Mickey One screens in NYC!

So years ago at the Sundance Filmmaker's Lab, I was asked to step in for a day and play a small role with Beverly D'Angelo and Reese Witherspoon in a scene for "The Polish Wedding", Reese was maybe 15 years old - maybe a bit older but she was damn together for her youth and very sweet. I can't say quite the same for Miss D'Angelo, but who knows maybe she was just tired. Anyway, I was getting a little freaked out and Arthur Penn was one of the advisors that week at the lab and he kind of took me aside and told me "don't let her get to you." And he just sort of calmed me down and told me some awesome stories about "Bonnie and Clyde" and one of his first films "Mickey One" and we went back in and finished the scene. He probably wouldn't even remember this day but I thought he was amazing and so cool to take that time with me, a young actress who was intimidated and build my confidence. So, this week I was just reading an early interview with Arthur Penn about his film "Mickey One" and I wanted to put it on my Netflix but it's not available yet.

Two days later I was reading Film Journey and read a post from Doug Cummins about the Moving Image Institute conference on film critical writing. I love the post on Thursday April 17th where he lists some of the memorable comments and quotes. He mentions Arthur Penn and references "Mickey One".

So if you live in NYC - ditch Tribeca Film Festival and head over to MOMA and see the film.

Then write me a critical essay on how it was...compared to National Lampoon's Vacation... just kidding, sort of.

Screening of Mania Akbari's film "10 + 4", Monday May 5

I love Mania Akbari's work! We screened 20 FINGERS at AFI FEST in 2004
and Mania was able to come to the festival to present her film. There
were lively Q&A's after the screening and it was awesome meeting her.
Her new film is screening at Redcat downtown.

Film at REDCAT concludes its Fifth Season with the West Coast premiere
of Mania Akbari's acclaimed second feature, "10 + 4", Monday May 5

In the wake of the success of PERSEPOLIS, that presented a different,
and distinctly female voice, from Iran, it is all the more important to
hear and see the point of view of another woman from Iran, exposing her
own fight not only with the social structure of her country, but with an
issue that concerns women all over the world: breast cancer.
Mania Akbari is a painter, a video artist, a filmmaker and an actor. As
an actor, she was the main character is Abbas Kiarostami's TEN
(basically appearing in a fictionalized version of herself.) As a
director, she won the Digital Competition in Venice with her first
feature, 20 FINGERS that caustically explores the rift between men and
women in Iranian society. As a video artist, she has produced painterly,
emotionally complex yet visually abstract "Video Arts" pieces (8 in
total).

At Kiarostami's prompting, she directed a sequel to TEN, that
documents, yet fictionalizes, her own fight with breast cancer, using
her body as a vector to bring the spectator in and using mise en scene
to create a language expressing her fight.

FILM AT REDCAT PRESENTS
Mania Akbari
10 + 4 (Dah be alaveh Chahar)
Mon May 5 | 8 pm
Jack H. Skirball Series
$9 [students $7]

West Coast premiere
Iran, 2007, 77 min., Beta SP

This film reflects my inner experience. It is vitally important to
expose deep inner truths no matter how difficult and painful they are.
10 + 4 depicts a part of these realities. What is difficult and can't be
said or heard will be seen and this will make healing possible. We have
to allow the things that must die within us to die; and allow what has
to come to life again or has stayed alive to be. If we do not resist
inner death, then real death will appear in all its strength. – Mania
Akbari

Awesome Alternative film & video screenings in LA!

No better time to be in Los Angeles!

Some really cool events coming up in the next couple of weeks!

Check it out!

CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN IN PERSON at UCLA Film & Television Archive

Carolee Schneemann has never ceased to cross mediums and boundaries to make work that resonates with raw poetic power. From her collaged war or diary films and provocative performances to her photos, paintings and installations, Schneemann's varied creations deconstruct our ingrained preconceptions and everyday assumptions. In words, images and actions, her art is deeply personal, sharply critical, intensely expressive, and always innovative. This special evening with Schneemann features a collection of some of the most highly charged political statements, erotic episodes and domestic disturbances in American avant-garde cinema.

Friday April 25 – UCLA Film & Television Archive 7:30 pm

and at the

ECHO PARK FILM CENTER 1200 N. Alvarado Street LA CA 90026 (213) 484-8846 www.echoparkfilmcen ter.org

Shows begin promptly @ 8PM and are $5 (unless otherwise noted).

Thursday, April 24 – 16mm NIGHT: GEMS FROM THE ARCHIVES - 8 PM

Film collector Russell Harnden is back with another screening of Gems From The Archives, a film series devoted to obscure, outdated, and
orphaned films drawn from his personal collection of cartoons, educational films, industrial films, and other odd footage. Once again, a sampling of those wonderful educational films from the 40's, 50's, and 60's will be pulled from the vault and screened for an evening that's sure to stimulate your mind and make you laugh at the same time. Join us and watch as everyday office furniture takes on the employees (You And Office Safety), the pork industry goes berserk (Two With Bacon), and creepy men lurk in the local movie theater (The Dangerous Stranger). There will be many more great titles as well. These sorts of "ephemeral films" often provide startling and entertaining examples of 20th Century attitudes, frequently provoking the question "What were they thinking?" So be sure to join us for what will be a fun and "educational" evening! CURATOR IN ATTENDANCE!

Thursday, May 8 - EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO NIGHT – 8PM

A tantalizing evening of short experimental videos by Catherine Forster, Carole Kim, Xhiang Zhi', Chelsea Tonelli Knight and Kim Collmer. CURATOR CATHERINE FORSTER IN ATTENDANCE!

Underworld Cinema: The Life and Work of J.X. Williams

This looks awesome!
Tomorrow night at
The Cinefamily @ The Silent Movie Theatre
Co-Presented by LA Film Forum
Tickets - $12/ $8 for members

611 N. Fairfax Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 655-2510

Check it out!

Underworld Cinema:

The Life and Work
of J.X. Williams

Tuesday, April 22nd @ 8 pm

J.X. Williams was a legendary bottom-of-the-barrel director in the
sixties and seventies, pushed even lower by his Commie leanings. One of
the few surviving artifacts of Williams's tawdry career, "Peep Show" is
a strange amalgam of dank noir drama and cheesy journalism, recounting
Sam "Momo" Giancana's reign with the Outfit. Styled as a confessional by
one of Momo's gunsels, the tabloid tell-all traces the Cosa Nostra's
connections first to the fall of Cuba and Kennedy's mob-supported
presidency, then to a spreading blight of drug trafficking that swept
through Vegas on the way to the White House. The lineup of seedy
suspects includes Frank Sinatra, crown crooner to the mob; Babs Deluxe,
a voluptuous vixen who could shake it for a shakedown; J. Edgar Hoover,
never prettier in a dress; and the anonymous mob enforcer who sings like
a true Soprano. Noel Lawrence, the reigning J. X. Williams expert, will
talk about this misfit director's overlooked and illicit career. As a
special bonus, Lawrence will also present three short subjects from the
J.X. filmography: The Virgin Sacrifice, Satan Claus, and Psych-Burn.

I love this manifesto/mission statement on Cinefamily!

What is The Cinefamily?

The Cinefamily is an organization of movie lovers devoted to finding and
presenting interesting and unusual programs of exceptional, distinctive,
weird and wonderful films. The Cinefamily's goal is to foster a spirit
of community and a sense of discovery, while reinvigorating the
movie-going experience. Like campfires, sporting events and church
services, we believe that movies work best as social experiences. They
are more meaningful, funnier and scarier when shared with others. Our
home is the Silent Movie Theatre, one of Hollywood's most beloved and
beautiful cultural landmarks. There, The Cinefamily will provide a
destination spot for Los Angelenos and others to rediscover the
pleasures of cinema.

Garfield 2.0

I don't know why Garfield is so meta these days but I am slightly obsessed with these two bizarre websites.

My favorite is Garfield Sans Garfield.

And then Lasagne Cat where for some reason the creators have decided that Garfield needs to be acted out by live actors and distorted...

I don't know what it says about society but I love them both immensely.

GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IN 12 PARTS screens Weds. April 2nd

AFI's 7th Annual Music Documentary Series starts Weds April 2nd with GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IN 12 PARTS at 8:00pm at Arclight Hollywood.

Check it out! You can buy tickets here.

I used to be a little bit obsessed with Philip Glass - I used to listen to the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack every single day when I would write everyday! I just downloaded it from iTunes because I lost the cassette tape (yes cassette tape) years ago but, it's still gorgeous and inspiring and awesome. I love that he maintains a sort of Zen approach to his art saying, "You don't like my music? Listen to something else?" I listen.

Director Scott Hicks (SHINE, SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS) will be in attendance and around for a Q&A after the film.

I hope you can make it.

The rest of the series runs Mondays and Wednesdays through April at Arclight Sherman Oaks and Arclight Hollywood and Closing Night is May 7th at the Skirball Cultural Center with DON'T LOOK BACK and a reception to follow.

For more info and tickets, please go to the website: http://www.afi.com/onscreen/arclight/musicdocs08.aspx

It's not too late to get to Ann Arbor!

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is still going strong even after all the censorship shite they've been through and runs through Sunday.

You can see the whole line up here.

Christen McArdle totally rocks and this festival is celebrating 46 years!

It's time to watch!

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.

Obama in 30 seconds!

Okay, I am completely behind this and wish I had the skills and ability to describe Obama in 30 seconds! I tend to wax poetically on and on and on... I need to learn to be more concise but if you have these skills - here's your chance.

Josslyn's essay to Sekou

My friend Josslyn Luckett published this beautiful essay and I think ya'll should read it! Here is an excerpt... The full gorgeous letter can be read here at Ishmael Reed's Konch Magazine under the In this issue/Essays section.

Eulogy for Sekou

"May this Letter Find You Now, In the Best of Spirits Somehow"*

Dear Sekou,

I admit I was immediately sprung on you early 90’s NYC. Raised in Irvine, California, sure, I had four groovy UCBerkeley years under my organic hemp belt, but that didn’t quite prepare me for your “Bodega Republic.” I'd never met a real life, fine-assed, poet from Harlem with a name I couldn’t pronounce talking 'bout reparations and Deep Time with a didgeridoo soundtrack. Being grown, blissfully partnered and busy composing transcendental shout outs, you appropriately never gave me even one second of shallow time play (ahh, if only I'd been so lucky to be so politely and succinctly blown off by the handful of knucklehead poets I got strung out on in months to come...but that's not this blues). Years later we were once again in the same place, Williams College, at the same time, early 2001, for a black performance art conference where we'd both been invited to speak and perform. Calmer now and a bit more grown myself, I still hoped for "long conversations and the philosophical ramifications of a beautiful day" with you, but conflicting schedules permitted me only the pleasure of catching the tale end of one of your workshops. I remember you telling the group about a night you heard a recording of Pablo Neruda reading his poems on the radio, and you wept even though you hardly spoke a lick of Spanish. Your point was truth rings true no matter what language if your ears and heart and pores are open.

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.

Sadly, one less human on the earth, but more stars.

"Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio
by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly
a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth. Now this is
an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are
approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky
Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this universe, there shines
a star."
– Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - 2008)

Documentaries Rock!

There's a really nice article in Indiewire about the first Cinema Eye Awards.

Congratulations to AJ Schnack and Thom Powers for this excellent event and their celebration of documentaries.

I was honored to be a part of the voting community for the awards and so glad that these films got some well deserved attention.

It drives me crazy to hear Jason Kohn talk about his frustrations in the small audiences for documentaries, his movie rocks and you gotta see it!

Every year when we're programming for AFI FEST, the documentaries are often the strongest films submitted and all you want is for people to see them and be changed by their stories.

The audience is growing, but there are so many amazing documentaries that need more eyes on them.

Echo Park Film Center Events

Some really awesome programming at the Echo Park Film Center the next few weeks.
Check it out, I love Paolo and Lisa who run that place, they are Cinema Revolutionaries!

I'm psyched to see DINO'S DRIVE IN and who doesn't love GI Joe?


Echo Park Film Center
www.echoparkfilmcenter.org
1200 N. Alvarado Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026

Thursday, March 20 – DINO'S DRIVE-IN: FORGOTTEN FORMATS, FORGOTTEN
FILMS – 8 pm
A rare chance to see some silent shorts projected on the 9.5mm film
format (introduced in France in 1922), featuring the UK's only major
silent comedian Walter Forde. Followed by a talkie, Wild Seed (Brian
G. Hutton, 1965) an atmospheric B/W tale of two drifters featuring
rebel/musician Michael Parks in the last narrative production from
D.A. Pennebaker's aptly named, Pennebaker Productions. These films
have NEVER been released on official videos or DVDs…some films still
have to be seen on film! CURATOR IN ATTENDANCE!

Thursday, March 27 – PRETTY LITTLE LONELY #13: A MUSICAL DOCUMENTARY -
8 PM
In 1995 ex Carnival Art front man Michael Petak released his
critically acclaimed album Pretty Little Lonely, produced by T Bone
Burnett, on Slash Records. Pretty Little Lonely # 13, A Musical
Documentary is the video companion to the CD. Petak, his dog Diggity
and a handful of friends traveled across the Southwest loaded with
Canon High 8 cameras and a DAT Machine, interviewing all walks of life
about love while also shooting music videos for most of the songs on
the album. This will be the first time the documentary will
be screened to the public, so buckle up and come join us for the ride!
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!

Saturday, March 29 – THE GI JOE STOP MOTION FILM FESTIVAL – 8 PM
The GI Joe Stop Motion Film Festival is the nation's first festival
dedicated to screening works by stop-motion artists who use GI Joe or
similar figures (12" and/or 3 3⁄4 sizes) as main characters or actors.
We have 25 films from all over the world including films from Brazil,
Netherlands, Canada UK and Taiwan! More info: www.gijoefilmfestival.com

Stehen Cobert and product placement

I saw this article today about The Cobert Report.

Stephen Colbert is taking his show on the road. The faux-conservative comic will broadcast "The Colbert Report" from Philadelphia April 14-17, taking 80 staffers with him to cover the crucial Democratic primary.

Colbert's news-skewering program will be calling its coverage "The Colbert Report: Dorito's Spicy Sweet Pennsylvania Primary Coverage From Chili-delphia -- the City of Brotherly Crunch!," a nod to Colbert's new partnership with "the first name in electoral snacking."

I love this, this is true sponsorship integration!

Puddle Blog

I think this is just brilliant!
I wish I had thought it up.
Every puddle should have their own blog.

Spider - Jury Prize winner at AFI FEST

This awesome short film SPIDER with an exceptional ending won the AFI FEST 2007 Grand Jury Prize for shorts.

You can watch it here and buy it at iTunes.

You should buy it.

Race and Politics 2008

It's all happening!
We are the change we've been waiting for....

AFI Music Doc Series

Our Seventh Annual Music Documentary Series is starting in April!
Check it out!

I do realize that PURPLE RAIN is not technically a documentary but it is Prince's story and it's a concert film and it totally rocks!

I like to think outside the box, and just a few short years after "Purple Rain" was relased... Erroll Morris' "The Thin Red Line" will begin the blur of documentary and narrative forever.

Tickets are on sale now for Scott Hicks awesome film, GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IN 12 PARTS

I love Philip Glass, Don't miss it.

Mr. Rogers Day March 20

When I was in college, I used to wait tables at the Red Lion in Salt Lake City. One night at the end of my shift, I got a new table - I was just about ready to leave so I pawned the guy off on my friend.

The next day my friend told me that the guy who would have been my last table was Fred Rogers - yes that Fred Rogers and that he was so nice and when she brought the check he asked her how much a quarter of school was at the University of Utah and for the tip - he left her a check written out to the University for that amount!

I love Mr. Rogers, I should have stayed and waited on him.

But you can still honor him on March 20.
Stay warm.