Sign of the Times? Insiders React To Picturehouse, Warner Indie Closures

The tragedy was in plain sight, but nobody thought it would hit this hard. As word spread today that Warner Bros. planned to close its specialty divisions Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures, shifting all projects currently in development to the larger studio and its recently absorbed subdivision New Line, a mournful tone took hold of the independent film industry. "It is a sad day when any film company, large or small, bites the dust," said President of THINKfilm Mark Urman. "One had heard and one had even considered that this was a possible scenario. It's still surprising when you see it in print."
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DISPATCH FROM SAN FRANCISCO | America's Oldest Fest Takes on the Future

"Last year we celebrated our past, but tonight we begin our future," commented San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Graham Leggat in his opening night remarks of the 51st San Francisco International Film Festival. Leggat was referring to the Film Society's plans to expand its identity into a more far-reaching and consistently present local force in terms of education outreach and year-round exhibition. But the promises, and more pointedly, the potential perils of what lies ahead in the larger scheme of things, seemed to be on many filmmakers' minds as well.
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BIZ | Cablevision Stretches its Rainbow to Sundance Channel

Rainbow Media announced today a plan to purchase the Sundance Channel for $496 million. Confirming reports that the network was seeking a buyer and Rainbow Media was the lead contender, the deal finds Rainbow Media Holdings, LLC, a programming subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation, buying the channel from its current owners NBC Universal, CBS, Showtime Networks and Robert Redford. The Sundance founder, meanwhile, will continue his role as the network's creative director, in addition to recieving just under $50 million from the deal, with the rest of the money divided up between the other owners.
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CineVegas '08 | "Rocker," "Howard" and Debuts Crown 10th CineVegas Fest

The world premiere of Peter Cattaneo's "The Rocker," starring Rainn Wilson as a failed drunmmer who joins his nephew's high school band, will open the 10th annual CineVegas Film Festival, taking place in Las Vegas June 12 - 21. Among this year's debuts are seven world premieres the festival has packaged in its "Jackpot Premieres" section (listed below) in addition to the festival's documentary section (including three world debuts), a sidebar on Mexican films and directors as well as high profile work that have been making the festival rounds and more. Closing the festival is Sean McGinly's "The Great Buck Howard," starring John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt and Tom Hanks.
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REVIEW | Imagine That: Tarsem Singh's "The Fall"

[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Playwright John Guare must have had Indian director Tarsem Singh (or as he's often simply known, Tarsem) in mind when he wrote about the increasing exteriorization of the term "imaginative": "Why has 'imagination' become a synonym for style?" Singh makes films that inspire a bevy of similarly misused adjectives: "sumptuous," "surreal," "eye-popping," "hallucinatory." He specializes in audacious compositions, shoots in exotic locales, fits his actors in unique costumes that appear simultaneously futuristic and old-fashioned, and in only two features, including the new and fifteen years in the making "The Fall," has shown a predilection for stories about, yes, "the power of the imagination."
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LAFF '08 | Universal Pics "Wanted and "Hellboy II" Bookend Los Angeles Fest in June

Universal Pictures' "Wanted" by Timur Bekmambetov will open the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival June 19 in Westwood, organizers announced Tuesday. Based upon Mark Millar's graphic novel series the film tells the story of one apathetic nobody's transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice. Closing the festival, which is organized by Film Independent, is writer/director Guillermo del Toro's "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" also from Universal on June 29. Sundance 2008 doc "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" will screen as the Centerpiece June 26 at the Ford Amphitheater in a program that will include live musical performances and "special guests." "I am proud of the festival's on-going growth within the community, and pleased that we continue to attract world-class filmmakers like Guillermo Del Toro and Timur Bekmambetov," said festival director Rich Raddon in a statement. "The Los Angeles Film Festival celebrates the best in filmmaking as well as discovering new voices from around the world."
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iW BOT | Chart-Topping 'Mister Lonely' Makes Harmony Korine the Comeback Kid

"Mister Lonely," filmmaker Harmony Korine's sweet-natured drama about two lovelorn celebrity impersonators, rocketed past all art-house releases with a debut, per-screen average of $16,769 at New York's IFC Center. "Son of Rambow," British filmmaker Garth Jennings' coming- of-age comedy for Paramount Vantage, also debuted in the iWBOT top five, which ranks films by per-screen average, with $53,778 in weekend box office from five runs in New York and Los Angeles. Rounding out the iWBOT Top Five, were "Redbelt," director David Mamet's fight drama for Sony Pictures Classics, "Viva," director Anna Biller's sexploitation drama for Vagrant Films Releasing and Samuel Goldwyn's "Roman de Gare," a thriller from French master Claude Lelouch.
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TRIBECA '08 | Catching up on 20 Interviews, Critics Notebooks Dispatches and More from the Festival

The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival came to a close over the weekend in New York City and indieWIRE is wrapping up its coverage from the 12-day event. Our festival dispatches, interviews, critics notebooks amounted to twenty related articles on this year's festival, which took place April 23 - May 4 in addition to iPOP photos and buzz items. We invite you to check out iW's coverage from Tribeca.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Redbelt" Director David Mamet

Well, you can't accuse David Mamet of slacking off. That "Redbelt," his new martial arts film, hits the screen May 2, while "November," a hilarious political broadside, plays to packed houses on Broadway highlights the man's amazing productivity. In the theatre, Mamet has created, of course, his own dramatic idiom, a tough-guy vernacular of fractured speech and pauses which masks male insecurity, while skewering venality and the decline of values. With his 1988 "House of Games" he annexed a second career directing films, often centered on con men and tricksters. The hyper-busy Mamet has also written numerous screenplays. Add to that essays, novels and non-fiction books, the TV series, "The Unit." Plus he's got a family and a life.
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DOC COLUMN | Arts Engine Celebrates 10 Years

Ten years can either be a blip or an eternity depending on your perspective. The year 1997 saw President Bill Clinton inaugurated for his second term, James Cameron's "Titantic" was the top movie and a book about a young wizard named Harry Potter first hit shelves. It was before the Internet stock bust and "information superhighway" was still a promise. The world of documentary in the U.S. was one of foundation funding, public television broadcast and educational distribution with precious few docs breaking into any kind of commercial success. It was in that entrenched world that then-new filmmakers Katy Chevigny and Julia Pimsleur felt like they had little opportunity.
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TRIBECA '08 | "Let the Right One In" and "Pray the Devil" Among Top Tribeca Fest Winners

Swedish director Tomas Alfredson's "Let the Right One In" (Lat den ratte komma in), recently acquired by Magnolia Pictures' genre label Magnet, won the Founders Award for Best Narative Feature tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival's awards event held at the Target-Tribeca Filmmaker Lounge in downtown New York City. The prize includes $25,000 in cash and an art award entitled, "Maternal Nocture: Clearing Storm" created by Stephen Hannock. Director Gini Reticker's "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" won best documentary feature, also receiving $25,000 and a piece of art called "Liza Minnelli" by Timothy White.
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DISPATCH FROM MIAMI | Miami Gay Fest Tosses on the Go-Go Boots and Throws a Bash

It's hard to believe that it's only the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival's 10th anniversary. In only a decade, it has established itself as the first major stop on the annual U.S. gay and lesbian festival circuit. Filmmakers, sponsors and audiences alike have jumped at the invitation to spend time amongst Miami's famed art deco facades, shirtless rollerbladers, and endless parade of girls pulling at their short skirts and falling over their heels. It's a distinctly Miami affair.
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TRIBECA CRITICS NOTEBOOK 3 | Some Gems at TFF: "Bitter & Twisted," "Bart Got a Room," "Days in Sintra"

Now that I have seen dozens and dozens of films in this 7th Tribeca Film Festival, I want to correct myself. I was wrong in my first report. Tribeca is unique, and occupies a certain niche in New York that belongs to it alone. It is neither film festival nor film market. It is closer to Las Vegas's Showest, or Orlando's Show East, which are more mainstream in their focus than, say, artier events like the New York Film Festival, although it is eclectic enough to include "high art" movies, too.
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REVIEW | Changes: Lucia Puenzo's "XXY"

[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Though it's as sullen and damp-grey as its morose 15-year-old protagonist, Argentinean filmmaker Lucia Puenzo's directorial debut "XXY" doesn't really get inside the mind of young Alex as much as watch her with an awkward combination of fascination and empathy. It's both a success and a failing on the new filmmaker's part; her intention in making "XXY," to humanely depict a character who might in other films or literature be relegated to oddball supporting status, is undoubtedly noble. Yet by focusing almost exclusively on Alex's differences (she was born with both female and male genitalia), rather than offering other facets of her life for consideration, the film slightly shortchanges what could have been a beautifully full portrait of a teenager going through radical inner and outer turmoil.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Mister Lonely" Director Harmony Korine

Much time has passed since Larry Clark discovered Harmony Korine skateboarding in Washington Square Park and hired him to write "Kids." In its wake, Korine exploded into the mainstream as a radical artist with a bad boy streak. His first two features, "Gummo" and the Dogme '95 entry "Julian Donkey-boy," divided critics and furthered his reputation as a fiercely independent figure. Just when his world seemed to be moving too fast, Korine left New York City for his native home in Nashville, got married and made a new movie to reflect his comparatively happier state of mind.
[ read more in People ]   [ 0 comments ]   [ filed under Interviews, Lead Story ]

iW BOT | Chinese Dam documentary "Up the Yangtze" Floods NY; Abu Ghraib film "Standard Operating Procedure" Fails to Catch Fire

With the Tribeca Film Festival underway at cross-town venues, "Up the Yangtze," the Zeitgeist Films documentary about China's Three Gorges Dam and its destructive impact, led all specialty films with a standout $15,851 in earnings at New York's IFC Center. Director Yung Chang's first feature-length documentary also became 2008's top non-fiction debut; out-performing Sony Pictures Classics' highly anticipated "Standard Operating Procedure," veteran filmmaker Errol Morris' documentary about the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Other new releases in the iWBOT top five, which ranks by per-screen average, included "Roman de Gare," French master filmmaker Claude Lelouch's thriller for Samuel Goldwyn Films; and ThinkFilm's "Then She Found Me," actress Helen Hunt's directing debut. Returning to the iWBOT for the third straight week was Overture Films' "The Visitor," featuring Richard Jenkins as a middle-aged professor whose life changes after helping an illegal immigrant. "Holly," a drama about child prostitution from Priority Films and Slowhand Cinema Releasing, took advantage of corporate sponsorship from business information provider LexisNexis and advance group sales to earn $15,687 at New York's Quad Cinema.
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TRIBECA CRITICS NOTEBOOK 2 | Docs: Topical or Art? Or Both? The Highs and Lows

EDITOR'S NOTE: In the second of three critics notebooks, New York-based film critic Howard Feinstein takes a look at some of the documentary offerings at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. Feinstein, a former editor at the Village Voice and a current programmer at the Sarajevo Film Festival, also offers up some opinion on presenting docs as vehicles for discussion vs. their worthiness as art.
[ read more in On The Scene ]   [ 1 comments ]   [ filed under Festival Dispatches, Lead Story, New York ]

Nonfiction Campaign: Can Errol Morris's "Standard Operating Procedure" Break the Political Doc Deadlock?

Election years are typically strong for political documentaries. Capitalizing on citizens' hunger for issues that the mainstream media is either ignoring or mishandling, audiences flock to theaters to get a deeper sense of what's going on in the world. At least that was the thinking in 2004, with the blockbuster sales of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and also given the multi-million-dollar grosses of "The Fog of War," "Control Room," "Super Size Me," and "The Corporation." Even "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry" wasn't swift-boated in theaters, earning more than $614,000.
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TRIBECA '08 DISPATCH | Clive Owen, Film Critics and "Squeezebox!"

Recalling a night at former New York City club Motherfucker back in 2002 where he watched early footage of "Squeezebox!," Tribeca Film Festival programming head David Kwok saluted a group of local filmmakers (and their fans) for their perserverance and patience in bringing the documentary to the big screen. At the time, the group -- including directors Steve Saporito & Zach Schaffer and producer Lyle Derek -- expected to finish their film by the end of 2002. Yet, even back then they warned that it might take longer than that, "This is a personal project for all of us," Derek told indieWIRE six years go, "We want to really just take our time, this is a labor of love."
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CANNES '08 | Skolimoski's "Four Nights" Leads Fortnight; Fest Roster Unveiled

Jerzi Skolimoski's "Four Nights With Anna" will open the 40th Director's Fortnight in Cannes. Organizers unveiled the entire roster for the annual independent sidebar to the Festival de Cannes, choosing thirty-three features for the 2008 festival. The event emerged amidst the tumult of 1968 when the fest was canceled in solidarity with striking French workers.
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NY NY | Bailey Talks TIFF, Prostitution in NY and Kim Ki-Duk Takes MoMA

This was a relatively quiet week for film in New York, as the city prepared for the Tribeca Film Festival. Cameron Bailey gave a little 'hello' from the Toronto, where he is the new co-director of that city's renowned festival, while fellow TIFF programmer Thom Powers used his weekly "Stranger Than Fiction" series to highlight the problems of sexual exploitation in New York. And South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-Duk brought even more prostitutes to MoMA's screens with the start of his full retrospective.
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TRIBECA CRITICS NOTEBOOK 1 | Taking on Art vs. Biz and Finding Some Gems--and then some

EDITOR'S NOTE: In the first of three critics notebooks, New York-based film critic Howard Feinstein takes a look at some of the fiction offerings at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. Feinstein, a former editor at the Village Voice and a current programmer at the Sarajevo Film Festival, also offers up some opinion on the event itself, now in its seventh year.
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TRIBECA '08 | Diversity, Tina Fey, and New Yorkers as 7th Tribeca Fest Kicks Off

"Holy shit, its Tiny Fey!" screamed a stock broker looking New Yorker on 54th St. in Midtown this evening (Wednesday), walking by the Zeigfeld theater with a female companion on a warm Spring night. A large crowd of onlookers were watching the half-block long red carpet arrivals for the Tribeca Film Festival's opening night screening Michael McCullers's "Baby Mama," starring Fey and Amy Poehler. As the couple watched the arrivals for a moment, an older woman wandered up to the scene. Studying the crowd for just a moment, she asked nobody in particular, "Does anyone know what's going on here?" After a few moments in which not a single person responded to her she turned and made her way toward 5th Ave. and wandered off. With a mix of enthusiasm and slight disorientation the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival officially kicked off on Wednesday night.
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FIRST PERSON | Jeremy Walker on Independent Film PR: "What I think publicity really is and also what it should not be"

Here's some of what I know: in the next seventy-two hours I will attend a TriBeCa Film Festival screening of Dan Myrick's smart, scary new movie "The Objective" with Sara Vilkomerson of The New York Observer as my date; the next morning the movers will arrive and remove about forty cardboard boxes, a few pieces of beloved furniture and the huge French "Mommie Dearest" poster; and the morning after that my partner Judd, our cat and I will board a California-bound Delta Airlines flight out of JFK. I am much less sure of everything else swimming in my head: hard facts are elusive and everything else is tinted with every stripe of emotion.
[ read more in People ]   [ 5 comments ]   [ filed under First Person, Lead Story ]

CANNES '08 | Dardennes, Desplechin, Egoyan, Eastwood, Martel, Salles, Soderbergh, and Wenders Among Those Set for 61st Festival de Cannes Competition

A number of familiar names are set to compete at the 61st Festival de Cannes organizers announced today in Paris, revealing the official selection of 52 feature films during a morning press conference. While the fest has yet to designate its opening and closing films, nineteen features are set to vie for the Palme d'Or. Among the films in competition are new work by The Dardenne Brothers, Arnaud Desplechin, Atom Egoyan, Clint Eastwood, Lucrecia Martel, Walter Salles, Steven Soderbergh, and Wim Wenders.
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DISPATCH FROM TORONTO | Documentary Filmmaking and "The Long Haul"

Termed "the longitudinal documentary" by Hot Docs Director of Programming Sean Farnel, films that follow a character or story over an extended period of time are increasingly problematic these days. Deals with distributors or television networks put pressure on the time a doc has to finish, often limiting the diachronic scope of the project. Three feature films screening at the 2008 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival: Jens Hoffman's "20 Seconds of Joy," Greg Kohs' "Song Sung Blue," and Nik Sheehan's "Flicker," exemplfy this increasingly rare form in documentary filmmaking.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Standard Operating Procedure" Director Errol Morris

Boston-based Errol Morris is that rarity among filmmakers: an intense documentarian (he has worked as a private investigator) and a great aestheticist. Harper's called him "the most obsessive and relentless forensic documentary filmmaker of our time." He probes thoroughly, interviewing his exceptionally candid subjects through a device he invented known as the Interrotron, a two-camera set-up allowing the interviewee to see Morris but also inviting the viewer into an eyeline rapport with the witness. "Standard Operating Procedure" is in the tradition of Morris's "The Thin Blue Line" (1988), in which he spoke to many people in pursuit of the truth about a murder case, rather than, say, "The Fog of War" (2003), in which he deconstructed top decisionmaker Robert McNamara's role in the Vietnam War.
[ read more in People ]   [ 0 comments ]   [ filed under Documentary, Interviews, Lead Story ]

indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Roman de Gare" Director Claude Lelouch

That the number of French films to find distribution here continues to dwindle is hardly news. What's less noted is that while American cinephiles are familiar with French art film -- Jacques Rivette, Olivier Assayas, Arnaud Desplechin come to mind -- they've had less exposure to France's "boulevard" crowd pleasers. (Exceptions, of course, are art crossovers "Amelie" and "La Vie en Rose"). Now along comes "Roman de Gare" from Claude Lelouch, a thriller with the pace and jolting twists of a studio film. It proudly flaunts its pop creds: roman de gare translates as "airport reading' or "potboiler" and Lelouch embraces the strong suit, as he sees it, of commercial fare.
[ read more in People ]   [ 0 comments ]   [ filed under Interviews, Lead Story, World Cinema ]

iW BOT | "Visitor" Stays Atop Specialty Chart; Weinstein Loses with "Osama"

"The Visitor," the Overture Films drama about a middle-aged professor aiding a Syrian street musician, remained atop the specialty charts for a second week with a $9,250 per-screen average. An art-house success for the new film division of Starz Entertainment, filmmaker Tom McCarthy's friendship drama continued to spotlight actor Richard Jenkins in his first leading role. Enthusiastic crowds at Toronto's Cinesphere helped return Abramorama's "The Singing Revolution," about Estonians protesting Soviet occupation through massive song festivals, to the iWBOT Top Five. Other specialty films fronting the iWBOT, which ranks by per-screen average, were "Young@Heart," Fox Searchlight's documentary about a senior choir that performs alternative fare from The Clash and Sonic Youth; "GLASS: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts," filmmaker Scott Hicks' documentary about composer and musician Philip Glass for Koch Lorber Films, and First Run Features' "Constantine's Sword," director Oren Jacoby's documentary about the historical role of Christianity in wars, conflicts and violence. Lagging far behind was director Morgan Spurlock's Middle East road documentary, The Weinstein Company's "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?"
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DISPATCH FROM TORONTO | Hometown "Demi-Gods of Metal" Kick Off Toronto's Hot Docs Fest

The 15th edition of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival started off with a (head) bang in Toronto Thursday night, showcasing the Canadian premiere of Sacha Gervasi's "Anvil! The Story of Anvil." Taking the stage of the historic Winter Garden to introduce the film, Hot Docs' Executive Director Chris McDonald proudly declared the festival "the finest collection of documentaries anywhere." With 174 films from 36 countries screening over 11 days, Hot Docs has grown into the largest documentary festival in North America, blasting out of the shadow of the Toronto International Film Festival to become a major industry event in its own right. The festival now welcomes some 2,000 delegates and 80,000 filmgoers, double the numbers from just three years ago.
[ read more in On The Scene ]   [ 0 comments ]   [ filed under Documentary, Festival Dispatches, Lead Story ]