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6 items from 2013

28 May 2013 10:40 AM, PDT | ShadowAndAct | See recent ShadowAndAct news »

SimonSays Entertainment, the blossoming production house behind critical hits like Night Catches Us, Gun Hill Road, and the upcoming Blue Caprice, and Mother Of George, has announced a summer call for screenplays. As an aside, I interviewed the company's principals - Ron Simons (founder and president of the company) and Producing Associate, April Yvette Thompson - in February, and you're encouraged to read that interview Here if you missed it. It was an extensive piece profiling the company. Here are the details of their call for summer script submissions: SimonSays Entertainment only considers scripts that have been submitted via our »

- Tambay A. Obenson

28 May 2013 9:22 AM, PDT | ShadowAndAct | See recent ShadowAndAct news »

The last few years have offered a small diversity of films featuring African-Americans: Arbitrage, Armored, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Call, Constellation, Dead Man Down, Django Unchained, Fighting, Flight, I Will Follow, Just Wright, Kings of the Evening, Lakeside Terrace, Luv, Middle of Nowhere, Night Catches Us, Olympus Has Fallen, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, Precious, Red Hook Summer, Red Tails, and, among others, Think Like A Man and Won’t Back Down.  Some of the films have inspired enthusiasm and intelligent talk; some laughter; and some outrage—and some boredom.  Did Arbitrage exploit skepticism of black male character before submitting an image of »

- Daniel Garrett

19 April 2013 4:11 PM, PDT | ShadowAndAct | See recent ShadowAndAct news »

For you folks in Philly, an event you may be interested in, taking place on Mondayt, April 22, at 7Pm:cinedelphia Film Festival & Reelblack present Early Work A compilation of student films by Philly-based filmmakers of color, curated by Reelblack at PhilaMOCA 531 N. 12th Street, Philadelphia, Pa 19123 Advance tix are $8: http://cffreelblack.brownpapertickets.com || Facebook event page. Early Work features films by Reelblack Founder Mike D (Philly Boy), Chinonye Chukwu (AlaskaLand), Rel Dowdell (Changing The Game), Tanya Hamilton (Night Catches Us) and Nadine Patterson (Tango Macbeth). All have gone on to make feature films and will be on hand to discuss how »

- Tambay A. Obenson

15 February 2013 4:00 PM, PST | ioncinema | See recent ioncinema news »

Yesterday, Jordan M. Smith, Nicholas Bell and I highlighted our Top 10 New Faces (strictly in the acting domain) of 2013′s Sundance Film Festival and while that list was pretty much a consensus, our Top 20 New Voices (fiction/non-fiction/short scribes, directors and full-out filmmakers/producers) was an amicably, yet hard fought deliberation process and then ranking of who we think the future will shine most bright…in other words, if these people were Wall Street stock options — we’d put our money behind them. Enjoy the mini profiles and adjoined praise.

#20. Sophie Goyette

Part of the pair of Canadian-based, female auteurs to make a pit stop in Park City (the other being Sarah Polley) French-Canadian filmmaker Sophie Goyette and her 2012 Tiff showcased short film Le Futur Proche  demonstrates that there is plenty more raw talent and a pulse from Quebec. Here we find a pilot dealing with loss, suppressing his »

- IONCINEMA.com Contributing Writers

13 February 2013 10:40 AM, PST | ioncinema | See recent ioncinema news »

It was a longer process than we had anticipated, but post Sundance, Jordan M. Smith, Nicholas Bell and I weighed in on the best of the fest (tomorrow we launch our Top 20 New Voices) and after defining what constitutes a “new face”, we ranked our top performances from relatively new folk, pushed into the forefront of their films and within the sphere of independent cinema. Here are our Top 1o New Faces for Sundance 2013.

#10. Gina Piersanti (It Felt Like Love)

NYC-based indie film casting folk will take notice if Eliza Hittman’s gem of a debut film breaks out beyond the film fest circuit. Not unlike the faces we found in Larry Clark’s Kids, newbie teenage actress Gina Piersanti will be the latest poster-child of innocence lost. With only a handful of short film experiences, the teenage actress gives low-key, self-contained bulldozing performance — every step, and misstep her naive »

- IONCINEMA.com Contributing Writers

10 February 2013 5:40 PM, PST | ShadowAndAct | See recent ShadowAndAct news »

The name SimonSays Entertainment may not immediately register with you, but I'm sure film titles like Night Catches Us, Gun Hill Road, Blue Caprice, and Mother Of George, most certainly will - at least one of them, especially if you've been a reader of this blog over the last 2 years, as we've celebrated every single one of those titles. It's quite an impressive resume, and one that I think most independent production houses would envy - well-directed dramas, telling well-written stories about a diverse body of interesting characters, brought to life by a selection of strong actors. A critically-acclaimed library of positively challenging projects, with the icing on the »

- Tambay A. Obenson

6 items from 2013