Joaquin Phoenix on David Letterman

I loved when Crispin was on Letterman too.... but truly the film, that Joaquin has never seen TWO LOVERS is really good! We screened it at AFI FEST. Go see it in the selected cities if you live in one of them. If you don't live in a "selected city" - road trip!



Me listening to Director James Gray and Actress Vinessa Shaw at the screening - Joaquin never made it from the red carpet to the theatre.


Joaquin Phoenix says "Bye-Good" to the press.

My favorite films of 2008 and can't wait for 2009

Every year Indiewire compiles a list of top favorites from the editors of indieWIRE and industry insiders. Included in these "industry insiders" are festival programmers and acquisitions folks.

I have a love/hate with "top ten" lists but I always love to read this one since Festival Programmers see so many films that don't break through and have seen so many films overall that I love to see what makes it into these lists. I can never narrow mine down to ten - that's one thing I love about my job is I actually like movies and honestly like a lot of them. If you asked me my top ten favorite films of all time, I would be more selective but in any given year, I like films for a variety of reasons... sometimes, a film stands out, because I feel like it's a new talent and someone to watch out for their next film and sometimes, the film captures the mood of that year and time. And sometimes a film stands out enough to even make it into the "of all time" list but mostly I just love films.

Here is my list with some additions that I forgot!
Also, my friend had posted sarcastically lovingly, I'm sure: "A list of films you can't see in the theatres or rent - how helpful!" Well sir, many of these are available on Netflix and others are available on that new thing called "the internet". Plus, many of them played in festivals, like AFI FEST and smaller regional festivals - once again making festivals so important!

I had a really hard time narrowing it down to 10 - there are 15 I think stood out above the rest. (Note: unranked, alphabetical order)

"The Class"
"Encounters at the End of the World"
"Frozen River"
"Happy-Go-Lucky"
"Hunger"
"Man on Wire"
"Milk"
"Momma's Man"
"The Order of Myths"
"Rachel Getting Married"
"Secrecy"
"Slumdog Millionaire"
"Synecdoche, New York"
"Waltz with Bashir"
"Wendy and Lucy"
"The Wrestler"

And films released I forgot that are awesome:
"The Pleasure of Being Robbed"
"California Dreamin' (Endless)"

Best as yet undistributed films of 2008:
"Acne"
"Afterschool"
"Anvil! The Story of Anvil"
"Goodbye Solo"
"Finally Lillian and Dan"
"Intimades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo"
"I'm Gonna Explode (Voy a Explotar)"
"Last Days of Shishmaref"

I forgot to mention in the undistributed:
"Prodigal Sons"
"Dear Zachary"
"Of all the Things"

From my last year's best undistributed films:
"Silent Light"
"Still Life"
"Flight of the Red Balloon"

I love that Matt Dentler added these categories:
My new obsession is finding films online!

Web Series:
1. "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"
2. "Wainy Days"
3. "The Stagg Party"

Original Viral Video:
1. "Where the Hell is Matt?"
2. "Prop 8: The Musical"
3. "JC Penney's 'Beware of the Doghouse'"

New Film Portal:
1. Hulu
2. YouTube Screening Room
3. SnagFilms

Relaunched Film Portal:
1. Amazon VOD
2. Joost
3. Babelgum

Happy Hunting

AFI FEST FILMS available on line

My new obsession online is The Auteurs and the Criterion Collection online - I've been watching and reading about some amazing films I haven't seen in awhile that I love!

There is nothing like being in the dark watching films on the big screen... still this is pretty cool.

It got me thinking about what AFI FEST FILMS were online that I hadn't seen in awhile and I found a few - I'm sure I've missed some but here's a start.

Enjoy! See you next year at the festival.

AFI FEST ONLINE VIDEO ON DEMAND

SWEET MOVIE – AFI FEST 1993

AMBUSH – AFI FEST 1999

MIFUNE – AFI FEST 1999

4 MONTHS 3 WEEKS 2 DAYS - AFI FEST 2007

DRAMA/MEX – AFI FEST 2006

AMORES PERROS – AFI FEST 2000

YOUR LIFE IN ’65 – AFI FEST 2006

CASHBACK – AFI FEST 2006

THE BANDS VISIT – AFI FEST 2007

THE FOG OF WAR – AFI FEST 2008

A SOAP – AFI FEST 2006

A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT – AFI FEST 2004

THE LIVES OF OTHERS – AFI FEST 2004

CARAMEL – AFI FEST 2007

HONEYDRIPPER – AFI FEST 2007

HARD CHOICES – AFI FEST 1987

SOLARIS – FILMEX 1972

THE ART OF FLIGHT – AFI FEST 2005

TRULY HUMAN – AFI FEST 2001

BURNING MAN – AFI FEST 2005

CONFESSIONS OF A SUPERHERO – AFI FEST 2007

Read more about the film at The Auteurs site:
DOLLS – AFI FEST 2003

ELECTION – AFI FEST 2006

TRIAD ELECTION – AFI FEST 2006

I love Documentaries!

I'm such a documentary junkie - Jean-Pierre gets so mad at me cause have our Netflix queue is full of documentaries.

What luck that today you can read two awesome posts from folks who have a lot to say about docs.

Eugene Hernandez great post from IDFA: http://www.indiewire.com/movies/2008/11/iw_insider_euge.html

Thom Powers new post: http://stfdocs.com/blog/comments/wanted_documentary_critics/

I would add to the list of great documentaries one must see:

SOUTHERN COMFORT
SILVERLAKE LIFE: A VIEW FROM HERE - bring your tissues.
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
SEX: THE ANNABEL CHONG STORY
SHAKESPEARE AND VICTOR HUGO'S INTIMACIES
ALONE IN FOUR WALLS
PRODIGAL SONS
CRUMB
AMERICAN MOVIE

Oh I could go on and on... docs rock.

Tanarexia!

Ah the search of the Tan!

AFI ALUM TOBIAS DATUM

Gerardo Naranjo, Tobias Datum, Shaz Bennett in Guanajuato Mexico

One of my personal heroes is an AFI and an AFI FEST Alumnus, David Lynch, but he’s not the only one. At the world-renowned AFI Conservatory, the emphasis is on narrative visual storytelling and personal expression. Filmmaking is a collaborative art and each class breaks into teams that mirror a real production environment. Those teams collaborate and produce more films than at any other graduate-level film program.

Since 1969, over 3,500 artists have graduated from the AFI Conservatory. Every year at AFI FEST we are thrilled to include some of these talented Alumni.

One in particular this year, Tobias Datum, graduated from AFI with an emphasis in cinematography. He’s had an extraordinary year with the success of Azazel Jacob’s film MOMMA’S MAN out of Sundance. (Jacobs is also an AFI Alumnus and on the Narrative Jury this year at AFI FEST.

Datum then collaborated with acclaimed Mexican filmmaker, and AFI Alum, Gerardo Naranjo on I’M GONNA EXPLODE, which is screening in our World Cinema section.

I had an opportunity to talk to Datum before the festival.

Where are you from originally? How did you first hear about AFI and what made you decide to come to school there?

I’m from Frankfurt, Germany. I decided after graduating from film school in Berlin, that it would be good to try out the US. Since I wanted to study cinematography I decided to apply to AFI.

AFI is a built on the conservatory model with a focus on the collaboration of the artists in film—can you talk about the people you met at AFI and how those working relationships developed?

AFI is not very big, so after a week there you know all the faces and can make out the people that interest you. Then you are making all these “cycle projects” [AFI teams collaborate and produce more films than at any other graduate-level film program] together. So, it doesn’t take long before you connect with people you might want to work with. The backgrounds of the Fellows in my year and the year before me were very diverse. There were people from all over the world, and they all had various levels of experience in film. Some had not been on a set before. Meeting all those people and working with them did provide a variety of inspiration since everybody’s background was so different. Learning about people and yourself is a very important aspect of filmmaking, and AFI had a very diverse group of students who were all interested in the same thing but not exclusively film nerds

How did you start working with Azazel Jacobs and Gerardo Naranjo?

Aza and Gerardo were a year ahead of me. I knew Aza a little bit but we didn’t work together until after AFI. I had shot a film called HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS SPENT THEIR SUMMER that was directed by Georgina Garcia Riedel who was also in their class. I think that film got them interested in maybe working together. After that, I helped Aza and Gerardo when they were shooting THE GOODTIMESKID but was already committed to shoot another project so I helped them for only four days. Then Gerardo asked me to shoot DRAMA/MEX and last year Aza and I did MOMMA’S MAN.

I must say that I feel extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to meet and work with such a talented group of people who have also become some of my best friends.
The year Aza, Gerardo and Georgina came out of AFI (2001) was a really good year for talent. Mikal Lazarev and Goran Dukic, who made WRISTCUTTERS, graduated that year, too.

Where did you shoot I’M GONNA EXPLODE?

We shot some interiors is Mexico City and the rest was shot in the city of Guanujuato.

What did you shoot on?
We shot Super 35 3-perf on Kodak 5279 Vision2 Expression 500T. Zeiss with high speed lenses on a moviecam MK2 compact, for most of the time.

Do you speak Spanish? I understand most of the crew was local?
I learned just enough to be able to communicate with the crew. But I don’t really speak Spanish. But, we understood what we were trying to accomplish.

Can you talk about working with Gerardo Naranjo as a director?
We are different in some ways. Gerardo knows a lot of movies and has studied them. I have not seen that many movies and most of them I forget. So usually he tells me some movies I should watch and then we have conversations about them in regards to the film we are trying to make. For I’M GONNA EXPLODE it was clear that it was stylistically based on our experience with DRAMA/MEX so we went from there.

He makes a lot of drawings and scrap collages and I don’t. We talk a lot about the movie beforehand while going through the script and scouting, and most of the time we come up with similar stuff. But he is over-prepared so that there is always something to fall back on. It’s hard for me to rationalize this, because I am not so sure myself how I work. I follow my instincts a lot and try to just listen and pay attention.

While shooting, we usually started the day with a coffee and watching some dailies. Then we decided what to shoot depending on how the actors and Gerardo felt. We had a relatively long schedule of, I think, 40 days, so we had a good amount of time. A lot of people on this movie also worked on DRAMA/MEX, so it was a family affair. For me it felt like I am the distant cousin of the Mexican family that comes to visit and we have a family event that lasts for a few weeks. I did end up with a hangover actually.

The biggest struggle was to keep the set intimate, because there were considerably more people working on I’M GONNA EXPLODE than on DRAMA/MEX.

Will this be the first time seeing the film on the big screen?
No I saw it in NYC before, but since I live here it’s the hometown screening.

It’s a homecoming of sorts.
Absolutely.

AFI Alumni Films playing at AFI FEST

This year’s AFI FEST includes these films of AFI Conservatory Alumni filmmakers:
ADAM RESURRECTED: Paul Schrader (Dir.)
A NECESSARY DEATH: Daniel Stamm (Dir./Scr.), Zoltan Honti (DP), David Kashevaroff (ED), Brian Udovich (Prod.),
BUCKETS: Nick Simon (Dir.), Todd Serlin (Prod./Scr.), Patrick Russo (DP), Michael Griffin (ED), Elizabeth Chase (Scr. ED)
THE CHASER: Shinho Lee (Scr.), Sujin Kim (Prod.)
DEADGIRL: Harris Charalambous (DP)
DEFIANCE: Edward Zwick (Dir./Scr./Prod.), Marshall Herskovitz (Exec. Prod.), Pieter Jan Brugge (Prod.), Steven Rosenblum (ED), Scott
Jacobs (PA)
THE DESERT WITHIN: German Mendez (Exec. Prod.), Ana
Garcia (ED)
DOWNTOWN LA: Nick Higgins (Dir.)
I’M GONNA EXPLODE: Gerardo Naranjo (Dir./Scr./Prod.), Tobias Datum (DP),
THE SOLOIST: Susannah Grant (Scr.)
WORLD’S APART: Kim Magnusson (Exec. Prod.),
THE WRESTLER: Darren Aronofsky (Dir./Prod.).

WELLNESS playing at AFI FEST

Jake Mahaffy, whose second feature WELLNESS is playing at AFI FEST
Fri. Nov 7, 9:30 pm, Mann 03 and Sat. Nov 8, 12:45 pm, Mann 06 http://filmguide.afifest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/films/0245 was nominated for the “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” category for this year’s Gotham Awards. The category highlights films that have yet to receive theatrical distribution.

Here’s your chance to see it in the Theatre!

David Cronenberg's THE FLY!

This photo is from an AFI FEST screening of SPIDER - Miranda Richardson is saying, "Nice pants!"

Next week Sept. 3rd we're screening a new print of THE FLY at the Dome right before the Opera of THE FLY.

I already have my tickets for both the film and Opera!

I love David Cronenberg. I have a kind of "game" I like to play to weed out new people I meet as to whether or not we should be friends. When I first meet a new person - I ask them whether they liked Cronenberg's CRASH or not? You can tell alot about a person when talking about Cronenberg!

Go see the movie and opera and then let's meet for drinks to discuss in depth.

AFI’s Directors Screenings presented by Audi – ArcLight Hollywood CINERAMA DOME
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 8:00 PM

https://www.arclightcinemas.com/ArcLight/faces/MovieDetails.jsp?movieName=AFI+Directors%26%2358%3B+THE+FLY&pageInfo=AFI

THE FLY
1986 95 MIN RATED R
DIR David Cronenberg SCR David Cronenberg and Charles Edward Pogue, from a story by George Langelaan CAST Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz, Leslie Carlson

THE FLY is an extraordinary example of Cronenberg’s particular brand of “body horror”; flesh transformed by disease. Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) is an eccentric scientist, whose experiments with teleportation go awry, leading to one of the horror genre’s most disgusting and gory physical transformations. Ultimately, David Cronenberg’s version of THE FLY – based on a short story by George Langelaan and the 1958 film that starred Vincent Price — is a dark romantic tragedy about the wasting away of a brilliant man who mutates into an insect as his loved one looks on helplessly.

AFI, in association with the LA Opera, presents a brand new print , to coincide with the US premiere of the opera The Fly.

Plácido Domingo conducts the LA Opera-commissioned opera written by Oscar®-winning composer Howard Shore (LORD OF THE RINGS), with libretto by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly). This also marks the LA Opera debut of Academy Award-winning production designer Dante Ferretti (THE AVIATOR, SWEENEY TODD). More information about the opera is available at TheFlyTheOpera.com.

A Q&A with David Cronenberg and Howard Shore will precede the screening.

Diablo Cody at the New beverly!

One of my favorite theatres in LA is the New Beverly because it reminds me of the trashy "art" theatres of my college days.

I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and there was one art house that was in the basement of this building close to downtown SLC.

We'd watch old movies, weird new movies, disturbing animation and foreign films and then go to the IHOP and talk about life, philosophy all the amazing films we had seen.

So, i just read, (i know, i'm behind! but i've been watching film submissions all night for my job)... anyway, just read that Diablo Cody is guest curating a week or so of films at the New Beverly.... yay.

check it out!

I'm spending Pioneer Day with Diablo and Pretty in Pink!
If you don't know what Pioneer Day is... you have to go to Utah on the 24th of July - you will forever make an annual pilgramage.

JULY 23-24 - Chick Night
DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN
PRETTY IN PINK

AFI FEST early deadline June 13th!

This could be you.

Submit your film to AFI FEST - the early deadline for submissions is a week from Friday, June 13th! It's a lucky day!

www.AFI.com/AFIFEST

Oh my god! I can't wait.

I just heard from the awesome staff at Cinevegas that as a juror I'll get a reserved seat to go to this show at the Wynn! I can't freaking wait!

As a part of the 10th Annual CineVegas Film Festival, a site specific installation featuring an animation piece by renowned international artist Takashi Murakami will be featured at Wynn Las Vegas for one night only on Monday, June 16, 2008.

I have dreams of doing something like this at AFI FEST on the Cinerama Dome or at the Kodak.

Cannes circa 1959

Christian was searching You Tube and found these old news reels!

Love it! Cannes 1959 - the glamour, starlets might meet that producer!

Strange Culture and Steve Kurtz!

We screened this amazing documentary "Strange Culture" last year at AFI FEST and finally Steve Kurtz has been cleared of all charges!

If you haven't seen it! GO! rent it! and watch! Congratulations to Steve Kurtz and all his friends who were able to stand up to this injustice and win! So awesome that filmmaker Lynn Hersham Leeson had the guts to make this film and shine a light on this fascinating and terrifying story of our government at work.

I love this film and think it's so important, I wrote about it last at AFI FEST saying this.

Blasting the screen with sure-footed conviction, director Lynn Hershman Leeson has crafted a powerful documentary that shines a light on the netherworld of homeland security and the artists who choose to use their freedom to question it and the state of the world - in America.

The surreal nightmare of Steve Kurtz, an acclaimed artist, professor and founding member of the activist art collective Critical Art Ensemble, began the night his wife Hope died in her sleep of heart failure. Police who responded to Kurtz’s 911 call deemed Kurtz’s art suspicious and called the FBI. Within hours, the artist was detained as a suspected "bioterrorist" as dozens of federal agents in Hazmat suits rifled through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, cat and even his wife’s body. With this fascinating subject matter and a unique filmmaking style, director Lynn Hershman Leeson implicates her viewers as co-conspirators in one of the most surreal abuses of power since the Teapot Dome scandal. Because Kurtz can't talk about the events leading up to his arrest, Leeson got Tilda Swinton, Thomas Jay Ryan and Josh Kornbluth to re-enact the artist's story. Actor Peter Coyote is also featured in the film.

Lynn Hershman Leeson follows her subjects with a seamless flow of kinetic energy—weaving together recreations, comic book art, and personal interviews—creating a vibrant, informative documentary of true political relevance. A constitutional comedy of errors, the joke is on all of us.

Filmex Trailers on You Tube

I love these old Filmex Trailers, especially this one with Phil Hartman and Paul Reubens aka Pee Wee Herman. Filmex was the precursor to AFI FEST and last year when we celebrated our 20th Anniversary of AFI FEST, we had these trailers transferred from 35 MM.

I started my film fest life working at the US Film Festival, the precursor to the Sundance Film Festival, taking tickets when I was in high school. I have so many fond memories of that festival. It was so awesome to go back and find all this memorabilia from Filmex and hear all the amazing stories about elephants on Hollywood Blvd. and Alfred Hitchcock showing up to his premiere in a golf cart.

AFI Dallas starts today!

AFI Dallas starts today, no sophomore slump here!

They have some great films, you can see the full line up and tickets are available here.

Lane Kneedler and I will be blogging for AMC/TV about AFI Dallas - you can read our posts here.

In the meantime, some nice press already, I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Here's a photo from AFI FEST, Michael Cain is on the far left and Sarah Harris is in white - James Faust was in a movie which is where I hope to see you all in Dallas.

New Directors / New Films

Some wonderful films playing in New York this week in the New Directors / New Films film series.

Saw these two articles that were great, one from the New York Times and the other from Indiewire. Both "Jellyfish and "Munyurangabo" played at AFI FEST this past year.

If you are interested in "Munyurangabo" and Rwanda, you should take a look at JB Rutagarama's personal documentary "Back Home".

I'm a huge fan of Aza Jacobs, we've screened all of his films at AFI FEST and his new film "Momma's Man" was just sold to Think Film.

And "Frozen River" won an Award at the Sundance Film Festival and is produced by the fantastic Heather Rae who made "Trudell".

Such a great line up, if you're in NYC check them out.
Full schedule and ticket information is available here.

AFI PROJECT 20/20 in Turkey

Here are some cool photos from the latest trips for AFI PROJECT: 20/20.

I went last year to South Africa with the filmmakers and it was such an awesome experience. I traveled with Norman Maake (HOMECOMING) from South Africa, JB Rutagarama (BACK HOME) from Rwanda and Jay Craven (DISAPPEARANCE) from Vermont. We screened in theatres and in townships and the audiences were amazing!

So rare when the US Government gets behind the arts, which to me is so sad, since the artists are the ones that articulate change and inspire people!

For me this program is one of the highlights of my film festival life - to be able to take films and filmmakers to the world and talk to artists and audiences with different points of view and life experiences about film and the future - powerful stuff.

Here are my photos from South Africa:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shazbennett/sets/72157600424616795/

The new group of AFI FEST 2007 - AFI PROJECT 20/20 filmmakers just got back from Turkey. Here are some of Chris Bowman's photos. Thanks chris!

AFI PROJECT: 20/20 Filmmakers Chris Bowman (AMERICAN FORK) and Salif Traore (FARO, GODDESS OF THE WATER) have concluded their cultural exchange tour in Turkey. Both filmmakers received warm receptions and engaging audiences in Adana, Ankara and Istanbul. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

A D A N A
http://www.flickr.com/gp/11037500@N02/Q8rd72

A N K A R A
http://www.flickr.com/gp/11037500@N02/95juR3

I S T A N B U L
http://www.flickr.com/gp/11037500@N02/6y3507

Nothing false about Hope!

When was the last time a politician really inspired you?

I like Hilary don't get me wrong, and having a woman president is long overdue but when I hear Barack speak, he reminds me of the kind of politician I grew up watching before sound bites and all the bullshit - we screened that film BOBBY a couple of years ago at AFI FEST and while the film itself isn't perfect - the last 10 minutes of the film, of Bobby Kennedy's speech, are so powerful - truly awesome.

I want to be inspired by the leaders of the United States and I've been sick waiting these last 8 years for someone to do that.

Listen to this episode of THIS AMERICAN LIFE - I love it.

and...

Here's a song I like but search you tube for the actual speech too - it's amazing.

AFI FEST films in theatres now!

Go see these AFI FEST films!

CARAMEL and 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS are wonderful films, they both feature women as the main characters, women's stories have been dismissed as of late as "chick flicks"
I couldn't really hate this, I don't see why a film about a woman is less interesting to men than a film about a man would be less interesting to me. If it's a good film that's all that matters to me and these are two of the best. One made and starring a woman (CARAMEL) who has such a unique voice and the other directed by a young man who has an amazing ability to capture women in all their complexity and beauty and sadness and the whole thing. I heard Curtis Hanson talk about his film IN HER SHOES and how people called it a "chick flick", his response was, would you call ALL ABOUT EVE a chick flick?

In this historic year when we have a woman running for president of the United States, even though I'm voting for Barack Obama, I like Hilary I'm just really passionate about what electing Obama means to me and our healing the wounds of George Bush would do! I was listening to NPR and there was a guy on their complaining that now that Jon Edwards dropped out of the race there just wasn't anyone for the white male to vote for... I've been voting for years for white men for president... it's about the person and their character and the issues they represent - get over it.

Okay, enough of my rant, these two films that played at AFI FEST in 2007 are wonderful and go see them!


CARAMEL and 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS in theatres now!
Go see these two AFI FEST 2007 festival favorites.
More information on screening times and locations for CARAMEL at:

http://www.roadsideattractions.com/Catalog/FilmLibrary.asp?BusinessUnitID=%7B3134273E-EA18-4451-AC2B-40C0CC73ED2D%7D&ProjectID=


More information on screening times and locations for 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS at:

http://www.ifcfilms.com/

Chris & Don: A love Story

Yay! This is a wonderful film!
So glad it was bought by Zeitgeist! Go see it when it comes out, we played it at AFI FEST and it'll make you fall in love all over!

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117978691.html?categoryId=13&cs=1