Fresh Film

IT is not over yet.  The 44th curation of the world renowned New Directors/New Films festival, presented by The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center is happening now.

YEAR after year ND/NF selects films from all over the globe revealing the most provocative and off the screen story and remarkable storytelling which will impact cinema in the years to follow while providing emerging filmmakers a dynamic platform to showcase their vision in film, cinema, art, society and culture.

LEARN more at:
New Directors/New Films 2015

www.moma.org 

www.newdirectors.org

Home Film Festival

INDIEFLIX is passionate about great films that disrupt stereotypes and spark conversation, film that involves a community.  That community is you.  So, who are you?  What do you look like? What story do you have?  IndieFlix celebrates you and your stories.

IndieFlix is the 'indie version of Netflix.  IndieFlix makes earning money for independent filmmakers, a goal central to its mission by subscriptions and streams on any device with an internet connection.

IndieFlix is like having a film festival brought to you, on demand, all-you-can-watch.  As a filmmaker, IndieFlix is a way to both get your movie seen and get paid for it.  Login at IndieFlix.com to learn all about it.  And to get a free limited subscription.

EVENING SON - Brooklyn's finest, Filmmaker Spike Lee, is celebrating thirty-six cinematic Joints, starting with "She’s Gotta Have It" to latest, "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus".

JOIN auteur Spike Lee for an evening of Film, Wine, and Music as Spike discusses and show selections from a wide range of his films as well as share and exclusive special sneak peak of his new joint, "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus."

ALL tickets will include six wines specially chosen and paired with Spike’s films, as well as a SMP (Special Music Performance) to close out the evening.  An Evening with Spike Lee

Solomon Northup’s 1853 Autobiography Headed To The Big Screen

Steve McQueen has come aboard to direct Twelve Years a Slave, which will star Chiwetel Ejiofor in a true story about a New York man who was kidnapped in the mid-1800s and forced to become a slave on a Louisiana cotton plantation.

Twelve Years a Slave is McQueen’s adaptation of Solomon Northup’s 1853 autobiography about a married, educated, free Black man who eventually was captured and enslaved while on a trip from New York City to Washington, D.C. Historians over the years have reportedly used Northup’s book as a guidebook to slave life in the early 1800s. The book goes in detail of the court case which led to Northup’s reclaimed freedom.

In the meantime, McQueen is preparing to unveil his latest fare Shame at the Venice Film Festival. The drama reunites him with Michael Fassbender in a story about a deviant sex addict who reconsiders his dark ways after his younger sister, played by Carey Mulligan, moves in with him. McQueen made waves with his riveting debut film Hunger, about the Irish hunger strike that starred Michael Fassbender and earned the emerging director the 2008 Cannes' Camera d'Or. Focus has its own feature rights package that include Fela’s music, while Brad Pitt's Plan B is producing Twelve Years a Slave.

Both, McQueen and Ejiofor are British. I am often baffled with Hollywood's decision-making to neglect, overlook and by-pass American talent, in this case, specifically Black American talent for films and directorships for a rare Hollywood funded film about Black American history with a non-stereotypical plot.

SMH!

Boy from New Zealand

It is always nice to learn of a sleeper hit. At the 2010 Sundance Film Festival a funny little indie film from New Zealand with lots of fresh faces and hilarious moments called Boy generated a ton of laughs and lots a of word of mouth; however, director Taika Waititi left Sundance without a distribution a U.S. distribution deal.

Waititi took Boy back to New Zealand where it has become a hit on its home turf. Now, as usual, Hollywoodteurs are back -- as they can now see the potential greenery. Boy and Waititi has secured an U.S. distribution deal with Mark Urman's Paladin.

Set in New Zealand in 1984, the film focuses on an 11-year-old "boy" (James Rolleston) who grows up in the remote Maori community of Waihau Bay. "Boy" is obsessed with Michael Jackson and imagining his long absent father (Waititi) is a world traveler. However, when his dad returns, he is an eccentric loser who has served a stretch for robbery. Together, they try to come to grips with one another and develop a lovable neo-non-traditional father-son relationship.

Definitely waiting for showtimes for this one.

Architecturally Cinematic

Everyone knows I enjoy all elements of filmmaking. One element is locations. While most think of film locations as simply a room, a cafe, train station or a house, for me it is environment. It is space. It is access to light -- whether natural or designed. It is the unique architectural details of the location set which brings depth, texture and hopefully additional layers to the art direction, story, and at best becomes another character to the unfolding story.

When I was in film school in Southern California, I met an attractive young architect fresh out of Architecture school. On weekends he would zip to down Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco through Malibu to Long Beach (the least expensive beachfront property in Southern California at the time). He would guide me on private tours of undiscovered Los Angeles area neighborhoods and introduced me to buildings I never saw, although I drove pass these structures on my way to work, to class and to location sets practically every day. Clearly these places were standing; however, I never knew they existed or provided any architectural importance besides: house or office. His expertise helped me to see more.

Yesterday I tore open the plastic wrapper of my big fall September 2011 issue of Architectural Digest with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith on the cover. And yes, I too, lament over our lives and society being completely engulfed with celebrity; however, Will Smith is a true Hollywood star unlike no other. AD brilliantly captures this as the Smith's (Will, Jada, Trey, Jaden and Willow) open their 25,000-square-foot Malibu adobe style home for the first time.

Greenlight is a blog about getting your project the greenlight, and this posting shows us how we can live after the light turns green. See for yourself in the September issue of Architectural Digest.

Not Too Broken

The Hughes Brothers (Book of Eli and Menace II Society) go solo with Allen Hughes of the wunderkind Hughes directing duo enlisiting Hollywood A-listers Russell Crowe and Mark Wahlberg to star in Allen's independently financed film noir drama Broken City.

In Broken City, Wahlberg plays Billy Taggart, an ex-cop turned private detective hired by an unscrupulous mega metropolis Mayor (Crowe) who suspects his wife's infidelity. When Taggart confirms the mayor's suspicions, his wife's lover ends up dead. Now the private eye turns to the mayor unraveling and uncovering his shady real estate business dealings setting the stage for personal and political scandal.

The script was written by Brian Tucker and made the 2008 Black List. The $60 million price tagged production will be financed by Emmett/Furla Films. Principal lensing begins in November with Wahlberg producing through his Closest to the Hole shingle along with Stephen Levinson's Leverage banner. Hughes, Randall Emmett and George Furla are also in the producing seat.

The 2008 Black List is the list of the best unproduced screenplays circulating around Hollywood. I think it is time for the Greenlight Green List operative. The Green List will be a list of screenplays that meet all of the mundane nuances of a Hollywoodteur script, yet is intelligent, clever, story-driven, plot-having and thought provoking that and can be produced on your cellphone, camcorder or Arriflex regardless of budget and names.

Crowe next stars as Jor-El in the upcoming Superman film, while Wahlberg will be seen in Contraband with Kate Beckinsdale in January 2012 and joins Mila Kunis in the comedy Ted, about a man whose teddy bear that comes to life.