songwriter. She is a recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Sundance Fellowship for Feature Film Scoring, Bmi Conducting Fellowship and the Ascap Musical Theatre Workshop. She has written for both off-Broadway and Broadway productions. Currently her score can be heard in the Mark Taper production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
Omar Fadel
Los Angeles-based composer Omar Fadel has carved out a niche fusing an eclectic palette of musical instruments and styles. He has scored numerous features films, documentaries and television shows, including Walt Disney Studios’ first ever Arabic language feature film, The United.
Miles Jay
Miles Jay is a composer, contrabassist, and multi-instrumentalist with many traditional and cross over artists around the world. Supporting himself as a musician around the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa for much of the last decade, Miles has re-imagined the contrabass, adapting a wide range of melodic ornamentation to his own technique, as well as having invented and hand-built a new type of contrabass utilizing rawhide for a soundboard. Miles has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi, Ted, and the United Nations.
Todd Reynolds
Todd Reynolds is a long-time New York violinist for Bang on a Can, Steve Reich, Broadway, and founder of the string quartet known as Ethel. His double CD set, Outerborough, rose to "best in classical" on the Amazon classical charts of 2011. A classical violinist 'gone horribly wrong', his genre-defying and technologically savvy music and performances have been called "a charming, multi-mood extravaganza, playful like Milhaud, but hard-edged like Hendrix."
Artists and projects selected for the 2013 Sundance Music And Sound Design Lab – Feature Film (July 10-25) are:
Filmmakers
Writer/director: Miguel Calderón
Zeus (Mexico) — Sporadically employed and still living with his mother, Joel finds his only joy in falconry in the flatlands outside Mexico City, until an encounter with a down-to-earth secretary forces him to face reality.
Writer/director: Meredith Danluck
State Like Sleep (U.S.A.) — Under the surreal cloud cover of northern Europe, a young American widow reluctantly revisits her past when her mother is hospitalized in Brussels. While coping with the bleak reality of parental loss, Katherine explores her deceased husband's secret life of underground sex clubs and finds comfort in a relationship with a stranger as equally broken as she is.
Co-writer/co-director: Ian Hendrie
Co-writer/co-director: Jyson McLean
Mercy Road (U.S.A.) — Based on true events, Mercy Road traces the spiritual odyssey of a small town housewife and mother, as she becomes willing to commit violence and murder in the name of God.
Writer/director: K’naan
Maanokoobiyo (Somalia/U.S.A.) — In war-torn Somalia, an artistic orphan named Maano joins the mercenary killing squad of a notorious warlord, only to discover his adoptive father and gang leader is responsible for wiping out his family.
Writer/director: Pamela Romanowsky
The Adderall Diaries (U.S.A.) — Writer Stephen Elliott reaches a low point when his estranged father resurfaces, claiming that Stephen has fabricated much of the dark childhood that that fuels his work. Adrift in the precarious grey area of memory, Stephen has to navigate the unstable terrain of truth and identity, led by two sources of inspiration: a new romance, and a murder trial that reminds him more than a little of his own story. Based on the memoir by Stephen Elliott.
Co-writer/director: Eva Weber
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name (UK/Germany/U.S.A.) — Twenty-eight-year-old Clarissa discovers on the day of her father's funeral that everything she believed about her life was a lie. She flees San Francisco and travels to the Arctic Circle to uncover the secrets of her mother, who mysteriously vanished when Clarissa was fourteen. Based on the novel by Vendela Vida.
Composers
Jongnic Bontemps
Jongnic Bontemps has had the pleasure to score numerous films, including award-winning Daughter of Fortune, A Different Tree, Soaring on Invisible Wings and Saudade. Jongnic's scores incorporate ethnic instruments with organic and synthetic textures to create a unique musical world for a film. This skill has been honed through his music education at Yale University, Berklee School of Music and the University of Southern California and his collaborations with some of the top film composers. Jongnic's scores have been heard at film festivals around the world including Cannes, The Pan African Film Festival, American Black Film Festival and Run & Shoot Martha's Vineyard
Larry Goldings
Larry Goldings is a Grammy-nominated pianist, organist, composer, and arranger, whose talents have been sought-after by an impressive range of artists including James Taylor, Norah Jones, John Mayer, Sia Furler, Madeleine Peyroux, Maceo Parker, Michael Brecker, and John Scofield.
Lucas Lechowski
Based in Los Angeles, Polish born Lucas Lechowski is a violinist/guitarist who creates music, experiments with sounds, improvises and performs. His recent film scoring credits include a 2013 Student Academy Award winner “Un mundo para Raúl” (dir. Mauro Mueller). Currently he is composing music for a two-hour NBC News television special commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of President Kennedy, entitled "Where Were You?"
Heather McIntosh
Heather McIntosh is a cellist, bassist and composer who got her musical start playing with the Elephant 6 collective in Athens, Georgia and continued on to perform with artists such as Gnarls Barkley and Lil Wayne. Recently relocated to Los Angeles, her film credits include Compliance by Craig Zobel and The Rambler by Calvin Lee Reeder.
Vladimir Podgoretsky
Vladimir Podgoretsky started his professional career as a musical theater composer. His 2007 ballet Snow Maiden (Snegurochka) was a huge success and continues to be regularly performed in theaters throughout Moscow. Vladimir moved to the Us to become a film composer and after graduating from the UCLA film scoring program has been working with leading composers on films such as Rise of the Guardians, A Single Shot, The Eagle, Season Of the Witch and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. He has also worked on the acclaimed video game World of Warcraft and the ABC TV series Revenge.
Mac Quayle
A resident of Topanga Canyon, California, Mac Quayle has written music for over 20 films and television shows and accumulated a long list of credits as a music producer, dance remixer and multi-instrumentalist, including a Grammy nomination for producing Donna Summer. His music is heard in films such as the Indian documentary Beyond Grace and the Irish drama A Belfast Story and some of his collaborations as an additional composer appear in Drive, Spring Breakers and Only God Forgives.
The Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound are made possible by Bmi, Time Warner Foundation, and the Film Music Foundation.
Sundance Institute
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a global, nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to nurturing artistic expression in film and theater, and to supporting intercultural dialogue between artists and audiences. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to unite, inform and inspire, regardless of geo-political, social, religious or cultural differences. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival and its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre artists, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Skywalker Sound
Skywalker Sound, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd, is one of the largest, most versatile full-service audio post-production companies in the industry. Skywalker Sound offers comprehensive post-production services and utilizes the talents of Academy Award®-winning sound professionals working on sound design, editorial, Foley and re-recording mixes as a team. This provides filmmakers the most efficient model available for the audio post-production process. More information is available at www.skysound.com.
Lucasfilm Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Skywalker Sound, the Skywalker Sound logo, Star Wars and related properties are trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © 2013 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.
Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound recently announced that the Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound will take place at Skywalker Ranch in 2013 and 2014 and also listed the artists that will participate in the 2013 Labs. This is the first time the two organizations will collaborate to support independent filmmakers and film composers and marks a significant expansion of the Institute’s existing Composers Labs to include sound design.
The Institute has hosted its Composers Labs at Sundance Resort for fiction feature films since 1999 and documentaries since 2005, allowing composers and independent filmmakers to collaboratively explore the process of writing music for film. Fellows also participate in workshops and creative exercises under the guidance of leading film composers and film music professionals acting as Creative Advisors.
Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, “Hosting the Composers Labs at Skywalker Ranch allows an expansion of the program to include sound design, giving further insight into the powerful ways that sound and music can impact independent films. We are deeply grateful to the Skywalker team for working with us to provide our Fellows with the tremendous benefit of accessing this legendary facility”
Josh Lowden, General Manager of Skywalker Sound, said, “We’re very excited to formalize this relationship. Sundance Institute is virtually synonymous with independent film, and Keri and her team have done an amazing job to honor the Institute’s legacy. Twenty-five years ago Skywalker was founded by a filmmaker for filmmakers, and we have never forgotten our roots. We continue to believe in independent filmmaking, and are thrilled to deepen our relationship with the Institute by hosting these Labs at Skywalker.”
The Composers Lab for fiction feature films is a joint initiative of the Institute’s Film Music Program and Feature Film Program, and the Composers Lab for documentaries is hosted by the Film Music Program and Documentary Film Program and Fund.
Peter Golub, Director of the Sundance Institute Film Music Program, said, “Skywalker Sound is a leader in the field of post-production and sound design, and their world-class facilities offer the ideal environment for our Composers Labs. Lab fellows will have access to Skywalker’s sound designers and mixers for ongoing collaboration, as well as the state-of-the-art facility during their stay.”
Artists and projects selected for the 2013 Sundance Music And Sound Design Lab – Documentary (June 3-10) are:
Filmmakers
Director: Kirsten Johnson
A Blind Eye (U.S.) — The voice of an American camerawoman explores the nature of cinematography and what she has failed to see while filming in Afghanistan through her encounters with two Afghan teenagers. Najeeb, a one-eyed boy, struggles to hide what really haunts him, while a bold teenage girl must decide how much she will risk to be visible. A U.S. Military surveillance blimp in the sky over Kabul tracks their every move.
Director: Judith Ehrlich
Open (U.S.) — The fight for free speech in the 21st century is being fought in cyberspace, and its most dramatic story may be unfolding in Iceland. Open follows trailblazing Internet revolutionary Birgitta Jónsdóttir and three generations of digital “hacktivists” as their stories converge in the tiny island nation now poised to become the world’s first haven for freedom of information and transparency online and off.
Director: Thomas Allen Harris
Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (U.S.) — A 90-minute documentary film with an innovative companion transmedia project that explores the ways black communities have used the medium of photography to construct political, aesthetic and cultural representations of themselves and their world. This will be the first film to vividly bring to life the individual photographers, photographic collectives, and anonymous and celebrated subjects, whose work has transformed the lives of African Americans through the magic and power of the camera lens.
Director: Mark Grieco
Marmato (Canada/Colombia) — A peaceful gold-mining town in rural Colombia confronts destruction by a Canadian multinational mining company.
Composers
Kathryn Bostic
Kathryn Bostic is a prolific composer, pianist and singer-songwriter. She is a recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Sundance Fellowship for Feature Film Scoring, Bmi Conducting Fellowship and the Ascap Musical Theatre Workshop. She has written for both off-Broadway and Broadway productions. Currently her score can be heard in the Mark Taper production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
Omar Fadel
Los Angeles-based composer Omar Fadel has carved out a niche fusing an eclectic palette of musical instruments and styles. He has scored numerous features films, documentaries and television shows, including Walt Disney Studios’ first ever Arabic language feature film, The United.
Miles Jay
Miles Jay is a composer, contrabassist, and multi-instrumentalist with many traditional and cross over artists around the world. Supporting himself as a musician around the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa for much of the last decade, Miles has re-imagined the contrabass, adapting a wide range of melodic ornamentation to his own technique, as well as having invented and hand-built a new type of contrabass utilizing rawhide for a soundboard. Miles has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi, Ted, and the United Nations.
Todd Reynolds
Todd Reynolds is a long-time New York violinist for Bang on a Can, Steve Reich, Broadway, and founder of the string quartet known as Ethel. His double CD set, Outerborough, rose to "best in classical" on the Amazon classical charts of 2011. A classical violinist 'gone horribly wrong', his genre-defying and technologically savvy music and performances have been called "a charming, multi-mood extravaganza, playful like Milhaud, but hard-edged like Hendrix."
Artists and projects selected for the 2013 Sundance Music And Sound Design Lab – Feature Film (July 10-25) are:
Filmmakers
Writer/director: Miguel Calderón
Zeus (Mexico) — Sporadically employed and still living with his mother, Joel finds his only joy in falconry in the flatlands outside Mexico City, until an encounter with a down-to-earth secretary forces him to face reality.
Writer/director: Meredith Danluck
State Like Sleep (U.S.A.) — Under the surreal cloud cover of northern Europe, a young American widow reluctantly revisits her past when her mother is hospitalized in Brussels. While coping with the bleak reality of parental loss, Katherine explores her deceased husband's secret life of underground sex clubs and finds comfort in a relationship with a stranger as equally broken as she is.
Co-writer/co-director: Ian Hendrie
Co-writer/co-director: Jyson McLean
Mercy Road (U.S.A.) — Based on true events, Mercy Road traces the spiritual odyssey of a small town housewife and mother, as she becomes willing to commit violence and murder in the name of God.
Writer/director: K’naan
Maanokoobiyo (Somalia/U.S.A.) — In war-torn Somalia, an artistic orphan named Maano joins the mercenary killing squad of a notorious warlord, only to discover his adoptive father and gang leader is responsible for wiping out his family.
Writer/director: Pamela Romanowsky
The Adderall Diaries (U.S.A.) — Writer Stephen Elliott reaches a low point when his estranged father resurfaces, claiming that Stephen has fabricated much of the dark childhood that that fuels his work. Adrift in the precarious grey area of memory, Stephen has to navigate the unstable terrain of truth and identity, led by two sources of inspiration: a new romance, and a murder trial that reminds him more than a little of his own story. Based on the memoir by Stephen Elliott.
Co-writer/director: Eva Weber
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name (UK/Germany/U.S.A.) — Twenty-eight-year-old Clarissa discovers on the day of her father's funeral that everything she believed about her life was a lie. She flees San Francisco and travels to the Arctic Circle to uncover the secrets of her mother, who mysteriously vanished when Clarissa was fourteen. Based on the novel by Vendela Vida.
Composers
Jongnic Bontemps
Jongnic Bontemps has had the pleasure to score numerous films, including award-winning Daughter of Fortune, A Different Tree, Soaring on Invisible Wings and Saudade. Jongnic's scores incorporate ethnic instruments with organic and synthetic textures to create a unique musical world for a film. This skill has been honed through his music education at Yale University, Berklee School of Music and the University of Southern California and his collaborations with some of the top film composers. Jongnic's scores have been heard at film festivals around the world including Cannes, The Pan African Film Festival, American Black Film Festival and Run & Shoot Martha's Vineyard
Larry Goldings
Larry Goldings is a Grammy-nominated pianist, organist, composer, and arranger, whose talents have been sought-after by an impressive range of artists including James Taylor, Norah Jones, John Mayer, Sia Furler, Madeleine Peyroux, Maceo Parker, Michael Brecker, and John Scofield.
Lucas Lechowski
Based in Los Angeles, Polish born Lucas Lechowski is a violinist/guitarist who creates music, experiments with sounds, improvises and performs. His recent film scoring credits include a 2013 Student Academy Award winner “Un mundo para Raúl” (dir. Mauro Mueller). Currently he is composing music for a two-hour NBC News television special commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of President Kennedy, entitled "Where Were You?"
Heather McIntosh
Heather McIntosh is a cellist, bassist and composer who got her musical start playing with the Elephant 6 collective in Athens, Georgia and continued on to perform with artists such as Gnarls Barkley and Lil Wayne. Recently relocated to Los Angeles, her film credits include Compliance by Craig Zobel and The Rambler by Calvin Lee Reeder.
Vladimir Podgoretsky
Vladimir Podgoretsky started his professional career as a musical theater composer. His 2007 ballet Snow Maiden (Snegurochka) was a huge success and continues to be regularly performed in theaters throughout Moscow. Vladimir moved to the Us to become a film composer and after graduating from the UCLA film scoring program has been working with leading composers on films such as Rise of the Guardians, A Single Shot, The Eagle, Season Of the Witch and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. He has also worked on the acclaimed video game World of Warcraft and the ABC TV series Revenge.
Mac Quayle
A resident of Topanga Canyon, California, Mac Quayle has written music for over 20 films and television shows and accumulated a long list of credits as a music producer, dance remixer and multi-instrumentalist, including a Grammy nomination for producing Donna Summer. His music is heard in films such as the Indian documentary Beyond Grace and the Irish drama A Belfast Story and some of his collaborations as an additional composer appear in Drive, Spring Breakers and Only God Forgives.
The Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound are made possible by Bmi, Time Warner Foundation, and the Film Music Foundation.
Sundance Institute
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a global, nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to nurturing artistic expression in film and theater, and to supporting intercultural dialogue between artists and audiences. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to unite, inform and inspire, regardless of geo-political, social, religious or cultural differences. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival and its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre artists, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Skywalker Sound
Skywalker Sound, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd, is one of the largest, most versatile full-service audio post-production companies in the industry. Skywalker Sound offers comprehensive post-production services and utilizes the talents of Academy Award®-winning sound professionals working on sound design, editorial, Foley and re-recording mixes as a team. This provides filmmakers the most efficient model available for the audio post-production process. More information is available at www.skysound.com.
Lucasfilm Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Skywalker Sound, the Skywalker Sound logo, Star Wars and related properties are trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © 2013 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.
- 6/6/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
J.H. Wyman and Bad Robot's J.J. Abrams' untitled drama pilot previously called Inhuman has cast Lili Taylor in the lead with Michael Ealy, reports Deadline. The cop actioner is based on the near future where Lapd officers have partners which are highly evolved androids. Ealy plays an android cop called Dorian, partnered with human John Kennex. Taylor's character is Maldonado, a police captain who's determined as well as ambitious, and will make sacrifices to serve the greater good. Taylor's was recently seen in Paul Weitz's Being Flynn with Robert De Niro, Paul Dano and Olivia Thirbly, as well as Stephen Elliott's About Cherry drama.
- 3/4/2013
- Upcoming-Movies.com
J.H. Wyman and Bad Robot's J.J. Abrams' untitled drama pilot previously called Inhuman has cast Lili Taylor in the lead with Michael Ealy, reports Deadline. The cop actioner is based on the near future where Lapd officers have partners which are highly evolved androids. Ealy plays an android cop called Dorian, partnered with human John Kennex. Taylor's character is Maldonado, a police captain who's determined as well as ambitious, and will make sacrifices to serve the greater good. Taylor's was recently seen in Paul Weitz's Being Flynn with Robert De Niro, Paul Dano and Olivia Thirbly, as well as Stephen Elliott's About Cherry drama.
- 3/4/2013
- Upcoming-Movies.com
The documentary kink, premiering at this week’s Sundance Film Festival and produced by James Franco, takes a bird’s eye look at San Francisco-based major Bdsm internet porn company Kink.com, and doesn’t wince.
Directed by Franco’s longtime cinematographer Christina Voros, the movie completely revels in a world where ropes and bondage are joyful ways of expressing lust — and we’re talking way more “discipline” than Fifty Shades of Grey. Check out our exclusive premiere of the movie’s trailer below. But be warned, faint-of-heart readers: It’s stuffed with footage of buff guys getting trussed up...
Directed by Franco’s longtime cinematographer Christina Voros, the movie completely revels in a world where ropes and bondage are joyful ways of expressing lust — and we’re talking way more “discipline” than Fifty Shades of Grey. Check out our exclusive premiere of the movie’s trailer below. But be warned, faint-of-heart readers: It’s stuffed with footage of buff guys getting trussed up...
- 1/15/2013
- by Solvej Schou
- EW - Inside Movies
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Jan. 15, 2013
Price: DVD $24.98, Blu-ray $29.98
Studio: Mpi
Ashley Hinshaw makes an all-too-adult career for herself in About Cherry.
Lovely up-and-coming starlet Ashley Hinshaw stars in the 2012 independent drama film About Cherry.
Ms. Hinshaw stars as high school student Angelina, whose choices lead her from a depressing home life and dead-end job in Los Angeles to San Francisco. In the Bay Area, Angelina gets a job dancing at a strip club, which leads to a job acting in a soft-core pornography, and then, ultimately, in a hardcore film.
Appearing in supporting roles are Lili Taylor (Being Flynn) as Angelina’s manic and opportunistic mother, Jonny Weston (Chasing Mavericks) as her sexy but sleazy boyfriend, Dev Patel (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) as her best friend, James Franco (127 Hours) as a coke-addicted attorney who spots Angelina at a strip club, and Heather Graham (Son of Morning) as a female...
Price: DVD $24.98, Blu-ray $29.98
Studio: Mpi
Ashley Hinshaw makes an all-too-adult career for herself in About Cherry.
Lovely up-and-coming starlet Ashley Hinshaw stars in the 2012 independent drama film About Cherry.
Ms. Hinshaw stars as high school student Angelina, whose choices lead her from a depressing home life and dead-end job in Los Angeles to San Francisco. In the Bay Area, Angelina gets a job dancing at a strip club, which leads to a job acting in a soft-core pornography, and then, ultimately, in a hardcore film.
Appearing in supporting roles are Lili Taylor (Being Flynn) as Angelina’s manic and opportunistic mother, Jonny Weston (Chasing Mavericks) as her sexy but sleazy boyfriend, Dev Patel (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) as her best friend, James Franco (127 Hours) as a coke-addicted attorney who spots Angelina at a strip club, and Heather Graham (Son of Morning) as a female...
- 1/2/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Every year, precisely the week before we toast to a new edition of the Sundance Film Festival, there is a lucky set of a dozen or more scribes who head of to the Sundance resort as part of the January Screenwriters Lab. For the 2013 edition, this year’s dozen includes some familiar names and fairly diverse international mix and at the top of the list we find Andrew Renzi who’ll be at the fest the week later with his short Karaoke! and will be workshopping his feature film Franny. Russell Harbaugh who brought his queasy The Celebration-esque short Rolling on the Floor Laughing to the fest the year before, will also be receiving support on his debut entitled, Love After Love. Jan Kwiecinski whose most recent short was part of The Fourth Dimension project will tackle The Incident, and K’naan, an artist who is already had practice at...
- 12/17/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Stephen Elliott.s directorial debut, About Cherry, tackled some oddball subject matter, delving into the world of the porn industry and one young girl.s entrance into that field. The film premiered at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival to little acclaim, but if a skin flick with a likeable protagonist seems up your alley, About Cherry will be available on Blu-ray and DVD beginning on January 15, 2013. About Cherry stars Ashley Hinshaw as an 18-year-old who sells some naked photos to make it to San Francisco, where she ends up getting into the pornography industry and dating an attorney who just so happens to have a coke addiction. The ambling story also stars such random actors as James Franco, Dev Patel, and Heather Graham. Despite the talent involved, the flick was only released in three theaters for a grand total of one week, so the DVD and Blu-ray release will probably...
- 12/12/2012
- cinemablend.com
A couple of weeks ago we selected Stephen Elliott’s Happy Baby for our curated Kickstarter page, and since then he’s been adding a number of provocative awards to the campaign. The most interesting was added today: for $6,000, Elliott will transfer to you his relationship with the actor and director James Franco, who starred in his feature About Cherry and owns the rights to his novel The Adderall Diaries. Muses Elliott, “What does that mean?” “I’m not really sure,” he continues. “I can’t promise anything from James, but I’ll send you a notarized document transferring full ownership.” Memorializing and transferring …...
- 11/20/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Author Stephen Elliott (The Adderall Diaries) founded the culture website The Rumpus and recently directed his first feature, About Cherry. He’s launched a Kickstarter campaign for his second, Happy Baby, an adaptation of his 2004 autobiographical novel. The below is excerpted from Elliott’s Daily Rumpus newsletter, which, as a newsletter writer myself, I highly recommend. — Sm
Someone asked yesterday why I was doing a Kickstarter for my movie. He said he would donate $5, he doesn’t have very much money (which is fine), but he wanted to know why I needed you (he said, “Why do you need us?”). Was it because I wanted the movie to be completely grassroots, or because I needed complete control? Or could I not get the bigshots to give me money and let me keep director’s cut, or whatever. He said he didn’t know much about making movies but wanted to know what was the deal.
Someone asked yesterday why I was doing a Kickstarter for my movie. He said he would donate $5, he doesn’t have very much money (which is fine), but he wanted to know why I needed you (he said, “Why do you need us?”). Was it because I wanted the movie to be completely grassroots, or because I needed complete control? Or could I not get the bigshots to give me money and let me keep director’s cut, or whatever. He said he didn’t know much about making movies but wanted to know what was the deal.
- 11/8/2012
- by Stephen Elliott
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Rating: 2.0/5.0
Chicago – Stephen Elliott’s “About Cherry” takes what could have been an interesting journey into the porn industry and turns it into what is essentially a TV-Movie-of-the-Week without the rating restrictions of the Lifetime Channel. Newcomer Ashley Hinshaw makes an impression and the supporting cast of Elliott’s drama is strong but the film never finds its focus, refusing to get under the beautiful surface of its lead character and present her as anything more than a sexy plot device.
Every day, there are young women getting drawn into a world in which their physical appearance and what they’re willing to do with their bodies ends up making them a lot of money. We’ve seen countless stories of the allure of the seedy side of entertainment in Hollywood and, ultimately, “About Cherry”’s biggest flaw is how it plays into so many clichés of its subgenre. There...
Chicago – Stephen Elliott’s “About Cherry” takes what could have been an interesting journey into the porn industry and turns it into what is essentially a TV-Movie-of-the-Week without the rating restrictions of the Lifetime Channel. Newcomer Ashley Hinshaw makes an impression and the supporting cast of Elliott’s drama is strong but the film never finds its focus, refusing to get under the beautiful surface of its lead character and present her as anything more than a sexy plot device.
Every day, there are young women getting drawn into a world in which their physical appearance and what they’re willing to do with their bodies ends up making them a lot of money. We’ve seen countless stories of the allure of the seedy side of entertainment in Hollywood and, ultimately, “About Cherry”’s biggest flaw is how it plays into so many clichés of its subgenre. There...
- 10/5/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
14th Mumbai Film Festival (Mff) announced its complete lineup today in a press conference. Mff will be held from October 18th to 25th at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Ncpa) and Inox, Nariman Point, Liberty Cinemas, Marine Lines as the main festival venues and Cinemax, Andheri and Cinemax Sion as the satellite venues. Click here to watch trailers and highlights from the festival.
Here is the complete list of films to be screened during the festival (October 18-25)
International Competition for the First Feature Films of Directors
1. From Tuesday To Tuesday (De Martes A Martes)
Dir.: Gustavo Fernandez Triviño (Argentina / 2012 / Col. / 111′)
2. The Last Elvis (El Último Elvis)
Dir.: Armando Bo (Argentina / 2012 / Col. / 91′)
3. The Sapphires
Dir.: Wayne Blair (Australia / 2012 / Col. / 103′)
4. The Wall (Die Wand)
Dir.: Julian Pölsler (Austria-Germany / 2012 / Col. / 108′)
5. Teddy Bear (10 timer til Paradis)
Dir.: Mads Matthiesen (Denmark / 2012 / Col. / 93′)
6. Augustine
Dir.: Alice Winccour (France / 2012 / Col.
Here is the complete list of films to be screened during the festival (October 18-25)
International Competition for the First Feature Films of Directors
1. From Tuesday To Tuesday (De Martes A Martes)
Dir.: Gustavo Fernandez Triviño (Argentina / 2012 / Col. / 111′)
2. The Last Elvis (El Último Elvis)
Dir.: Armando Bo (Argentina / 2012 / Col. / 91′)
3. The Sapphires
Dir.: Wayne Blair (Australia / 2012 / Col. / 103′)
4. The Wall (Die Wand)
Dir.: Julian Pölsler (Austria-Germany / 2012 / Col. / 108′)
5. Teddy Bear (10 timer til Paradis)
Dir.: Mads Matthiesen (Denmark / 2012 / Col. / 93′)
6. Augustine
Dir.: Alice Winccour (France / 2012 / Col.
- 9/24/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Here's a new red-band trailer for the upcoming drama About Cherry, which stars James Franco, Heather Graham, Dev Patel, Ashley Hinshaw, Lilli Taylor, Stephen Elliott, and Lorelei Lee.
The story centers on a troubled young woman (Hinshaw) who moves to San Francisco, where she gets involved in pornography and gets in a relationship with a cocaine-addicted lawyer. Graham plays a former porn star-turned-director who becomes mildly obsessed with the young starlet. Taylor plays the teen's alcoholic mother, and Patel plays the girl's best friend who's in love with her, which is never a good position for a guy to be in.
I'll be honest, the movie looks pretty depressing and it doesn't seem to glorify the pornography business at all. The latest trailer contains some nudity, so it's Definitely Nsfw, unless you happen to work in the adult entertainment industry.
Here's the synopsis:
Angelina (Ashley Hinshaw) is an 18-year-old on...
The story centers on a troubled young woman (Hinshaw) who moves to San Francisco, where she gets involved in pornography and gets in a relationship with a cocaine-addicted lawyer. Graham plays a former porn star-turned-director who becomes mildly obsessed with the young starlet. Taylor plays the teen's alcoholic mother, and Patel plays the girl's best friend who's in love with her, which is never a good position for a guy to be in.
I'll be honest, the movie looks pretty depressing and it doesn't seem to glorify the pornography business at all. The latest trailer contains some nudity, so it's Definitely Nsfw, unless you happen to work in the adult entertainment industry.
Here's the synopsis:
Angelina (Ashley Hinshaw) is an 18-year-old on...
- 9/19/2012
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
imdb.1eye.us, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.