Reinaldo Marcus Green, a native New Yorker developing a real name for himself in the world of independent filmmaking, is a voice to listen to. His short film, “Stop”, premiered in the U.S. Narrative Shorts program of the Sundance Film Festival. A… Continue Reading →...
- 4/21/2017
- by Erik Luers
- ShadowAndAct
This article was produced as part of the Locarno Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring journalists at the Locarno Film Festival, a collaboration between the Locarno Film Festival, IndieWire and the Film Society of Lincoln Center with the support of Film Comment and the Swiss Alliance of Film Journalists. The following interview, conducted by a member of the Critics Academy, focuses on a participant in the affiliated Filmmakers Academy program at the festival.
It’s dark as Xavier (Keishawn Butler), a black Brooklyn teenager with a promising future, walks home from baseball practice wearing a hoodie, when he is approached by two officers patrolling the streets in an unmarked police car. Xavier is ordered to stop, show his belongings and answer a series of questions. At this point in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s edge-of-your seat short “Stop,” different scenarios have already presented themselves in the viewer’s mind based on...
It’s dark as Xavier (Keishawn Butler), a black Brooklyn teenager with a promising future, walks home from baseball practice wearing a hoodie, when he is approached by two officers patrolling the streets in an unmarked police car. Xavier is ordered to stop, show his belongings and answer a series of questions. At this point in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s edge-of-your seat short “Stop,” different scenarios have already presented themselves in the viewer’s mind based on...
- 8/12/2016
- by Ingrid Oliveira
- Indiewire
For over 30 years Sundance Institute has been an iconic organization providing opportunities and resources to independent filmmakers and those that want to support them. Their two flagship programs are the renowned Screenwriters Lab and the Directors Lab, which allow up-and-coming artists to interact and receive mentorship from successful and acclaimed members of the film industry. To say that being part of one these programs is a once in a lifetime opportunity is an understatement. The proof is in the undeniable quality of the projects that are shaped during the labs and that eventually become part of the cinematic conversation.
While fostering talent is what Sundance Institute does best, they are one of the institutions that most diligently reinforces their commitment to provide opportunities for new voices that represent an eclectic array of backgrounds and experiences. In order to cast their net of support even wider, the institute offers numerous exciting programs beyond those that are already well-known in the filmmaking community. As part of Sundance Institute's Diversity Initiative, the Screenwriters Intensive is an invaluable resource that focuses on stories outside of the homogenous fare.
The program is a 1 1/2 day workshop for writers whose work has been encountered by the institute as part of their outreach for the Labs and which they find especially promising. The writers of 10 projects take part in a program whose elements include a hands-on writing workshop led by creative advisor Joan Tewkesbury (“Nashville”), a screening of a recent Sundance film followed by a candid conversation with the filmmaker, a reception with Sundance staff and the extended Sundance community, and one-on-one meetings with two creative advisors to get feedback on their script. With the Intensive, the Sundance Institute aims to present participants with creative tools that they can take back to their own work, provide a space for dialogue and information sharing about the creative process of making a film (and all of the joys and challenges therein), and foster community among storytellers and an ongoing connection with Sundance.
The screening this year was Andrew Ahn's "Spa Night," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January and has now been picked up for U.S distribution by Strand Releasing. Centered on the conflicted son of a Korean immigrant couple in Los Angeles, Ahn's subtle yet poignant narrative deals with issues of identity both sexual and cultural. For the second day of the workshop, the fellows had one-on-one meetings with celebrated figures in independent cinema: Miranda July, Jennifer Salt, Deena Goldstone, Patricia Cardoso, Pete Sollett, Dana Stevens, Tanya Hamilton, Ligiah Villalobos, Scott Neustadter, and Kyle Patrick Alvarez
The Screenwriters Intensive fellows come from uniquely different backgrounds, and their projects bring original stories that are sure to showcase new and inventive perspectives on the world. Get to know them and their stories as they are on their way to giving us a great batch of new independent films.
The application for the 2017 January Screenwriters Lab is currently open with a deadline of May 3. Applicants for the Screenwriters Lab are also considered for the Screenwriters Intensive, Sundance Institute Asian American Fellowship, and the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program Latino Fellowship, as eligibility allows. To learn more about the Sundance Institute's programs visit Here.
Khalik Allah
Project: "Kareem"
Khalik Allah is a self taught filmmaker and photographer. His work has been described as visceral, hauntingly beautiful, penetrative and profoundly personal. Photography and filmmaking are two overlapping circles that form a venn diagram in Allah’s mind; the area where they overlap is the space he inhabits as an artist. Allah’s cinematic vignettes document hardscrabble life at the corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem (New York City), most recently in his award-winning documentary Field Niggas, which screened at festivals worldwide.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
My project is in an incredibly early stage. I'm basically taking the last four years of my life as a photographer on 125th and Lex and adapting it into a fiction narrative.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
The most important thing was the mutual inspiration we gave each other. The lab advisors helped us dig deeper into ourselves. Their faith in us was tremendous. I took away a new lease on my future.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
I met with Miranda July on day two of the lab. Wow she was incredible. She read my entire script and gave me many productive notes. I was impressed that she gave me so much time. Plenty of useful information I can implement.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
I must keep writing.
Zia Anger
Project: "Despues De"
Zia Anger is a filmmaker and music video director. Her most recent short, "My Last Film," premiered at the 53rd New York Film Festival. In 2015, her short "I Remember Nothing" had its world premiere at New Directors/New Films and its international premiere at Festival del film Locarno. Other screenings include: AFI Fest, Denver Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Basilica Soundscape, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, and Vienna Independent Shorts. She has made music videos for various independent artists, including Angel Olsen, Julianna Barwick, and Jenny Hval, the latter of whom she also tours with, projecting live video and participating as a performer. Her music videos have been featured in various online publications including: Pitchfork, the Guardian, and NPR. In 2015, Anger was included in Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" issue. She was a 2015 fellow in film/video from the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant for her short film "Lover Boy." She holds a BA/Bs from Ithaca College and a Mfa from The School of the Arts Institute of Chicago.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
"Despues De" is about a missing white woman, a mother and daughter who try to find her, and the days leading up to her disappearance on a sorority vacation. It dissects the very particular mythological figures created by our tabloid crazed culture, white women's obsessions with themselves and each other, and the people and places who are alienated in their wake. I would say the project is creatively at the point where it's similar to someone in their late twenties, when you think "wow I know a lot, but fuck there is so much more and I'm open to that," as opposed to "I just turned 21 and I literally know it all." Artistically it calls for a certain amount of precision where high and low brow filmmaking techniques kind of collapse on to each other and end up smooching.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
Joan seems to have figured out a really simple way to help even the most stubborn of (non) writers reenter their work at a time when it might seem impossible. What's cool is that once you do it it's really easy to do again. I'm thinking that having this point of access will be crucial to the continued creative development of the piece, beyond writing and moving in to those difficult creative moments onset, in the editing room, all those places you normally forget everything you've already figured out.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
Immediately it's exciting to sit the the same room with someone who speaks the same alien language as you but who has had the experience deal with people who don't. I think it was Bergman or someone who talked about how inadequate a script can be, considering it's just this middle step. I find myself so disillusioned with this middle step and constantly questioning what exactly it's supposed to function as. It's a good exercise to talk through what is important and what should be more developed and also where you can cut the fat.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
Probably keep learning.
Chris Benson
Project: "Death of Innocence"
Christopher Benson, a journalist and lawyer, is an associate professor of Journalism and African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has worked as a city hall reporter in Chicago for Wbmx-fm, as Washington Editor for Ebony magazine, and as a speechwriter for Washington, D.C. politicians, including former Congressman Harold Washington and Eeoc Chair Clarence Thomas. He also has written for Chicago, Savoy, Jet, and The Crisis magazines, and has contributed to the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Most recently, he has written commentary on justice, race and media for the Chicago Reporter and the Huffington Post. His Chicago Reporter series on the wrongful murder conviction of Anthony Dansberry contributed to Dansberry’s release from prison (after serving 23 years) and earned Benson a Peter Lisagor Award for exemplary journalism. Benson also was a co-writer and associate producer of the Wttw Channel 11 documentary "Paper Trail: 100 Years of the Chicago Defender," and was named on two of the documentary’s three regional Emmy Awards, as well as another Lisagor Award. Benson is co-author with Mamie Till-Mobley of "Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America," the account of the 1955 lynching of Mrs. Till-Mobley’s son, Emmett Till, and the winner of the 2003 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Special Recognition. The feature adaptation of the book will be executive produced by Chaz Ebert and Shatterglass Films
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
Our project is titled "Death of Innocence" and it is the screen adaptation of a book I co-authored with the late Mamie Till-Mobley about the life and tragic death of her son, Emmett Till. Through this project that focuses on the brutal 1955 lynching of a 14 year-old kid, we want to help people make connections between the violent enforcement of racial segregation and the shooting deaths of young African American males by people who still are getting away with it in our contemporary moment. We also want to show how one person—in this case, Mamie Till-Mobley—can make a difference in the struggle for social and legal justice in America. This clearly is a challenge we still face and we need to learn lessons from some of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. That is what we are trying to show with this picture.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
One of the many things I have taken away from the first day of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab is that I have to take ownership of the characters who populate this story—even this story based on true events and real people. As a professional journalist, I have spent years trying to keep a distance from the issues I write about and the people who humanize those stories, who breathe life into them. Despite cynical public opinion, journalists do go after the truth. In screenwriting, we are going after the essential truth. What is the meaning of everything that appears on the screen? So, even in stories based on real events, we are not simply cataloguing a series of facts in a sequence of scenes. We are supposed to find the story that rises from all those facts. The essential truth. The true meaning. That will affect my screenwriting for some time beyond the successful completion of this project.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
I have to say that the coordinators of the Sundance Lab experience clearly put a lot of care and thought into developing a perfect match of advisors and fellows. The second day discussions with my advisors was phenomenal. As with the Sundance organizers, they had read the script very carefully and approached my sessions with a devotion to maintaining the integrity of the story, and helping fulfill the purpose we had set out to accomplish. It was amazing to listen to the comments that reflected a deep appreciation of the characters, the story and even the potential impact of this piece. I was especially struck by the connection my advisors felt with the main character, Mamie Till-Mobley, and the advice I was given to develop her and her motivation to a level that will result in quite a powerful rendering. I can't wait to get started on the notes.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
My plan is to work with the notes I was given to consider ways to perfect the script. My advisors have indicated an interest in staying in touch on this, so that ongoing conversation will be great. The first step I am taking after the Sundance Lab is to engage in discussions with the other producers on our project to ensure that we all on the same page. Next will be to coordinate with the collaborators on the script to talk about the ideas that have emerged from the lab experience. Finally, I will begin to interpret it all on the page, and I am eager to see where the story takes me.
Shakti Bhagchandani
Project: "Purdah"
Shakti Bhagchandani is a screenwriter/director born and raised in the United Arab Emirates. She grew up in Dubai, in a melting pot of religion and culture, and cultivated her writing abilities with the help of her mother. She travelled to London to pursue a BA in English Literature at King's College London and while there she was awarded the prestigious Jelf Medal for her contributions to art and charity. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, she interned at the Vineyard Theatre in New York, the Gate Theatre and National Theatre Studio in London, and the Antenna Theatre in San Francisco. She directed a number of student and semi professional plays, including "Fanny & Faggot" by Jack Thorne and "Pornography" by Simon Stephens. After graduation she moved to New York to pursue an Mfa in Screenwriting & Directing at Columbia University. She is currently in her thesis years, specializing in Screenwriting under advisor Trey Ellis. While at Columbia, she has worked on a number of shorts, and as a writer her last short "Khargosh" screened at Palm Springs International ShortFest and won the Satyajit Ray Award at the London Indian Film Festival. Her first feature screenplay, "Bidoun", was shortlisted for the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab 2015, and her current feature project "Purdah" has been selected for the Sundance Screenwriter's Intensive Lab in La. She recently wrapped production on her short "LostFound" that she wrote and directed, and is currently in preproduction for her next short "Tunisian Jasmine" which is set in the UAE.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular. .
'Purdah' is a coming of age drama that follows a 16-year-old British Pakistani girl as she grapples with her burgeoning womanhood and her precarious sexuality in a world built on segregation and coercion. The project is currently in development.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
The first day of the lab included one of the most invigorating writing workshops I've ever been a part of. Joan is a miracle worker! She guided us through a haze of snowploughs, dream sequences and inner monologues, and by the end of it I had somehow come up with about 20 new scene ideas. Characters I had neglected before were suddenly infused with new life and the possibilities for the story feels limitless. Andrew's film and the discussion afterwards was intensely inspiring and the perfect way to round off the day - he helped us believe that the future of our projects is entirely real and attainable.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?.
Patricia and Dana are wonderful! It was amazing to sit across from these incredible, passionate women - they were nurturing, encouraging and boundlessly generous with their advice. They talked about their own trajectories and experiences. They motivated me to dig deeper, to fine tune every detail, and to have faith in myself and the project. They came at my script from completely different angles, offering story notes, a ton of production thoughts, and advice on how to move forward with not only the script, but also my career.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
Revise, revise, revise. And then revise again. The lab helped me see how much potential this story has and how much work it still needs. There is so much left to unearth and I'm excited to get started.
Reinaldo Marcus Green
Project: "Monsters and Men"
New York native Reinaldo Marcus Green is a writer, director, and producer. He is currently a thesis student at Nyu Tisch Graduate Film School and writing his first feature narrative, "Monsters and Men." Most recently, he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film (2015). His latest short film "Stop," which he wrote, produced, and directed, premiered as an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015. His previous short film, "Stone Cars," shot on a micro-budget in South Africa, had its international premiere as an official Cinéfondation selection at the Festival de Cannes 2014.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
At its core, "Monsters and Men" is a story about perspective.
The film consists of three interlocking stories, each told through the point-of-view of three protagonists -- Manny, a street hustler, Stacey, a female police officer, and Zyric, a high school athlete.
When Manny captures an illegal act of police violence on his cellphone, he unwittingly sets off a series of events that will alter the course of each of their lives...
"Monsters and Men's" three chapters connect narratively and thematically, painting a portrait of modern-day Brooklyn -- a community caught in the crosswinds of crime, police corruption, and social instability.
We’re in the final stage of development, planning to shoot this summer 2016 in Brooklyn, New York. We hope to cast the net wide and far in order to provide opportunities for new undiscovered talent, and new exciting voices. The ideal cast would be a mix of professional and non-professional actors. New York is full of immense diverse talent we can’t wait to work with.
As a filmmaker, my goal is to tell powerful, urgently-needed and authentic stories. I see a unique opportunity to challenge the status quo of independent cinema, to craft entertaining stories with heart and meaning - films which possess social relevance, emotional complexity and thematic resonance.
Ultimately, its my hope to create a highly-compelling narrative feature, entertaining to watch, but one which will add to the social conversation about law enforcement, violence, and justice in America. We want to share that experience with audiences in other places in the world, by giving rise to growing communities who are often marginalized and whose stories are rarely seen in film.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
First and foremost, I felt very lucky to be a part of such an amazingly talented group of filmmakers, with a broad range of diverse projects, across all genres. It was fascinating to see where my script fits in the larger spectrum, and what I realized is that each and every story at the lab was an outlier. Each writer had a singular voice, a unique take on genre, character, story, and structure.
The Lesson: “Come in from the side.”
During Day One at the lab, I felt I threw out any preconceived notions I had about my own script. It allowed me to digress and deconstruct without internally combusting. Joan Tewkesbury, a true master at her craft, went right to the core of who we were as human beings, ultimately going right into the core of who and what our scripts were all about, and what they have the potential to become. I think fear is something that holds most people back, the same fear that the world was once flat and we would sail off the edge. Joan refocused my center of gravity and provided me with tools to “access” that inner child, be playful and to keep digging.
Character is at the core of who we are and what makes us human. The digger we deep, the more we reveal about ourselves. I believe in that if I continue the excavation process, with delicate precision, and a gentle curiosity, it will serve me well in all my writing. I can’t be afraid to find out who I am underneath the surface, although sometime we bury things for a reason — because we don’t want to go there — there’s pain hidden in various forms. In writing, there’s a seemingly impenetrable darkness and then there’s light.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
The opportunity to sit down with Peter Sollett and Tanya Hamilton was truly a special treat for me. Not only did are they both masters of their craft and highly-regarded writers and directors within their own right, I had been a big fan of their work before meeting them. Peter’s short film "Five Feet High and Rising," which he later turned into a feature, "Raising Victor Vargas" are two works that I admire deeply, and they have been a source for inspiration since the genius of the project.
Both Peter and Tanya are so sharp and so astute, it makes for brilliant analysis and conversation.
They have a slightly different approach to story, but essentially meet somewhere in the middle; Character. With both advisors, we really stepped back from the script — taking a birds eye view of what the film really means to me and how and what the best way to achieve telling it would be moving forward. We talked a lot about character, world, and theme.
Tanya and Peter both offered many ideas for “problem solving” — helping me hone in on areas in the script that could be refined and strengthened. It’s evident in their own work how much they care about the craft — both offering truly thoughtful insight and perspective into how each scene could advance the story. We discussed ways to deepen characters and how to build a compelling and complex world without compromising my voice, or the story I want to tell.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
I think the simplest answer is to just keep writing. There’s still a ton of information to digest from the lab but the key is to not get bogged down in semantics, to move beyond the fear and paralysis that we create for ourselves. It’s time to problem solve, lock myself in a room and just write. More coffee please.
Jessie Kahnweiler
Project: "Meet My Rapist"
Jessie Kahnweiler has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, TMZ, People, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Magazine, Mashable, Buzzfeed, Elle, The Daily Beast, Jezebel, Indiewire, La Weekly, The Huffington Post, and The Independent. At the University of Redlands, Kahnweiler quickly began ditching class in order to make documentaries. For her thesis film, Little America, she hitchhiked across the country to explore the world of America’s truck drivers. After getting dumped, she wrote and co-directed the comedic short "Baby Love," co-starring alongside "Anchorman’s" David Koechner. Kahnweiler was selected for the 6 Points Artist Fellowship which inspired her comedic web series entitled "Dude, Where’s my Chutzpah?" Her short "Meet my Rapist," a dark comedy about running into her rapist at the Farmers’ Market, inspired her live show "The Rape Girl." Kahnweiler confronted her own white privilege in her viral hit "Jessie Gets Arrested." Her latest project, for which she serves as writer, director, and stars, is "The Skinny," a dark comedic series based on her 10 year relationship with bulimia. It premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and is produced by Refinery29 and Jill Soloway’s Wifey.tv Kahnweiler lives in La with her plants.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is.
Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular. My project is called "Meet My Rapist" and it is loosely based on a short film I made of the same name a few years ago. After the short had it's 15 minutes online I was moving on to other projects but I felt this gnawing at my gut. I tried to ignore it, popped some advil, and went to yoga but that gnawing just wouldn't stop. That annoying painful gnawing was the beginnings of this script. I've been working on the script on and off for about a year. I'm at the stage where I need to take out most of the flippant jokes and get to the real meat of the matter - the heart, the pain. I need to live and cry this story out. Because the project is so personal it is easy for me to get lost in it. Sometimes I forget where I end and my characters begin. So being at the Sundance lab is great timing. I feel totes blessed.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
That I can't hide behind my jokes. After writing in a feeling state all day our amazing teaching Joan looked at me and was like "Your movie is a song and you gotta hit the bass notes." I was like Mic Drop. I love the challenge of making something that is a comedy based in the tragedy of human reality. That is my north star for this movie. I'm not sure if I will get there but that's where I'll be heading.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
It was incredible to take a deep dive into the script with women who so deeply understand screenwriting from the inside out. The feedback was never like "do it My way" it was more about ripping open the guts of the script and getting to that deeper level. Okay this happens but Why? Screenwriting can be so daunting like "I need write the perfect thing so I can get an agent so I can get hired etc. " and the process can be so lonely and daunting . But in both my sessions we just talked about human behavior and what makes people tick and it reminded me that filmmaking is magic and I'm really lucky to be here. Also a woman, it was inspiring to meet with other women who are living my dream. Who are feeling for a living. In both my sessions I laughed, cried, and go to ask as many questions I wanted it. It was basically my ideal Tinder date.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
I'm going to keep working on drafts of the script, keep sharing it with people I trust, keep begging Sundance to let me come over and eat bagels, keep pitching it to anyone who will listen, keep crying, keep feeling, keep making my movie.
Allison Lee
Project: "Jawbone"
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Los Angeles, Allison Lee studied English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. She received her Mfa in Film and Television Production from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Upon graduation, she worked in development and production at DreamWorks and NBCUniversal. Lee has received grants from the Media Action Network and the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences. She was also named a Project Involve fellow, and her short The Grizzly was produced by Film Independent. In 2015, she was one of five screenwriters who received a residency through the inaugural Hedgebrook Screenwriters Lab, where she was mentored by Jenny Bicks and Jane Anderson.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
"Jawbone" is about a Korean woman who undergoes drastic plastic surgery as a means to achieve what she and her peers view as success. After she gives birth to a daughter who looks nothing like her, her life begins to unravel and she’s forced to confront her past.
I am currently grappling with rewrites while meeting with potential producers and crew.
I see "Jawbone" as a hybrid of Korean cinema and American independent film. Korean movies relish the tension in tightly wound familial and social relationships. I think my personal connection to this fabric helps me discern and explore where the similarities and differences to American culture begin and end. I also think the best American independent films underscore the universality of specific personal stories, and I aspire to follow in this tradition.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
I felt transformed by the sessions with Joan Tewkesbury. She pushed us to bare our souls and delve into our histories to deliver stories that were truthful and specific. My biggest fear about "Jawbone" is that a few extreme events in the plot would read as absurdist melodrama. Relating these events back to some of my own crises helped me re-center the emotional truth of my characters and their journeys.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
It was crucial to work with filmmakers who knew the Sundance aesthetic and had weathered the challenges before us. I knew the script needed improvement but had a hazy vision of what it required. Tanya Hamilton’s notes were both encouraging and precise about galvanizing and concretizing the protagonist’s journey. Patricia Cardoso, with her directorial and producerial expertise, reminded me that my artistic flights of fancy should still be grounded in reality and be economical and pragmatic. The breadth of their approaches made me feel like I was getting the best of all worlds.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
I am hustling on a rewrite ready to be seen by producers and representatives. Ultimately, I want to direct "Jawbone," and I am also working on a short film version.
Eliza Lee
Project: "A Beautiful Lie"
Educated in Canada and the Czech Republic, Eliza Lee began in Asia as a Dp trainee before returning to her first passion: screenwriting. She takes great pride in world building for her complex women characters. Lee’s feature, Maybe Tomorrow, about rock legend Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, is being produced by Michelle Sy ("Finding Neverland") and Sophia Chang (former artist manager for Wu Tang Clan), with Academy Award nominee Steph Green ("Run & Jump") attached to direct. Lee’s screenplay, "A Beautiful Lie," about crime novelist Patricia Highsmith, was honored at the 2015 Athena Film Festival, and was also selected for the 2015 Outfest Screenwriting Lab. In addition, she was a Cape 2015 Film & Television Fellow and was mentored by various executives from Sony, Paramount, and Fox, among others. Lee has several features and television projects in development. She is the 2016 Sundance Institute Asian American Fellow.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
When Strangers on the Train was published in 1950 and with the anticipation for it to be turned into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, Patricia Highsmith was catapulted into the literary spotlight. Here she thought was her opportunity to break free of the crime genre and finally write her Great American novel. Except, it was at the height of McCarthy’s witch hunt, and her Great American novel would become the iconic lesbian tale, The Price of Salt. In the book, Patricia defiantly gave her lesbian main characters a happy ending together, but faced with the real threat of being blacklisted, she is forced to publish it under a pseudonym. This decision would send her down a path of alcoholism, promiscuity and loneliness as she realized she would not have the happy ending she wrote.
With this story, I knew it had to come from the seminal moment in her life. And for me, it is when she braved writing The Price of Salt at a time where being who you are and believing in what you do can land you in jail, exile or financial ruin. She had to deny her nature, and coupled with a growing rage it would breed the infamous “monster” that would come to define her in her later years.
While her male peers have enjoyed forgiving, pedestal descriptors like "troubled", "complex" or the genius "l'enfant terrible", Highsmith was shown no such generosity.
On top of that, I am struck how often pictures of her old age are published displaying her alcohol and anger ravaged face. We made that. Juxtapose those with photos of Highsmith at 21, so full of hope, vitality and ready for all the wonders of love, and it is clear - she was born this way. "A Beautiful Lie" is about a woman’s quest for love when it was a crime.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
Specifically, I learned I hide behind fiction or through my characters and not have to admit the narrative comes from a personal place. Through an incredibly safe and nurturing environment on the first day, Joan Tewksbury led us through a series of spontaneous and revelatory writing exercises that at first seemed random, but without time to allow the self-censor to kick in, the writing showcased how many more complex layers we can apply to our characters through our uninhibited sharing of our personal experiences. As a result, because the stories come from us, they are inherently going to be personal. It was like sleight of hand for the imagination.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
The advisors were there to help us tell the story we want to tell. And the one-on-one sessions were focused solely on the writing, and was intended to be a dialogue. It was humbling to learn the tremendous amount of time they took to burrow deep into our scripts. I was thoroughly empowered by what these writers offered me, and excited that I could challenge such seasoned pros with my perspective and approach to telling a story. Ligiah Villalobos dared me to linger longer in emotional scenes and to take my pursuit for emotional truths for my character even further. While Scott Neustadter and I discussed much about memories as structure, he also pushed me to defy a note i have received that my character is “unlikable” and to allow her to have even more anti-hero moments. i concluded my last day at the Intensive with their voices unifying in the same sentiment: they have a good feeling the film will be made.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
Through the Sundance Intensive, I have a clear idea of what is my next step, and that is to apply another layer of shading to my portrait of Patricia Highsmith. I’m anxious to keep the momentum going, and then take it out to talent. I’m going to realize this film.
Jimmy Mosqueda
Project: "Valedictorian"
Jimmy Mosqueda is a lifelong California resident, the son of two Mexican migrant workers, and a graduate of Stanford University. From an early age he showed a fondness for writing, starting his first journal at the age of five, which developed into a passion for writing short stories, poetry and eventually screenplays. While attending Stanford on a full scholarship, Mosqueda saw how social class and race influenced the experiences of his fellow students, which made him realize just how much the American educational system is intimately tied to those pillars. The intersection of race, class, and education remains an ongoing theme in his works. Today, Mosqueda lives in Los Angeles and writes full-time. His screenplays have placed in numerous contests, including as a finalist in the Austin Film Festival, Script Pipeline and TrackingB competitions, and as a semifinalist in the Nicholl Fellowship. He’s represented by Angelina Chen and Brooklyn Weaver of Energy Entertainment, and is actively developing projects for film and television.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
"Valedictorian" is dark teen comedy in the vein of "Election" and "Heathers." It’s about an ambitious teenage girl who do anything to be crowned valedictorian of her high school, including a little bit of murder. So, you know, just like real high school! I started writing this project about three years ago. It was inspired by my own school experiences, where everyone on the Honors track was super competitive and had their sights set on the Ivy League. Readers respond positively to the comedy and the heightened world of the script, which is great, but one thing I felt got buried underneath the multitude of drafts is the emotional core of the main character. So during the Intensive my main goal was to rediscover who she was and, building out from that, the reason why I wanted to tell this story in the first place.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
The most important thing I learned from the workshop with Joan Tewkesbury is that creative development is not about brainstorming characters or story points. All of us have unique, personal experiences and emotions that can form the building blocks of a story. You really have to look inward and tap that raw data, or else run the risk of your story ringing hollow. A lot of artists understand this intuitively, I believe, but Joan’s workshop laid it out in such clear and simple terms. For my next draft of "Valedictorian," I’m going to use these techniques as a stress test, but in all honesty I want to go back and revisit every project I ever worked on using this approach now.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
My advisors were the bee’s knees, if I can be so blunt. My first session was with Scott Neustadter, who along with his writing partner has written a lot of films with teen lead characters. He very clearly understood what the script was, and gave very specific, actionable notes on how to improve what’s already there. I love how he was able to cut through and really get at the core issues of script, which were mostly the same issues I had going in. Scott is killing the screenwriting game right now. His insights were invaluable.
My second session was with Kyle Patrick Alvarez. We spent a lot of time talking about the main character, her motivation, her relationships, and how she “earns” the big moments/twists in the script. We also spent some time talking bigger picture about the industry and how to build a career in Hollywood, which was very much appreciated. Additionally, it was great getting the perspective of another Latino in the industry.
Both men were truly gracious with their time. I left both sessions feeling inspired!
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
After stepping off Cloud 9, it’s back to the computer and working on a new draft of "Valedictorian." In addition, I will also be tackling a new draft of the pilot version. It’s the same world and characters, but with a different engine that is geared towards episodic narrative. Many of the notes I got from Scott and Kyle apply to the pilot version as well, so it’s like getting two for the price of one!
Finally, I just want to thank everyone involved with putting together the Intensive: Ilyse McKimmie, Michelle Satter, Anne Lai, Shira Rockowitz and everyone at the Sundance Institute who made this possible. I am forever grateful for the experience.
Lotfy Nathan
Project: Untitled Bouazizi Project
Lotfy Nathan’s first film, the documentary "12 O’Clock Boys," played over 50 film festivals worldwide, including SXSW, Sundance Next Fest, Lincoln Center, Viennale, Hot Docs, London, and Copenhagen in 2013. It was ranked 7 in the BFI list of top 20 documentaries of 2013, and garnered Nathan an HBO Emerging Artist award. "12 O’Clock Boys" was subsequently picked up by Oscilloscope for a North American release in theaters, acquired by Showtime for television, and was optioned for a fiction remake by Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment. Nathan is a 2015 grantee of the Creative Capital Foundation, a resident filmmaker at the Cinereach Foundation, and a previous awardee of the Garrett Scott development grant, the Peter Reed Foundation, the Grainger Marburg travel grant, and an Ifp fellowship.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
The film is about Mohamed Bouazizi, the young Tunisian fruit vendor whose act of self-immolation sparked the Arab spring. It’s a love story, apolitical (as the subject of our protagonist was); about a young man’s steady undoing, and his final bittersweet act of defiance. The film will be shot on location, with cast selected locally besides the principles, and filmed with an immersive approach.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
We were encouraged to draw from very specific personal experiences, prompted by Joan It was incredible to learn these tools, which enable you to tap into vast resources from your own life that you can then apply to the writing- and so vividly. I think the writing exercises with Joan actually stirred a very unusual dream for me that night.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
The advisors were very motivating. I left with pages of notes on my writing, tangible pieces of smart advice that will help inform the next draft.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
Before getting back to work on the script I plan to do some other writing on the characters.
While fostering talent is what Sundance Institute does best, they are one of the institutions that most diligently reinforces their commitment to provide opportunities for new voices that represent an eclectic array of backgrounds and experiences. In order to cast their net of support even wider, the institute offers numerous exciting programs beyond those that are already well-known in the filmmaking community. As part of Sundance Institute's Diversity Initiative, the Screenwriters Intensive is an invaluable resource that focuses on stories outside of the homogenous fare.
The program is a 1 1/2 day workshop for writers whose work has been encountered by the institute as part of their outreach for the Labs and which they find especially promising. The writers of 10 projects take part in a program whose elements include a hands-on writing workshop led by creative advisor Joan Tewkesbury (“Nashville”), a screening of a recent Sundance film followed by a candid conversation with the filmmaker, a reception with Sundance staff and the extended Sundance community, and one-on-one meetings with two creative advisors to get feedback on their script. With the Intensive, the Sundance Institute aims to present participants with creative tools that they can take back to their own work, provide a space for dialogue and information sharing about the creative process of making a film (and all of the joys and challenges therein), and foster community among storytellers and an ongoing connection with Sundance.
The screening this year was Andrew Ahn's "Spa Night," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January and has now been picked up for U.S distribution by Strand Releasing. Centered on the conflicted son of a Korean immigrant couple in Los Angeles, Ahn's subtle yet poignant narrative deals with issues of identity both sexual and cultural. For the second day of the workshop, the fellows had one-on-one meetings with celebrated figures in independent cinema: Miranda July, Jennifer Salt, Deena Goldstone, Patricia Cardoso, Pete Sollett, Dana Stevens, Tanya Hamilton, Ligiah Villalobos, Scott Neustadter, and Kyle Patrick Alvarez
The Screenwriters Intensive fellows come from uniquely different backgrounds, and their projects bring original stories that are sure to showcase new and inventive perspectives on the world. Get to know them and their stories as they are on their way to giving us a great batch of new independent films.
The application for the 2017 January Screenwriters Lab is currently open with a deadline of May 3. Applicants for the Screenwriters Lab are also considered for the Screenwriters Intensive, Sundance Institute Asian American Fellowship, and the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program Latino Fellowship, as eligibility allows. To learn more about the Sundance Institute's programs visit Here.
Khalik Allah
Project: "Kareem"
Khalik Allah is a self taught filmmaker and photographer. His work has been described as visceral, hauntingly beautiful, penetrative and profoundly personal. Photography and filmmaking are two overlapping circles that form a venn diagram in Allah’s mind; the area where they overlap is the space he inhabits as an artist. Allah’s cinematic vignettes document hardscrabble life at the corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem (New York City), most recently in his award-winning documentary Field Niggas, which screened at festivals worldwide.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
My project is in an incredibly early stage. I'm basically taking the last four years of my life as a photographer on 125th and Lex and adapting it into a fiction narrative.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
The most important thing was the mutual inspiration we gave each other. The lab advisors helped us dig deeper into ourselves. Their faith in us was tremendous. I took away a new lease on my future.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
I met with Miranda July on day two of the lab. Wow she was incredible. She read my entire script and gave me many productive notes. I was impressed that she gave me so much time. Plenty of useful information I can implement.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
I must keep writing.
Zia Anger
Project: "Despues De"
Zia Anger is a filmmaker and music video director. Her most recent short, "My Last Film," premiered at the 53rd New York Film Festival. In 2015, her short "I Remember Nothing" had its world premiere at New Directors/New Films and its international premiere at Festival del film Locarno. Other screenings include: AFI Fest, Denver Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Basilica Soundscape, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, and Vienna Independent Shorts. She has made music videos for various independent artists, including Angel Olsen, Julianna Barwick, and Jenny Hval, the latter of whom she also tours with, projecting live video and participating as a performer. Her music videos have been featured in various online publications including: Pitchfork, the Guardian, and NPR. In 2015, Anger was included in Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" issue. She was a 2015 fellow in film/video from the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant for her short film "Lover Boy." She holds a BA/Bs from Ithaca College and a Mfa from The School of the Arts Institute of Chicago.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
"Despues De" is about a missing white woman, a mother and daughter who try to find her, and the days leading up to her disappearance on a sorority vacation. It dissects the very particular mythological figures created by our tabloid crazed culture, white women's obsessions with themselves and each other, and the people and places who are alienated in their wake. I would say the project is creatively at the point where it's similar to someone in their late twenties, when you think "wow I know a lot, but fuck there is so much more and I'm open to that," as opposed to "I just turned 21 and I literally know it all." Artistically it calls for a certain amount of precision where high and low brow filmmaking techniques kind of collapse on to each other and end up smooching.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
Joan seems to have figured out a really simple way to help even the most stubborn of (non) writers reenter their work at a time when it might seem impossible. What's cool is that once you do it it's really easy to do again. I'm thinking that having this point of access will be crucial to the continued creative development of the piece, beyond writing and moving in to those difficult creative moments onset, in the editing room, all those places you normally forget everything you've already figured out.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
Immediately it's exciting to sit the the same room with someone who speaks the same alien language as you but who has had the experience deal with people who don't. I think it was Bergman or someone who talked about how inadequate a script can be, considering it's just this middle step. I find myself so disillusioned with this middle step and constantly questioning what exactly it's supposed to function as. It's a good exercise to talk through what is important and what should be more developed and also where you can cut the fat.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
Probably keep learning.
Chris Benson
Project: "Death of Innocence"
Christopher Benson, a journalist and lawyer, is an associate professor of Journalism and African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has worked as a city hall reporter in Chicago for Wbmx-fm, as Washington Editor for Ebony magazine, and as a speechwriter for Washington, D.C. politicians, including former Congressman Harold Washington and Eeoc Chair Clarence Thomas. He also has written for Chicago, Savoy, Jet, and The Crisis magazines, and has contributed to the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Most recently, he has written commentary on justice, race and media for the Chicago Reporter and the Huffington Post. His Chicago Reporter series on the wrongful murder conviction of Anthony Dansberry contributed to Dansberry’s release from prison (after serving 23 years) and earned Benson a Peter Lisagor Award for exemplary journalism. Benson also was a co-writer and associate producer of the Wttw Channel 11 documentary "Paper Trail: 100 Years of the Chicago Defender," and was named on two of the documentary’s three regional Emmy Awards, as well as another Lisagor Award. Benson is co-author with Mamie Till-Mobley of "Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America," the account of the 1955 lynching of Mrs. Till-Mobley’s son, Emmett Till, and the winner of the 2003 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Special Recognition. The feature adaptation of the book will be executive produced by Chaz Ebert and Shatterglass Films
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
Our project is titled "Death of Innocence" and it is the screen adaptation of a book I co-authored with the late Mamie Till-Mobley about the life and tragic death of her son, Emmett Till. Through this project that focuses on the brutal 1955 lynching of a 14 year-old kid, we want to help people make connections between the violent enforcement of racial segregation and the shooting deaths of young African American males by people who still are getting away with it in our contemporary moment. We also want to show how one person—in this case, Mamie Till-Mobley—can make a difference in the struggle for social and legal justice in America. This clearly is a challenge we still face and we need to learn lessons from some of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. That is what we are trying to show with this picture.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
One of the many things I have taken away from the first day of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab is that I have to take ownership of the characters who populate this story—even this story based on true events and real people. As a professional journalist, I have spent years trying to keep a distance from the issues I write about and the people who humanize those stories, who breathe life into them. Despite cynical public opinion, journalists do go after the truth. In screenwriting, we are going after the essential truth. What is the meaning of everything that appears on the screen? So, even in stories based on real events, we are not simply cataloguing a series of facts in a sequence of scenes. We are supposed to find the story that rises from all those facts. The essential truth. The true meaning. That will affect my screenwriting for some time beyond the successful completion of this project.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
I have to say that the coordinators of the Sundance Lab experience clearly put a lot of care and thought into developing a perfect match of advisors and fellows. The second day discussions with my advisors was phenomenal. As with the Sundance organizers, they had read the script very carefully and approached my sessions with a devotion to maintaining the integrity of the story, and helping fulfill the purpose we had set out to accomplish. It was amazing to listen to the comments that reflected a deep appreciation of the characters, the story and even the potential impact of this piece. I was especially struck by the connection my advisors felt with the main character, Mamie Till-Mobley, and the advice I was given to develop her and her motivation to a level that will result in quite a powerful rendering. I can't wait to get started on the notes.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
My plan is to work with the notes I was given to consider ways to perfect the script. My advisors have indicated an interest in staying in touch on this, so that ongoing conversation will be great. The first step I am taking after the Sundance Lab is to engage in discussions with the other producers on our project to ensure that we all on the same page. Next will be to coordinate with the collaborators on the script to talk about the ideas that have emerged from the lab experience. Finally, I will begin to interpret it all on the page, and I am eager to see where the story takes me.
Shakti Bhagchandani
Project: "Purdah"
Shakti Bhagchandani is a screenwriter/director born and raised in the United Arab Emirates. She grew up in Dubai, in a melting pot of religion and culture, and cultivated her writing abilities with the help of her mother. She travelled to London to pursue a BA in English Literature at King's College London and while there she was awarded the prestigious Jelf Medal for her contributions to art and charity. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, she interned at the Vineyard Theatre in New York, the Gate Theatre and National Theatre Studio in London, and the Antenna Theatre in San Francisco. She directed a number of student and semi professional plays, including "Fanny & Faggot" by Jack Thorne and "Pornography" by Simon Stephens. After graduation she moved to New York to pursue an Mfa in Screenwriting & Directing at Columbia University. She is currently in her thesis years, specializing in Screenwriting under advisor Trey Ellis. While at Columbia, she has worked on a number of shorts, and as a writer her last short "Khargosh" screened at Palm Springs International ShortFest and won the Satyajit Ray Award at the London Indian Film Festival. Her first feature screenplay, "Bidoun", was shortlisted for the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab 2015, and her current feature project "Purdah" has been selected for the Sundance Screenwriter's Intensive Lab in La. She recently wrapped production on her short "LostFound" that she wrote and directed, and is currently in preproduction for her next short "Tunisian Jasmine" which is set in the UAE.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular. .
'Purdah' is a coming of age drama that follows a 16-year-old British Pakistani girl as she grapples with her burgeoning womanhood and her precarious sexuality in a world built on segregation and coercion. The project is currently in development.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
The first day of the lab included one of the most invigorating writing workshops I've ever been a part of. Joan is a miracle worker! She guided us through a haze of snowploughs, dream sequences and inner monologues, and by the end of it I had somehow come up with about 20 new scene ideas. Characters I had neglected before were suddenly infused with new life and the possibilities for the story feels limitless. Andrew's film and the discussion afterwards was intensely inspiring and the perfect way to round off the day - he helped us believe that the future of our projects is entirely real and attainable.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?.
Patricia and Dana are wonderful! It was amazing to sit across from these incredible, passionate women - they were nurturing, encouraging and boundlessly generous with their advice. They talked about their own trajectories and experiences. They motivated me to dig deeper, to fine tune every detail, and to have faith in myself and the project. They came at my script from completely different angles, offering story notes, a ton of production thoughts, and advice on how to move forward with not only the script, but also my career.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
Revise, revise, revise. And then revise again. The lab helped me see how much potential this story has and how much work it still needs. There is so much left to unearth and I'm excited to get started.
Reinaldo Marcus Green
Project: "Monsters and Men"
New York native Reinaldo Marcus Green is a writer, director, and producer. He is currently a thesis student at Nyu Tisch Graduate Film School and writing his first feature narrative, "Monsters and Men." Most recently, he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film (2015). His latest short film "Stop," which he wrote, produced, and directed, premiered as an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015. His previous short film, "Stone Cars," shot on a micro-budget in South Africa, had its international premiere as an official Cinéfondation selection at the Festival de Cannes 2014.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
At its core, "Monsters and Men" is a story about perspective.
The film consists of three interlocking stories, each told through the point-of-view of three protagonists -- Manny, a street hustler, Stacey, a female police officer, and Zyric, a high school athlete.
When Manny captures an illegal act of police violence on his cellphone, he unwittingly sets off a series of events that will alter the course of each of their lives...
"Monsters and Men's" three chapters connect narratively and thematically, painting a portrait of modern-day Brooklyn -- a community caught in the crosswinds of crime, police corruption, and social instability.
We’re in the final stage of development, planning to shoot this summer 2016 in Brooklyn, New York. We hope to cast the net wide and far in order to provide opportunities for new undiscovered talent, and new exciting voices. The ideal cast would be a mix of professional and non-professional actors. New York is full of immense diverse talent we can’t wait to work with.
As a filmmaker, my goal is to tell powerful, urgently-needed and authentic stories. I see a unique opportunity to challenge the status quo of independent cinema, to craft entertaining stories with heart and meaning - films which possess social relevance, emotional complexity and thematic resonance.
Ultimately, its my hope to create a highly-compelling narrative feature, entertaining to watch, but one which will add to the social conversation about law enforcement, violence, and justice in America. We want to share that experience with audiences in other places in the world, by giving rise to growing communities who are often marginalized and whose stories are rarely seen in film.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
First and foremost, I felt very lucky to be a part of such an amazingly talented group of filmmakers, with a broad range of diverse projects, across all genres. It was fascinating to see where my script fits in the larger spectrum, and what I realized is that each and every story at the lab was an outlier. Each writer had a singular voice, a unique take on genre, character, story, and structure.
The Lesson: “Come in from the side.”
During Day One at the lab, I felt I threw out any preconceived notions I had about my own script. It allowed me to digress and deconstruct without internally combusting. Joan Tewkesbury, a true master at her craft, went right to the core of who we were as human beings, ultimately going right into the core of who and what our scripts were all about, and what they have the potential to become. I think fear is something that holds most people back, the same fear that the world was once flat and we would sail off the edge. Joan refocused my center of gravity and provided me with tools to “access” that inner child, be playful and to keep digging.
Character is at the core of who we are and what makes us human. The digger we deep, the more we reveal about ourselves. I believe in that if I continue the excavation process, with delicate precision, and a gentle curiosity, it will serve me well in all my writing. I can’t be afraid to find out who I am underneath the surface, although sometime we bury things for a reason — because we don’t want to go there — there’s pain hidden in various forms. In writing, there’s a seemingly impenetrable darkness and then there’s light.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
The opportunity to sit down with Peter Sollett and Tanya Hamilton was truly a special treat for me. Not only did are they both masters of their craft and highly-regarded writers and directors within their own right, I had been a big fan of their work before meeting them. Peter’s short film "Five Feet High and Rising," which he later turned into a feature, "Raising Victor Vargas" are two works that I admire deeply, and they have been a source for inspiration since the genius of the project.
Both Peter and Tanya are so sharp and so astute, it makes for brilliant analysis and conversation.
They have a slightly different approach to story, but essentially meet somewhere in the middle; Character. With both advisors, we really stepped back from the script — taking a birds eye view of what the film really means to me and how and what the best way to achieve telling it would be moving forward. We talked a lot about character, world, and theme.
Tanya and Peter both offered many ideas for “problem solving” — helping me hone in on areas in the script that could be refined and strengthened. It’s evident in their own work how much they care about the craft — both offering truly thoughtful insight and perspective into how each scene could advance the story. We discussed ways to deepen characters and how to build a compelling and complex world without compromising my voice, or the story I want to tell.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
I think the simplest answer is to just keep writing. There’s still a ton of information to digest from the lab but the key is to not get bogged down in semantics, to move beyond the fear and paralysis that we create for ourselves. It’s time to problem solve, lock myself in a room and just write. More coffee please.
Jessie Kahnweiler
Project: "Meet My Rapist"
Jessie Kahnweiler has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, TMZ, People, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Magazine, Mashable, Buzzfeed, Elle, The Daily Beast, Jezebel, Indiewire, La Weekly, The Huffington Post, and The Independent. At the University of Redlands, Kahnweiler quickly began ditching class in order to make documentaries. For her thesis film, Little America, she hitchhiked across the country to explore the world of America’s truck drivers. After getting dumped, she wrote and co-directed the comedic short "Baby Love," co-starring alongside "Anchorman’s" David Koechner. Kahnweiler was selected for the 6 Points Artist Fellowship which inspired her comedic web series entitled "Dude, Where’s my Chutzpah?" Her short "Meet my Rapist," a dark comedy about running into her rapist at the Farmers’ Market, inspired her live show "The Rape Girl." Kahnweiler confronted her own white privilege in her viral hit "Jessie Gets Arrested." Her latest project, for which she serves as writer, director, and stars, is "The Skinny," a dark comedic series based on her 10 year relationship with bulimia. It premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and is produced by Refinery29 and Jill Soloway’s Wifey.tv Kahnweiler lives in La with her plants.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is.
Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular. My project is called "Meet My Rapist" and it is loosely based on a short film I made of the same name a few years ago. After the short had it's 15 minutes online I was moving on to other projects but I felt this gnawing at my gut. I tried to ignore it, popped some advil, and went to yoga but that gnawing just wouldn't stop. That annoying painful gnawing was the beginnings of this script. I've been working on the script on and off for about a year. I'm at the stage where I need to take out most of the flippant jokes and get to the real meat of the matter - the heart, the pain. I need to live and cry this story out. Because the project is so personal it is easy for me to get lost in it. Sometimes I forget where I end and my characters begin. So being at the Sundance lab is great timing. I feel totes blessed.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
That I can't hide behind my jokes. After writing in a feeling state all day our amazing teaching Joan looked at me and was like "Your movie is a song and you gotta hit the bass notes." I was like Mic Drop. I love the challenge of making something that is a comedy based in the tragedy of human reality. That is my north star for this movie. I'm not sure if I will get there but that's where I'll be heading.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
It was incredible to take a deep dive into the script with women who so deeply understand screenwriting from the inside out. The feedback was never like "do it My way" it was more about ripping open the guts of the script and getting to that deeper level. Okay this happens but Why? Screenwriting can be so daunting like "I need write the perfect thing so I can get an agent so I can get hired etc. " and the process can be so lonely and daunting . But in both my sessions we just talked about human behavior and what makes people tick and it reminded me that filmmaking is magic and I'm really lucky to be here. Also a woman, it was inspiring to meet with other women who are living my dream. Who are feeling for a living. In both my sessions I laughed, cried, and go to ask as many questions I wanted it. It was basically my ideal Tinder date.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
I'm going to keep working on drafts of the script, keep sharing it with people I trust, keep begging Sundance to let me come over and eat bagels, keep pitching it to anyone who will listen, keep crying, keep feeling, keep making my movie.
Allison Lee
Project: "Jawbone"
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Los Angeles, Allison Lee studied English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. She received her Mfa in Film and Television Production from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Upon graduation, she worked in development and production at DreamWorks and NBCUniversal. Lee has received grants from the Media Action Network and the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences. She was also named a Project Involve fellow, and her short The Grizzly was produced by Film Independent. In 2015, she was one of five screenwriters who received a residency through the inaugural Hedgebrook Screenwriters Lab, where she was mentored by Jenny Bicks and Jane Anderson.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
"Jawbone" is about a Korean woman who undergoes drastic plastic surgery as a means to achieve what she and her peers view as success. After she gives birth to a daughter who looks nothing like her, her life begins to unravel and she’s forced to confront her past.
I am currently grappling with rewrites while meeting with potential producers and crew.
I see "Jawbone" as a hybrid of Korean cinema and American independent film. Korean movies relish the tension in tightly wound familial and social relationships. I think my personal connection to this fabric helps me discern and explore where the similarities and differences to American culture begin and end. I also think the best American independent films underscore the universality of specific personal stories, and I aspire to follow in this tradition.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
I felt transformed by the sessions with Joan Tewkesbury. She pushed us to bare our souls and delve into our histories to deliver stories that were truthful and specific. My biggest fear about "Jawbone" is that a few extreme events in the plot would read as absurdist melodrama. Relating these events back to some of my own crises helped me re-center the emotional truth of my characters and their journeys.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
It was crucial to work with filmmakers who knew the Sundance aesthetic and had weathered the challenges before us. I knew the script needed improvement but had a hazy vision of what it required. Tanya Hamilton’s notes were both encouraging and precise about galvanizing and concretizing the protagonist’s journey. Patricia Cardoso, with her directorial and producerial expertise, reminded me that my artistic flights of fancy should still be grounded in reality and be economical and pragmatic. The breadth of their approaches made me feel like I was getting the best of all worlds.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
I am hustling on a rewrite ready to be seen by producers and representatives. Ultimately, I want to direct "Jawbone," and I am also working on a short film version.
Eliza Lee
Project: "A Beautiful Lie"
Educated in Canada and the Czech Republic, Eliza Lee began in Asia as a Dp trainee before returning to her first passion: screenwriting. She takes great pride in world building for her complex women characters. Lee’s feature, Maybe Tomorrow, about rock legend Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, is being produced by Michelle Sy ("Finding Neverland") and Sophia Chang (former artist manager for Wu Tang Clan), with Academy Award nominee Steph Green ("Run & Jump") attached to direct. Lee’s screenplay, "A Beautiful Lie," about crime novelist Patricia Highsmith, was honored at the 2015 Athena Film Festival, and was also selected for the 2015 Outfest Screenwriting Lab. In addition, she was a Cape 2015 Film & Television Fellow and was mentored by various executives from Sony, Paramount, and Fox, among others. Lee has several features and television projects in development. She is the 2016 Sundance Institute Asian American Fellow.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
When Strangers on the Train was published in 1950 and with the anticipation for it to be turned into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, Patricia Highsmith was catapulted into the literary spotlight. Here she thought was her opportunity to break free of the crime genre and finally write her Great American novel. Except, it was at the height of McCarthy’s witch hunt, and her Great American novel would become the iconic lesbian tale, The Price of Salt. In the book, Patricia defiantly gave her lesbian main characters a happy ending together, but faced with the real threat of being blacklisted, she is forced to publish it under a pseudonym. This decision would send her down a path of alcoholism, promiscuity and loneliness as she realized she would not have the happy ending she wrote.
With this story, I knew it had to come from the seminal moment in her life. And for me, it is when she braved writing The Price of Salt at a time where being who you are and believing in what you do can land you in jail, exile or financial ruin. She had to deny her nature, and coupled with a growing rage it would breed the infamous “monster” that would come to define her in her later years.
While her male peers have enjoyed forgiving, pedestal descriptors like "troubled", "complex" or the genius "l'enfant terrible", Highsmith was shown no such generosity.
On top of that, I am struck how often pictures of her old age are published displaying her alcohol and anger ravaged face. We made that. Juxtapose those with photos of Highsmith at 21, so full of hope, vitality and ready for all the wonders of love, and it is clear - she was born this way. "A Beautiful Lie" is about a woman’s quest for love when it was a crime.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
Specifically, I learned I hide behind fiction or through my characters and not have to admit the narrative comes from a personal place. Through an incredibly safe and nurturing environment on the first day, Joan Tewksbury led us through a series of spontaneous and revelatory writing exercises that at first seemed random, but without time to allow the self-censor to kick in, the writing showcased how many more complex layers we can apply to our characters through our uninhibited sharing of our personal experiences. As a result, because the stories come from us, they are inherently going to be personal. It was like sleight of hand for the imagination.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
The advisors were there to help us tell the story we want to tell. And the one-on-one sessions were focused solely on the writing, and was intended to be a dialogue. It was humbling to learn the tremendous amount of time they took to burrow deep into our scripts. I was thoroughly empowered by what these writers offered me, and excited that I could challenge such seasoned pros with my perspective and approach to telling a story. Ligiah Villalobos dared me to linger longer in emotional scenes and to take my pursuit for emotional truths for my character even further. While Scott Neustadter and I discussed much about memories as structure, he also pushed me to defy a note i have received that my character is “unlikable” and to allow her to have even more anti-hero moments. i concluded my last day at the Intensive with their voices unifying in the same sentiment: they have a good feeling the film will be made.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
Through the Sundance Intensive, I have a clear idea of what is my next step, and that is to apply another layer of shading to my portrait of Patricia Highsmith. I’m anxious to keep the momentum going, and then take it out to talent. I’m going to realize this film.
Jimmy Mosqueda
Project: "Valedictorian"
Jimmy Mosqueda is a lifelong California resident, the son of two Mexican migrant workers, and a graduate of Stanford University. From an early age he showed a fondness for writing, starting his first journal at the age of five, which developed into a passion for writing short stories, poetry and eventually screenplays. While attending Stanford on a full scholarship, Mosqueda saw how social class and race influenced the experiences of his fellow students, which made him realize just how much the American educational system is intimately tied to those pillars. The intersection of race, class, and education remains an ongoing theme in his works. Today, Mosqueda lives in Los Angeles and writes full-time. His screenplays have placed in numerous contests, including as a finalist in the Austin Film Festival, Script Pipeline and TrackingB competitions, and as a semifinalist in the Nicholl Fellowship. He’s represented by Angelina Chen and Brooklyn Weaver of Energy Entertainment, and is actively developing projects for film and television.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
"Valedictorian" is dark teen comedy in the vein of "Election" and "Heathers." It’s about an ambitious teenage girl who do anything to be crowned valedictorian of her high school, including a little bit of murder. So, you know, just like real high school! I started writing this project about three years ago. It was inspired by my own school experiences, where everyone on the Honors track was super competitive and had their sights set on the Ivy League. Readers respond positively to the comedy and the heightened world of the script, which is great, but one thing I felt got buried underneath the multitude of drafts is the emotional core of the main character. So during the Intensive my main goal was to rediscover who she was and, building out from that, the reason why I wanted to tell this story in the first place.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
The most important thing I learned from the workshop with Joan Tewkesbury is that creative development is not about brainstorming characters or story points. All of us have unique, personal experiences and emotions that can form the building blocks of a story. You really have to look inward and tap that raw data, or else run the risk of your story ringing hollow. A lot of artists understand this intuitively, I believe, but Joan’s workshop laid it out in such clear and simple terms. For my next draft of "Valedictorian," I’m going to use these techniques as a stress test, but in all honesty I want to go back and revisit every project I ever worked on using this approach now.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
My advisors were the bee’s knees, if I can be so blunt. My first session was with Scott Neustadter, who along with his writing partner has written a lot of films with teen lead characters. He very clearly understood what the script was, and gave very specific, actionable notes on how to improve what’s already there. I love how he was able to cut through and really get at the core issues of script, which were mostly the same issues I had going in. Scott is killing the screenwriting game right now. His insights were invaluable.
My second session was with Kyle Patrick Alvarez. We spent a lot of time talking about the main character, her motivation, her relationships, and how she “earns” the big moments/twists in the script. We also spent some time talking bigger picture about the industry and how to build a career in Hollywood, which was very much appreciated. Additionally, it was great getting the perspective of another Latino in the industry.
Both men were truly gracious with their time. I left both sessions feeling inspired!
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
After stepping off Cloud 9, it’s back to the computer and working on a new draft of "Valedictorian." In addition, I will also be tackling a new draft of the pilot version. It’s the same world and characters, but with a different engine that is geared towards episodic narrative. Many of the notes I got from Scott and Kyle apply to the pilot version as well, so it’s like getting two for the price of one!
Finally, I just want to thank everyone involved with putting together the Intensive: Ilyse McKimmie, Michelle Satter, Anne Lai, Shira Rockowitz and everyone at the Sundance Institute who made this possible. I am forever grateful for the experience.
Lotfy Nathan
Project: Untitled Bouazizi Project
Lotfy Nathan’s first film, the documentary "12 O’Clock Boys," played over 50 film festivals worldwide, including SXSW, Sundance Next Fest, Lincoln Center, Viennale, Hot Docs, London, and Copenhagen in 2013. It was ranked 7 in the BFI list of top 20 documentaries of 2013, and garnered Nathan an HBO Emerging Artist award. "12 O’Clock Boys" was subsequently picked up by Oscilloscope for a North American release in theaters, acquired by Showtime for television, and was optioned for a fiction remake by Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment. Nathan is a 2015 grantee of the Creative Capital Foundation, a resident filmmaker at the Cinereach Foundation, and a previous awardee of the Garrett Scott development grant, the Peter Reed Foundation, the Grainger Marburg travel grant, and an Ifp fellowship.
Describe your project briefly and at what stage in the creative process it is. Include details about your artistic vision for this project in particular.
The film is about Mohamed Bouazizi, the young Tunisian fruit vendor whose act of self-immolation sparked the Arab spring. It’s a love story, apolitical (as the subject of our protagonist was); about a young man’s steady undoing, and his final bittersweet act of defiance. The film will be shot on location, with cast selected locally besides the principles, and filmed with an immersive approach.
Briefly tell us about the most important or rewarding lesson you took from the first day of the Screenwriters Intensive Lab. How will this impact the future development of your project?
We were encouraged to draw from very specific personal experiences, prompted by Joan It was incredible to learn these tools, which enable you to tap into vast resources from your own life that you can then apply to the writing- and so vividly. I think the writing exercises with Joan actually stirred a very unusual dream for me that night.
Tell me about your experience during day two and your interaction with the advisors. How important was it for you to get feedback from a professional in the field that has gone through some of the same creative challenges as you?
The advisors were very motivating. I left with pages of notes on my writing, tangible pieces of smart advice that will help inform the next draft.
Now that you've gone through this learning experience, what are some of the next steps you will be taking as you continue to develop your project?
Before getting back to work on the script I plan to do some other writing on the characters.
- 3/28/2016
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The second weekend of “Jane and Charlotte Forever” offers two from Varda, a rare Rivette picture, Serge Gainsbourg’s tribute to his daughter, Zeffirelli‘s Jane Eyre, and a Bertrand Tavernier title, among others.
Museum of Modern Art
Lubitsch, Clair, and Griffith wrap up “Modern ‘Matinees’: Fashionably Late.”
“All That...
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The second weekend of “Jane and Charlotte Forever” offers two from Varda, a rare Rivette picture, Serge Gainsbourg’s tribute to his daughter, Zeffirelli‘s Jane Eyre, and a Bertrand Tavernier title, among others.
Museum of Modern Art
Lubitsch, Clair, and Griffith wrap up “Modern ‘Matinees’: Fashionably Late.”
“All That...
- 2/5/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Read More: Dinner and a Movie (and Drinks!) is the Future of Movie Theaters: Nitehawk Shows How It's Done Short films are rarely consumed by the general public these days, but last night at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn, a full house reaffirmed the unique ability of short films to pack a punch in a succinct running time. The third annual Nitehawk Shorts Festival's opening night boasted an eclectic mix of nine short films, each under 20 minutes, that demonstrate how short filmmaking is a medium unto itself and is truly its own beast. From "The Wolfpack" brothers' family effort "Mirror Heart" to Reinaldo Marcus Green's festival sensation "Stop," the short films proved capable of telling great stories that embrace their economical length instead of being hindered by it. Several of the filmmakers spoke after the screening to share the inspiration for their stories and discuss their experience making their shorts.
- 11/13/2015
- by Tarek Shoukri
- Indiewire
A selection of this year’s Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Stop is now available online, courtesy of Conde Nast’s steaming platform The Scene. As intimated by the title, Green’s short is a very topical examination of stop and frisk policies, told over the course of one evening as a pair of friends are intercepted by the police on their way home, in a display of economical and emotionally weighty filmmaking. Check it out above.
- 4/29/2015
- by Sarah Salovaara
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
A selection of this year’s Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Stop is now available online, courtesy of Conde Nast’s steaming platform The Scene. As intimated by the title, Green’s short is a very topical examination of stop and frisk policies, told over the course of one evening as a pair of friends are intercepted by the police on their way home, in a display of economical and emotionally weighty filmmaking. Check it out above.
- 4/29/2015
- by Sarah Salovaara
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Reinaldo Marcus Green, a native New Yorker developing a real name for himself in the world of independent filmmaking, is a voice to listen to. His latest work, "Stop", premiered in the U.S. Narrative Shorts program of the Sundance Film Festival. A riveting, tension-filled short that studies the uncomfortable details apparent in racial profiling, "Stop" takes place over the course of one night, as Xavier (Keishawn Butler) an African-American teenager living in Brooklyn, makes his way home after an afternoon of baseball practice. Over the course of his trip, he finds himself victim to stop-and-frisk courtesy of two NYPD police officers. Subtle and...
- 4/28/2015
- by Erik Luers
- ShadowAndAct
First Run Film Festival runs April 16th-19th at Nyu’s Cantor Film Center showcasing amongst the best films coming out of Tisch School of the Arts at Nyu. The festival features promising filmmakers short films as they journey towards leaving an imprint with their feature films. LatinoBuzz wanted to show some love to Latino filmmakers representing at this years festival. Remember these names!
Omar ZÚÑIGA Hidalgo – "San Cristobal"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you want to ultimately want to say?
Omar: I became interested in film as a viewer when I was a teenager. I would spend entire afternoons in an arthouse theater in downtown Santiago. I didn't really expect to be a filmmaker back then. But it was clearly an interest. During the years that followed I discovered the passion slowly, I went to a communications undergrad in Chile, and then to Nyu for my Mfa. I don't see myself doing anything else now. I'm interested in the visual language that it has, and also in how emotional it can be. There are themes that I unconsciously come back to, There is no deliberate objective. Every film comes out of an intuition, where I'm at, at that moment in particular. But looking back on my work, somehow I get back to masculinity and how men are taught to avoid showing how fragile they can be, or to people who are in constant movement (which is what I've been doing for the past few years). I seem to want to explore these types of characters.
LatinoBuzz: You are younger than the current wave of Chilenos, and I brought it up with Marialy Rivas and Andres Wood, but they grew up under the dictatorship and I was curious how it affected them as they became artists. What about Chile conditioned you?
Omar: Dictatorship didn't affect me directly. I was born just a few years before it ended, so I don't have clear memories of it. I've only learned about its devastating nature after the fact. There is something eminently Chilean about avoiding confrontation, or about not clarifying the way you feel sometimes. It's a particular culture, where emotions are not discussed as profusely with your family or friends, nor shown in an explicit manner. I believe that's something that's somehow in my work, where people can't articulate too clearly how they feel about things. It is very familiar and natural to me to not have to define so exactly the nature of actions that people take. We don't have that over-analyzing attitude about things.
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Omar: I wouldn't remake a film.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Omar: "San Cristóbal" will continue its route internationally this year. I am also developing a feature project based on the short, and trying to put together its financing. It's always incredibly difficult, but we're trying to make our best. - omar@cinestacion.cl
Paulo Henrique Falsarella Testolini – "Suriname Gold"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you ultimately want to say?
Paulo: I'm not sure exactly how film came to me and why, I guess it was just a natural progression from recording my parents expeditions when I was a kid, playing with the camera in high-school and escaping (as much as I could) the business future my family had intended for me. In the end, film was the best way to put myself into endless adventures, while attempting to tell the world the many stories that can be uncovered on the way. There are always stories out there, tales of bravery from every corner of the world - they can seem so exotic, yet so relatable to our modern society.
LatinoBuzz: Suriname, obviously is not considered a 'Latino' nation but does have a fascinating place in South American - where did the idea to shoot there come from?
Paulo: It was late 2009, the last Sunday of the year, and I sat in my living room listening to the news about an attack in the gold mines of Suriname. It was very weird - though I had grown up in Suriname's neighboring country of Brazil, I didn't know much about the place, let alone its gold and the thousands of lives migrating across the borders in search of it. The more I researched about that fascinating land, the more I craved to visit it and learn about that little corner of the world of which so few people have heard. What I've tried to do with Suriname Gold is reveal a human story within a somewhat hidden world, the characters may be fictional, but their experiences are real. My hope is that viewers will be entertained by the film's sense of adventure, and more importantly, that audiences will learn something new about this complex nation and the continuous exploitation of the Amazon (and the lives taken on the way).
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Paulo: That's a hard one... I would love to make a new version of Disney's "Newsies", more based on the play than the 90s movie. The lead? I've always wanted to work with English actor Jamie Bell, a great inspiration when I was first getting into film. One day, right?
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Paulo: It's been some years now since we shot the short film of Suriname Gold. I've been developing, with the producers, the feature length version of that story, as well as some other scripts that are set in that environment. Once the story reaches the right point, I hope to gather our adventurous crew and cast back together, fly to the Amazon and embark on this journey again. - pht218@nyu.edu
Reinaldo Green - "Stop"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you ultimately want to say?
Reinaldo: Film is still one of the few mediums that you can reach a mass audience. It's an opportunity and a platform to share content with depth, meaning, culture, and value, regardless of genre, to inspire and make people think. Ultimately I want to use the art form to share, inspire and make meaningful change in people's lives. My favorite movies have had profound meaning in my life well past the end credits.
LatinoBuzz: Did the tragic deaths of young males of color propel you to write 'Stop' or is it something that has long lingered?
Reinaldo: The genius of the film has been something that had been brewing for a while. It really came into focus for me with the Trayvon Martin/ George Zimmerman decision. I thought to myself, what if that were me? What if I was walking home at night and a cop stopped me, what would I do if I were in that situation? So, we decided to make a film about it.
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Reinaldo: I'd remake "Drive" with Benicio Del Toro. There's nothing wrong with the original, I just think it'd be a fun experiment.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Reinaldo: The Green Brothers will be making a feature (or two) over the next year, look out for them!
Twitter @greenbrosfilms / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenbrosfilms - rmg412@nyu.edu
Carlos Valdivia – "Writing Lessons"
LatinoBuzz : Why film and what do you want to ultimately want to say?
Carlos: Why not film? I think cinematic storytelling is the most impactful. It has the greatest reach out of any art form. My focus has always been to increase the representation and visibility of people (particularly Lgbtq people and people of color) that are often neglected or completely erased from the big screen. I'd like to do it with empathy and intelligence, but without ever diluting the complexity of individuals and their lived experiences. So I'd say I ultimately want to challenge preconceived notions with authenticity.
LatinoBuzz : How much yourself turns up in your narrative?
Carlos: A lot! With "Writing Lessons" I wanted to recreate a most exciting time and place from my first year in New York, when I moved here to attend Nyu as a freshman. My best friend and I both ended up getting in with a crowd of much older Columbia academics and we were regular guests at their gatherings where we were by far the youngest people. It was very exciting and I was always fascinated by the convergence of young naiveté and older indifference and how people often desire the one they don't have. Young people trying to grow up too quickly and older people who wish to be younger is a central source of conflict in the film. At the same time, I also wanted the film to reflect the experience of being the only person of color in almost exclusively white environments. I purposely had Julian be the only non-white person in the narrative. Julian is fascinated by his professor's world but he will never really be a part of it. I strongly relate to being an outsider with a desire to fit in. Even though race is never explicitly stated in the film, it's clear that he will always be an outsider in this environment. I think this is how race operates in highly liberal environments today, rarely spoken out loud and yet still relevant and highly impactful.
LatinoBuzz : Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Carlos: This is a tough one. Generally, I'm not a fan of remakes. But I'd love to remake Ingmar Bergman's "Cries and Whispers" with Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek as sisters, playing the Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Thulin roles. Maybe Gina Rodriguez can play their dying sister. That would be a dream project.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Carlos: I finished Writing Lessons very recently, so I've only just begun submitting it to film festivals where I hope the film can get some exposure. After that, I'll definitely be sharing it online. Programmers, call me/email me! - carlos.e.valdivia@gmail.com
Fidel Ruiz-healy- "A Band of Thieves"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you want to ultimately want to say?
Fidel: Unfortunately I make films because I don’t know how to do anything else. It’s all I’ve thought about since elementary school and when it came to growing up and picking a career I feel like I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. I think your films grow up with you so what you want to say with them all comes down to what you are currently living through. I think films are inherently influenced by the social and political environments that surround you and its up to the writer to choose how on the nose they want to be.
LatinoBuzz: How important was shooting in Texas? Do you feel it shaped you as a storyteller?
Fidel: The movie had to be in Texas. It’s about the crazy things you do when its 100 degrees outside and creating a lawless playground to play cowboy. For me the only place for that is Texas. When looking up references from old westerns and bank heist movies, I quickly realized that what I was looking for was just locales I saw growing up. After that it was just a matter of finding out how to produce a film in San Antonio from New York, and that’s what we did. In terms of being shaped as a storyteller by Texas, I think everyone is influenced a bit by the city they grew up in. At he end of the day that’s what shapes your image of the world. The people and places you interact with as a kid define your perspective on things, and for me that was growing up around the San Antonio suburbs wanting to live life like I saw in the movies.
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Fidel: It would have to be "Alphaville". It’s one of my favorites. Remaking a Godard films seems like some kind of filmic taboo, so that would make it hard. You would have to get it right or else a lot of people would hate you, (Remember the remake of Breathless? Not very many people do) so finding the way to recreate that film in a modern context seems like a great challenge. As for the lead, I have no idea. Maybe someone from Texas? I’m kind of going through a weird Texas love phase in my life right now, so instinctively I’m leaning towards some Texan faces. But either way, I would have to watch the imaginary casting tapes with my casting director a couple of times to make a final decision. But maybe I would just be forced to make it with talking CGI farm animals - "Alphaville" for kids. Maybe that’s the best approach and one Godard would respect. Mr. Godard if you’re reading this - Just picture this: CGI farm animals as Lemmy Caution and Natacha von Braun.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Fidel: I’m currently writing a feature and developing a short film that deals with the border violence in south Texas. It’s kind of like Blood Simple meets Halloween but in the desert. I’m looking to shoot later this year in West Texas. - fidelrrh@gmail.com
Carlos Arata – "An Evening with Oliver"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you want to ultimately want to say?
Carlos: Film is the ultimate medium through which to tell stories, and when I was younger, it was a way of visually expressing myself. Now, it’s become a way for me to see the world as I did then. When you are young, everything is fresh, magical – you don’t have to have it all figured out. You experience a lot of things for the first time, with a heightened sense of reality…and naivety, too, and it’s wonderful. The world is much more interesting that way. I want my audience to experience the most fascinating version of the world, to feel their feelings in a way they haven’t in a long time, and to look at the world in a way they don’t normally do.
LatinoBuzz: Is there a particular childhood memory you would like to realize in a film of yours one day?
Carlos: I have a distinct memory of being lost in Disneyland at five-years-old. I would like to revisit that experience of roaming the park alone – The feeling of being lost against the backdrop of the "happiest place on earth" interests me.
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Carlos: If I could remake any film it would have to be "The Warriors." I used to and still watch the film all the time, and caught it whenever it played at the nearby art house. It has an amazing vibe, and of course, a story that is still relevant in our day. I’d cast Chris Pratt as Swan, Kid Cudi as Cochise, and Danny Trejo involved somewhere in the mix.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Carlos: I’m developing a feature version of my short film, "An Evening with Oliver," and in the process of writing an animated feature, as well as a TV pilot (and of course, looking for opportunities to produce both!) - carlosaratafilms@gmail.com
Felipe Prado - "Partiu"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you ultimately want to say?
Felipe: I grew up with my mother taking me and my brother Joao (who produced "Partiu") to watch “cult” movies - as we used to call them - during the week; and my father making us watch Scorsese’s filmography with him during the weekend. Quite inappropriate for kids, but it taught me a lot about movies and shaped who I am. I believe in films that make the audience uncomfortably entertained and have people walking out of the theater with their subconscious still in the story. It needs to be breathtaking and bring new perspectives.
LatinoBuzz: Which is the ‘Brasil' you would like the world to see through your lens?
Felipe: A ‘Brasil’ through unpleasant reality based films with characters, personalities and events deconstructed to their core, avoiding the common subjects that have already been over-explored. Certain stories need to be told, but not as many times as it has been done over the last few years. Brazil is much more than “cine-favela” and soap-opera-like comedies. "Central Station," "City of God" and the "Elite Squad" movies are great, but not every Brazilian film needs to be like them. With very few exceptions, in the last few years those were the themes explored by the majority of the films produced in our culturally diverse country. Brasil is desperate for new stories that don’t underestimate the audience.
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Felipe: That’s are many choices, but I would really love to adapt ‘Ashes and Diamonds’ to the current South American political turmoil. There are a few recent cases of assassinations of prosecutors and whistleblowers that could base a great remake. The lead… Joao Miguel, who’s in ‘Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures’, ‘Xingu’ and many other great films. In my opinion he’s one of the most complete actors in Brazil’s cinema.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Felipe: I am currently working on a story of faith and corruption involving money-making mega-churches. I am also working on a feature version of "Partiu" as I created the short in order to explore the subject in deep. This is also my thesis project for Nyu Tisch School of the Arts. - felipe.prado@nyu.edu
You can find screening times and more info at: http://www.firstrunfestival.com/
Written by Juan Caceres . LatinoBuzz is a feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
Omar ZÚÑIGA Hidalgo – "San Cristobal"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you want to ultimately want to say?
Omar: I became interested in film as a viewer when I was a teenager. I would spend entire afternoons in an arthouse theater in downtown Santiago. I didn't really expect to be a filmmaker back then. But it was clearly an interest. During the years that followed I discovered the passion slowly, I went to a communications undergrad in Chile, and then to Nyu for my Mfa. I don't see myself doing anything else now. I'm interested in the visual language that it has, and also in how emotional it can be. There are themes that I unconsciously come back to, There is no deliberate objective. Every film comes out of an intuition, where I'm at, at that moment in particular. But looking back on my work, somehow I get back to masculinity and how men are taught to avoid showing how fragile they can be, or to people who are in constant movement (which is what I've been doing for the past few years). I seem to want to explore these types of characters.
LatinoBuzz: You are younger than the current wave of Chilenos, and I brought it up with Marialy Rivas and Andres Wood, but they grew up under the dictatorship and I was curious how it affected them as they became artists. What about Chile conditioned you?
Omar: Dictatorship didn't affect me directly. I was born just a few years before it ended, so I don't have clear memories of it. I've only learned about its devastating nature after the fact. There is something eminently Chilean about avoiding confrontation, or about not clarifying the way you feel sometimes. It's a particular culture, where emotions are not discussed as profusely with your family or friends, nor shown in an explicit manner. I believe that's something that's somehow in my work, where people can't articulate too clearly how they feel about things. It is very familiar and natural to me to not have to define so exactly the nature of actions that people take. We don't have that over-analyzing attitude about things.
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Omar: I wouldn't remake a film.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Omar: "San Cristóbal" will continue its route internationally this year. I am also developing a feature project based on the short, and trying to put together its financing. It's always incredibly difficult, but we're trying to make our best. - omar@cinestacion.cl
Paulo Henrique Falsarella Testolini – "Suriname Gold"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you ultimately want to say?
Paulo: I'm not sure exactly how film came to me and why, I guess it was just a natural progression from recording my parents expeditions when I was a kid, playing with the camera in high-school and escaping (as much as I could) the business future my family had intended for me. In the end, film was the best way to put myself into endless adventures, while attempting to tell the world the many stories that can be uncovered on the way. There are always stories out there, tales of bravery from every corner of the world - they can seem so exotic, yet so relatable to our modern society.
LatinoBuzz: Suriname, obviously is not considered a 'Latino' nation but does have a fascinating place in South American - where did the idea to shoot there come from?
Paulo: It was late 2009, the last Sunday of the year, and I sat in my living room listening to the news about an attack in the gold mines of Suriname. It was very weird - though I had grown up in Suriname's neighboring country of Brazil, I didn't know much about the place, let alone its gold and the thousands of lives migrating across the borders in search of it. The more I researched about that fascinating land, the more I craved to visit it and learn about that little corner of the world of which so few people have heard. What I've tried to do with Suriname Gold is reveal a human story within a somewhat hidden world, the characters may be fictional, but their experiences are real. My hope is that viewers will be entertained by the film's sense of adventure, and more importantly, that audiences will learn something new about this complex nation and the continuous exploitation of the Amazon (and the lives taken on the way).
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Paulo: That's a hard one... I would love to make a new version of Disney's "Newsies", more based on the play than the 90s movie. The lead? I've always wanted to work with English actor Jamie Bell, a great inspiration when I was first getting into film. One day, right?
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Paulo: It's been some years now since we shot the short film of Suriname Gold. I've been developing, with the producers, the feature length version of that story, as well as some other scripts that are set in that environment. Once the story reaches the right point, I hope to gather our adventurous crew and cast back together, fly to the Amazon and embark on this journey again. - pht218@nyu.edu
Reinaldo Green - "Stop"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you ultimately want to say?
Reinaldo: Film is still one of the few mediums that you can reach a mass audience. It's an opportunity and a platform to share content with depth, meaning, culture, and value, regardless of genre, to inspire and make people think. Ultimately I want to use the art form to share, inspire and make meaningful change in people's lives. My favorite movies have had profound meaning in my life well past the end credits.
LatinoBuzz: Did the tragic deaths of young males of color propel you to write 'Stop' or is it something that has long lingered?
Reinaldo: The genius of the film has been something that had been brewing for a while. It really came into focus for me with the Trayvon Martin/ George Zimmerman decision. I thought to myself, what if that were me? What if I was walking home at night and a cop stopped me, what would I do if I were in that situation? So, we decided to make a film about it.
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Reinaldo: I'd remake "Drive" with Benicio Del Toro. There's nothing wrong with the original, I just think it'd be a fun experiment.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Reinaldo: The Green Brothers will be making a feature (or two) over the next year, look out for them!
Twitter @greenbrosfilms / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenbrosfilms - rmg412@nyu.edu
Carlos Valdivia – "Writing Lessons"
LatinoBuzz : Why film and what do you want to ultimately want to say?
Carlos: Why not film? I think cinematic storytelling is the most impactful. It has the greatest reach out of any art form. My focus has always been to increase the representation and visibility of people (particularly Lgbtq people and people of color) that are often neglected or completely erased from the big screen. I'd like to do it with empathy and intelligence, but without ever diluting the complexity of individuals and their lived experiences. So I'd say I ultimately want to challenge preconceived notions with authenticity.
LatinoBuzz : How much yourself turns up in your narrative?
Carlos: A lot! With "Writing Lessons" I wanted to recreate a most exciting time and place from my first year in New York, when I moved here to attend Nyu as a freshman. My best friend and I both ended up getting in with a crowd of much older Columbia academics and we were regular guests at their gatherings where we were by far the youngest people. It was very exciting and I was always fascinated by the convergence of young naiveté and older indifference and how people often desire the one they don't have. Young people trying to grow up too quickly and older people who wish to be younger is a central source of conflict in the film. At the same time, I also wanted the film to reflect the experience of being the only person of color in almost exclusively white environments. I purposely had Julian be the only non-white person in the narrative. Julian is fascinated by his professor's world but he will never really be a part of it. I strongly relate to being an outsider with a desire to fit in. Even though race is never explicitly stated in the film, it's clear that he will always be an outsider in this environment. I think this is how race operates in highly liberal environments today, rarely spoken out loud and yet still relevant and highly impactful.
LatinoBuzz : Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Carlos: This is a tough one. Generally, I'm not a fan of remakes. But I'd love to remake Ingmar Bergman's "Cries and Whispers" with Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek as sisters, playing the Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Thulin roles. Maybe Gina Rodriguez can play their dying sister. That would be a dream project.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Carlos: I finished Writing Lessons very recently, so I've only just begun submitting it to film festivals where I hope the film can get some exposure. After that, I'll definitely be sharing it online. Programmers, call me/email me! - carlos.e.valdivia@gmail.com
Fidel Ruiz-healy- "A Band of Thieves"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you want to ultimately want to say?
Fidel: Unfortunately I make films because I don’t know how to do anything else. It’s all I’ve thought about since elementary school and when it came to growing up and picking a career I feel like I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. I think your films grow up with you so what you want to say with them all comes down to what you are currently living through. I think films are inherently influenced by the social and political environments that surround you and its up to the writer to choose how on the nose they want to be.
LatinoBuzz: How important was shooting in Texas? Do you feel it shaped you as a storyteller?
Fidel: The movie had to be in Texas. It’s about the crazy things you do when its 100 degrees outside and creating a lawless playground to play cowboy. For me the only place for that is Texas. When looking up references from old westerns and bank heist movies, I quickly realized that what I was looking for was just locales I saw growing up. After that it was just a matter of finding out how to produce a film in San Antonio from New York, and that’s what we did. In terms of being shaped as a storyteller by Texas, I think everyone is influenced a bit by the city they grew up in. At he end of the day that’s what shapes your image of the world. The people and places you interact with as a kid define your perspective on things, and for me that was growing up around the San Antonio suburbs wanting to live life like I saw in the movies.
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Fidel: It would have to be "Alphaville". It’s one of my favorites. Remaking a Godard films seems like some kind of filmic taboo, so that would make it hard. You would have to get it right or else a lot of people would hate you, (Remember the remake of Breathless? Not very many people do) so finding the way to recreate that film in a modern context seems like a great challenge. As for the lead, I have no idea. Maybe someone from Texas? I’m kind of going through a weird Texas love phase in my life right now, so instinctively I’m leaning towards some Texan faces. But either way, I would have to watch the imaginary casting tapes with my casting director a couple of times to make a final decision. But maybe I would just be forced to make it with talking CGI farm animals - "Alphaville" for kids. Maybe that’s the best approach and one Godard would respect. Mr. Godard if you’re reading this - Just picture this: CGI farm animals as Lemmy Caution and Natacha von Braun.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Fidel: I’m currently writing a feature and developing a short film that deals with the border violence in south Texas. It’s kind of like Blood Simple meets Halloween but in the desert. I’m looking to shoot later this year in West Texas. - fidelrrh@gmail.com
Carlos Arata – "An Evening with Oliver"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you want to ultimately want to say?
Carlos: Film is the ultimate medium through which to tell stories, and when I was younger, it was a way of visually expressing myself. Now, it’s become a way for me to see the world as I did then. When you are young, everything is fresh, magical – you don’t have to have it all figured out. You experience a lot of things for the first time, with a heightened sense of reality…and naivety, too, and it’s wonderful. The world is much more interesting that way. I want my audience to experience the most fascinating version of the world, to feel their feelings in a way they haven’t in a long time, and to look at the world in a way they don’t normally do.
LatinoBuzz: Is there a particular childhood memory you would like to realize in a film of yours one day?
Carlos: I have a distinct memory of being lost in Disneyland at five-years-old. I would like to revisit that experience of roaming the park alone – The feeling of being lost against the backdrop of the "happiest place on earth" interests me.
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Carlos: If I could remake any film it would have to be "The Warriors." I used to and still watch the film all the time, and caught it whenever it played at the nearby art house. It has an amazing vibe, and of course, a story that is still relevant in our day. I’d cast Chris Pratt as Swan, Kid Cudi as Cochise, and Danny Trejo involved somewhere in the mix.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Carlos: I’m developing a feature version of my short film, "An Evening with Oliver," and in the process of writing an animated feature, as well as a TV pilot (and of course, looking for opportunities to produce both!) - carlosaratafilms@gmail.com
Felipe Prado - "Partiu"
LatinoBuzz: Why film and what do you ultimately want to say?
Felipe: I grew up with my mother taking me and my brother Joao (who produced "Partiu") to watch “cult” movies - as we used to call them - during the week; and my father making us watch Scorsese’s filmography with him during the weekend. Quite inappropriate for kids, but it taught me a lot about movies and shaped who I am. I believe in films that make the audience uncomfortably entertained and have people walking out of the theater with their subconscious still in the story. It needs to be breathtaking and bring new perspectives.
LatinoBuzz: Which is the ‘Brasil' you would like the world to see through your lens?
Felipe: A ‘Brasil’ through unpleasant reality based films with characters, personalities and events deconstructed to their core, avoiding the common subjects that have already been over-explored. Certain stories need to be told, but not as many times as it has been done over the last few years. Brazil is much more than “cine-favela” and soap-opera-like comedies. "Central Station," "City of God" and the "Elite Squad" movies are great, but not every Brazilian film needs to be like them. With very few exceptions, in the last few years those were the themes explored by the majority of the films produced in our culturally diverse country. Brasil is desperate for new stories that don’t underestimate the audience.
LatinoBuzz: Pick a film to re-make (you have to!) Who is the lead?
Felipe: That’s are many choices, but I would really love to adapt ‘Ashes and Diamonds’ to the current South American political turmoil. There are a few recent cases of assassinations of prosecutors and whistleblowers that could base a great remake. The lead… Joao Miguel, who’s in ‘Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures’, ‘Xingu’ and many other great films. In my opinion he’s one of the most complete actors in Brazil’s cinema.
LatinoBuzz: Where to next?
Felipe: I am currently working on a story of faith and corruption involving money-making mega-churches. I am also working on a feature version of "Partiu" as I created the short in order to explore the subject in deep. This is also my thesis project for Nyu Tisch School of the Arts. - felipe.prado@nyu.edu
You can find screening times and more info at: http://www.firstrunfestival.com/
Written by Juan Caceres . LatinoBuzz is a feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
- 4/16/2015
- by Juan Caceres
- Sydney's Buzz
Condé Nast Entertainment has acquired three shorts out of the Sundance Film Fesitival: "Stop," "{The And} Marcela & Rock" and "Russian Roulette." The news of the acquisition comes off the success of The New Yorker Shorts series. Jed Weintrob, Vice President and Head of Production Condé Nast Entertainment told Indiewire in a statement: "We’re thrilled to introduce The Scene’s viewers to wildly impressive new talents such as Topaz Adizes, Ben Aston and Reinaldo Marcus Green—and it is a validation of our faith that the world of independent film is key to delivering remarkable original content to our audiences." Read More: Exclusive: Condé Nast Picks Up Three Shorts Out of Sundance...
- 1/27/2015
- by Shipra Gupta
- Indiewire
Representing Latin American, U.S. Latino, and non-Latino artists who explore multicultural relationships from singular perspectives, the films at this year's Sundance Film Festival include an array of stories that showcase the diverse creative voices that exist within the Latino filmmaking community.
This list includes both films that have been created fully or partially by Latin American or U.S. Latino filmmakers, as well as those that deal with themes and ideas relevant to the Latino experience in or outside the Unites States, even if these were not created by Latino artists. The increasing interest in these stories testifies to how rapidly Latinos are becoming constant and strong voices in all areas of the film industry.
In order to highlight as many of these talented creators and films as possible, we’ve created a list that includes all the films at the festival that are helmed by or that incorporate Latino talent and those that focus on a specific aspect pertinent to the Latino community. Some are obvious standouts like Argentina's acclaimed dark comedy "Wild Tales" or Colombia's "Liveforever" from Carlos Moreno.
Then there are those who at first sight might not fit the parameters of what one could think is a Latino film. This is the case of films like Eli Roth's "Knock Knock," which is an English-language horror film whose co-writers, producers, and part of the cast are originally from Chile. There is also " Aloft," a drama in the Spotlight section, which is set between Canada and Minnesota and stars Jennifer Connelly. It was written and directed by Academy Award nominated Peruvian filmmaker Claudia Llosa.
The third case includes those films that deal with subjects that have Latino elements or that explore diversity in the U.S in some way. Examples of these are "The Strongest Man" from Kenny Riches, a film narrated in Spanish by its protagonist "Beef," a charming, yet lost Cuban-American man in Miami; or "Cartel Land" by Matthew Heineman, which focuses on the violence shared between Mexico and U.S due to the drug-fueled chaos that afflicts the region. On a lighter note, there are films like “City of Gold” by Laura Gabbert, in which Los Angeles is seen through its ethnic food and local idiosyncrasies.
In an effort to give exposure to those films in the program that don’t get as much attention, the list below starts with the Shorts Programs and ends with the Dramatic Premieres. Each title is linked to its page on the Sundance website where screening times and locations can be found. Regardless of what films you watch at the festival, it is likely that your eyes will be expose to the work of some amazingly talented Latino filmmaker, writer or actor, or those who appreciate our stories as much as we do.
Shorts
"Spring" (Primavera) - Shorts Program 2
Latino Talent: Dir. Tania Claudia Castillo
Latino Theme: The short was created theough Mexico's renowned Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica (Ccc), and it focuses on
Elba, an introverted, lonely 14-year-old, who wants to bond with her sister Fernanda before she leaves home.
"Papa Machete" - Shorts Program 3
Latino Theme: Two hundred years ago, Haitian slaves defeated Napoleon's armies with the same tool used to work the land: the machete. "Papa Machete" explores a martial art evolved from this victory through the practice of one of its few remaining masters.
"Making it in America" - Shorts Program 4
Latino Theme: A Salvadoran immigrant who fled to the United States as a teenager is now a single mother striving to build a future for her family in Los Angeles.
"Stop" - Shorts Program 5
Latino Talent: Dir. Reinaldo Marcus Green, Producer Rashaad Ernesto Green, Cinematographer Federico Cesca, Actors J.W. Cortes and Joshua Rivera.
Latino Theme: A young man's livelihood is put to the test when he is stopped by the police on his way home. Although not specific the Latino experience, the subject matter speaks to recent events involving minority groups and the use of excessive force by police
"Palm Rot" - Animation Spotlight
Latino Talent: Dir. Ryan Gillis Lizama
Latino Theme: An old Florida fumigator discovers a mysterious crate in the Everglades that ruins his day.
"The Sun Like a Big Dark Animal" (El Sol Como un Gran Animal Oscuro) - Animation Spotlight
Latino Talent: Directors Ronnie Rivera and Christina Felisgrau, Screenwriter Bernardo Britto, Producer Lucas Leyva
Latino Theme: This is Spanish-language short about a computer and a woman fall in love, only to be torn apart because of their inappropriate feelings for each other.
"{The And} Marcela & Rock" - Documentary Shorts Program 1
Latino Talent: Dir. Topaz Adizes, Assistant Directors Armando Croda and Sebastian Diaz
Latino Theme: Exploring the intimate spaces of modern-day relationships, this is the best couples therapy session you'll ever witness.
Special Events
Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge
Latino Talent: Directors Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, Marialy Rivas
Latino Theme: Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge presents five winning narrative and documentary short films selected from 1,387 submissions representing 69 different countries.The project was designed to use the transformative power of storytelling to generate discussion, shift perceptions around extreme hunger and poverty, and harness the power of independent film to create a global conversation about these issues.
Sundance Kids
"The Game Maker" (El Inventor de Juegos)
Latino Talent: Dir. Juan Pablo Buscarini
New Frontier
"Liveforever" (Que Viva la Musica)
Latino Talent: Dir. Carlos Moreno, Screenwriters Alberto Ferreras and Alonso Torres, alongside the crew and cast.
Latino Theme: Hovering over the river that segregates Cali, Colombia, into haves and have-nots, a haunting presence identifies a perilous willingness among the populace to do anything that is asked of it. A blonde teenage girl, knowing she must change her life, leaves her well-appointed house and flagrantly gives herself over to this tolerant city, saying "yes" to everything provocative it offers her. Only the music tethers her body and spirit together, even as she reaches for redemption through a bold, delicious, and resplendent self-destruction. Inspired by the 1977 best-selling cult novel by Andres Caicedo.
Park City Midnight
"Knock Knock"
Latino Talent: Screenwriters Guillermo Amoedo & Nicolás López, Producers Miguel Asensio and Nicolás López, Cinematographer Antonio Quercia, Actresses Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas
"Reversal"
Latino Talent: Dir. José Manuel Cravioto, Producers Alex Garcia, Rodolfo Marquez and Daniel Posada, Editor Jorge Macaya, Actress Bianca Malinowski
Spotlight
"Aloft"
Latino Talent: Dir. Claudia Llosa
"Wild Tales" (Relatos Salvajes)
Latino Talent: Dir. Damián Szifrón, as well as most of the cast and crew.
Latino Theme: Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award, this Argentine marvel is conformed of 6 stories about people giving in to their most savage instincts. Forgiveness is out o the question because revenge has never been so deranged and insanely comedic.
Next <=>
"H."
Latino Talent: Dir. Daniel Garcia
"Nasty Baby"
Latino Talent: Dir. Sebastián Silva, Producers David Hinojosa, Juan de Dios Larraín and Pablo Larraín
Latino Theme: Brooklyn artist Freddy (Sebastian Silva) is baby obsessed. His new project centers around newborns, and he and his boyfriend, Mo, have recruited their best friend, Polly (Kristen Wiig), to help them have a baby. On top of dealing with the stress of opening an art installation and the complications of conceiving a child via artificial insemination, the three begin to be harassed by The Bishop, a mentally ill neighborhood man. An escalating series of incidents threaten to derail the comfortable lives these people have built for themselves.
"Tangerine"
Latino Talent: Actress Kiki Kitana Rodriguez
Latino Theme: It's Christmas Eve in Tinseltown, and Sin-Dee is back on the block. Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend hasn't been faithful during the 28 days she was locked up, the working girl and her best friend, Alexandra, embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumor. Their rip-roaring odyssey leads them through various subcultures of Los Angeles, including an Armenian family dealing with their own repercussions of infidelity.
"The Strongest Man"
Latino Talent: Actor Robert Lorie
Latino Theme: Beef is a beefy Cuban man who believes that he is The Strongest Man in the World. He doesn’t want children, but he wants to tell his grandchildren about his life as The Strongest Man in the World. His best friend is a slight Korean man named Conan. Conan makes him think about things he normally doesn’t think, like the fact that Beef thinks in Spanish, rather than English. Illy, the adopted daughter of a rich art collector, brings out an anxious side in Beef. But it is when his prized possession—a solid gold BMX bicycle—is stolen from him that Beef finds and loses so much more than he thought he could.
World Dramatic Competition
"The Second Mother"
Latino Talent: Dir. Anna Muylaert and her cast and crew
Latino Theme: Val is the kind of live-in housekeeper who takes her work seriously. She wears a crisp maid's uniform while serving perfect canapés; she serves her wealthy São Paulo employers day in and day out while lovingly nannying their teenage son whom she's raised since toddlerhood. Everyone and everything in the elegant house has its place until one day, Val’s ambitious, clever daughter Jessica arrives from Val’s hometown to take the college entrance exams. Jessica’s confident, youthful presence upsets the unspoken yet strict balance of power in the household; Val must decide where her allegiances lie and what she's willing to sacrifice.
U.S. Documentary Competition
"Cartel Land"
Latino Theme: In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as "El Doctor," shepherds a citizen uprising against the Knights Templar, the violent drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley—a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley—Tim "Nailer" Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to halt Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border.
"City of Gold"
Latino Theme: As the unabashed cradle of Hollywood superficiality and smoggy urban sprawl, Los Angeles has long been condemned as a cultural wasteland. In the richly penetrating documentary odyssey City of Gold, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold shows us another Los Angeles, where ethnic cooking is a kaleidoscopic portal to the mysteries of an unwieldy city and the soul of America.
"Western"
Latino Theme: In his classic novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens famously wrote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." That line sums up the story ofWestern, the latest film from Bill and Turner Ross, a documentary destined to become a classic itself. Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico, two towns on opposite sides of the border have shared a harmonious history until the specter of cartel violence threatens to divide them.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"
Latino Talent: Dir. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
"Dope"
Latino Talent: Actors Tony Revolori, Michael Flores, Allen Maldonado, Lidia Porto, and Sergio Garcia
Latino Theme: Malcolm is a high school geek with a high-top fade, carefully navigating life in The Bottoms, one of the toughest neighborhoods in Inglewood, California. He and his fellow outcasts share a voracious appreciation for all things '90s hip-hop, opting to sport Cross-Colours and Z. Cavariccis at the risk of being clowned at school. He dreams of attending Harvard, but first he has to make it home every day. When a drug dealer takes a shine to Malcolm and invites him to his birthday party, Malcolm’s crew is swirled into a hilarious blender of offbeat characters and bad choices where redemption can only be found in Bitcoin.
"The Stanford Prison Experiment"
Latino Talent: Dir. Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Actors Moises Arias and Armand Vasquez
Documentary Premieres
"Fresh Dressed"
Latino Theme: With funky, fat-laced Adidas, Kangol hats, and Cazal shades, a totally original look was born—Fresh—and it came from the black and brown side of town where another cultural force was revving up in the streets to take the world by storm. Hip-hop, and its aspirational relationship to fashion, would become such a force on the market that Tommy Hilfiger, in an effort to associate their brand with the cultural swell, would drive through the streets and hand out free clothing to kids on the corner.
Dramatic Premieres
"Experimenter"
Latino Talent: Dir. Michael Almereyda and Actor John Leguizamo
"Last Days in the Desert"
Latino Talent: Dir. Rodrigo García and Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki
"Lila & Eve"
Latino Talent: Producers Tanya Lopez and Priscilla Porianda, Actors Jennifer Lopez, Andre Royo, Marisela Zumbado and Rey Hernandez
Latino Theme: When teenage Stephon is killed in a drive-by shooting, his mother, Lila, slips into a paralyzing grief. She joins a support group for women who have lost children to crime and meets Eve, a woman whose little girl was killed the same night as Stephon. Lila and Eve form a friendship, and Lila begins to crawl out of her depression. She develops a burning desire to find justice for her son, and she presses the authorities for answers, but they are slow-moving and ineffective. It’s Eve who has the idea first—join together, find the drug dealers who shot Stephon dead, and bring them to justice themselves.
This list includes both films that have been created fully or partially by Latin American or U.S. Latino filmmakers, as well as those that deal with themes and ideas relevant to the Latino experience in or outside the Unites States, even if these were not created by Latino artists. The increasing interest in these stories testifies to how rapidly Latinos are becoming constant and strong voices in all areas of the film industry.
In order to highlight as many of these talented creators and films as possible, we’ve created a list that includes all the films at the festival that are helmed by or that incorporate Latino talent and those that focus on a specific aspect pertinent to the Latino community. Some are obvious standouts like Argentina's acclaimed dark comedy "Wild Tales" or Colombia's "Liveforever" from Carlos Moreno.
Then there are those who at first sight might not fit the parameters of what one could think is a Latino film. This is the case of films like Eli Roth's "Knock Knock," which is an English-language horror film whose co-writers, producers, and part of the cast are originally from Chile. There is also " Aloft," a drama in the Spotlight section, which is set between Canada and Minnesota and stars Jennifer Connelly. It was written and directed by Academy Award nominated Peruvian filmmaker Claudia Llosa.
The third case includes those films that deal with subjects that have Latino elements or that explore diversity in the U.S in some way. Examples of these are "The Strongest Man" from Kenny Riches, a film narrated in Spanish by its protagonist "Beef," a charming, yet lost Cuban-American man in Miami; or "Cartel Land" by Matthew Heineman, which focuses on the violence shared between Mexico and U.S due to the drug-fueled chaos that afflicts the region. On a lighter note, there are films like “City of Gold” by Laura Gabbert, in which Los Angeles is seen through its ethnic food and local idiosyncrasies.
In an effort to give exposure to those films in the program that don’t get as much attention, the list below starts with the Shorts Programs and ends with the Dramatic Premieres. Each title is linked to its page on the Sundance website where screening times and locations can be found. Regardless of what films you watch at the festival, it is likely that your eyes will be expose to the work of some amazingly talented Latino filmmaker, writer or actor, or those who appreciate our stories as much as we do.
Shorts
"Spring" (Primavera) - Shorts Program 2
Latino Talent: Dir. Tania Claudia Castillo
Latino Theme: The short was created theough Mexico's renowned Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica (Ccc), and it focuses on
Elba, an introverted, lonely 14-year-old, who wants to bond with her sister Fernanda before she leaves home.
"Papa Machete" - Shorts Program 3
Latino Theme: Two hundred years ago, Haitian slaves defeated Napoleon's armies with the same tool used to work the land: the machete. "Papa Machete" explores a martial art evolved from this victory through the practice of one of its few remaining masters.
"Making it in America" - Shorts Program 4
Latino Theme: A Salvadoran immigrant who fled to the United States as a teenager is now a single mother striving to build a future for her family in Los Angeles.
"Stop" - Shorts Program 5
Latino Talent: Dir. Reinaldo Marcus Green, Producer Rashaad Ernesto Green, Cinematographer Federico Cesca, Actors J.W. Cortes and Joshua Rivera.
Latino Theme: A young man's livelihood is put to the test when he is stopped by the police on his way home. Although not specific the Latino experience, the subject matter speaks to recent events involving minority groups and the use of excessive force by police
"Palm Rot" - Animation Spotlight
Latino Talent: Dir. Ryan Gillis Lizama
Latino Theme: An old Florida fumigator discovers a mysterious crate in the Everglades that ruins his day.
"The Sun Like a Big Dark Animal" (El Sol Como un Gran Animal Oscuro) - Animation Spotlight
Latino Talent: Directors Ronnie Rivera and Christina Felisgrau, Screenwriter Bernardo Britto, Producer Lucas Leyva
Latino Theme: This is Spanish-language short about a computer and a woman fall in love, only to be torn apart because of their inappropriate feelings for each other.
"{The And} Marcela & Rock" - Documentary Shorts Program 1
Latino Talent: Dir. Topaz Adizes, Assistant Directors Armando Croda and Sebastian Diaz
Latino Theme: Exploring the intimate spaces of modern-day relationships, this is the best couples therapy session you'll ever witness.
Special Events
Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge
Latino Talent: Directors Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, Marialy Rivas
Latino Theme: Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge presents five winning narrative and documentary short films selected from 1,387 submissions representing 69 different countries.The project was designed to use the transformative power of storytelling to generate discussion, shift perceptions around extreme hunger and poverty, and harness the power of independent film to create a global conversation about these issues.
Sundance Kids
"The Game Maker" (El Inventor de Juegos)
Latino Talent: Dir. Juan Pablo Buscarini
New Frontier
"Liveforever" (Que Viva la Musica)
Latino Talent: Dir. Carlos Moreno, Screenwriters Alberto Ferreras and Alonso Torres, alongside the crew and cast.
Latino Theme: Hovering over the river that segregates Cali, Colombia, into haves and have-nots, a haunting presence identifies a perilous willingness among the populace to do anything that is asked of it. A blonde teenage girl, knowing she must change her life, leaves her well-appointed house and flagrantly gives herself over to this tolerant city, saying "yes" to everything provocative it offers her. Only the music tethers her body and spirit together, even as she reaches for redemption through a bold, delicious, and resplendent self-destruction. Inspired by the 1977 best-selling cult novel by Andres Caicedo.
Park City Midnight
"Knock Knock"
Latino Talent: Screenwriters Guillermo Amoedo & Nicolás López, Producers Miguel Asensio and Nicolás López, Cinematographer Antonio Quercia, Actresses Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas
"Reversal"
Latino Talent: Dir. José Manuel Cravioto, Producers Alex Garcia, Rodolfo Marquez and Daniel Posada, Editor Jorge Macaya, Actress Bianca Malinowski
Spotlight
"Aloft"
Latino Talent: Dir. Claudia Llosa
"Wild Tales" (Relatos Salvajes)
Latino Talent: Dir. Damián Szifrón, as well as most of the cast and crew.
Latino Theme: Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award, this Argentine marvel is conformed of 6 stories about people giving in to their most savage instincts. Forgiveness is out o the question because revenge has never been so deranged and insanely comedic.
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"H."
Latino Talent: Dir. Daniel Garcia
"Nasty Baby"
Latino Talent: Dir. Sebastián Silva, Producers David Hinojosa, Juan de Dios Larraín and Pablo Larraín
Latino Theme: Brooklyn artist Freddy (Sebastian Silva) is baby obsessed. His new project centers around newborns, and he and his boyfriend, Mo, have recruited their best friend, Polly (Kristen Wiig), to help them have a baby. On top of dealing with the stress of opening an art installation and the complications of conceiving a child via artificial insemination, the three begin to be harassed by The Bishop, a mentally ill neighborhood man. An escalating series of incidents threaten to derail the comfortable lives these people have built for themselves.
"Tangerine"
Latino Talent: Actress Kiki Kitana Rodriguez
Latino Theme: It's Christmas Eve in Tinseltown, and Sin-Dee is back on the block. Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend hasn't been faithful during the 28 days she was locked up, the working girl and her best friend, Alexandra, embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumor. Their rip-roaring odyssey leads them through various subcultures of Los Angeles, including an Armenian family dealing with their own repercussions of infidelity.
"The Strongest Man"
Latino Talent: Actor Robert Lorie
Latino Theme: Beef is a beefy Cuban man who believes that he is The Strongest Man in the World. He doesn’t want children, but he wants to tell his grandchildren about his life as The Strongest Man in the World. His best friend is a slight Korean man named Conan. Conan makes him think about things he normally doesn’t think, like the fact that Beef thinks in Spanish, rather than English. Illy, the adopted daughter of a rich art collector, brings out an anxious side in Beef. But it is when his prized possession—a solid gold BMX bicycle—is stolen from him that Beef finds and loses so much more than he thought he could.
World Dramatic Competition
"The Second Mother"
Latino Talent: Dir. Anna Muylaert and her cast and crew
Latino Theme: Val is the kind of live-in housekeeper who takes her work seriously. She wears a crisp maid's uniform while serving perfect canapés; she serves her wealthy São Paulo employers day in and day out while lovingly nannying their teenage son whom she's raised since toddlerhood. Everyone and everything in the elegant house has its place until one day, Val’s ambitious, clever daughter Jessica arrives from Val’s hometown to take the college entrance exams. Jessica’s confident, youthful presence upsets the unspoken yet strict balance of power in the household; Val must decide where her allegiances lie and what she's willing to sacrifice.
U.S. Documentary Competition
"Cartel Land"
Latino Theme: In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as "El Doctor," shepherds a citizen uprising against the Knights Templar, the violent drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley—a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley—Tim "Nailer" Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to halt Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border.
"City of Gold"
Latino Theme: As the unabashed cradle of Hollywood superficiality and smoggy urban sprawl, Los Angeles has long been condemned as a cultural wasteland. In the richly penetrating documentary odyssey City of Gold, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold shows us another Los Angeles, where ethnic cooking is a kaleidoscopic portal to the mysteries of an unwieldy city and the soul of America.
"Western"
Latino Theme: In his classic novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens famously wrote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." That line sums up the story ofWestern, the latest film from Bill and Turner Ross, a documentary destined to become a classic itself. Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico, two towns on opposite sides of the border have shared a harmonious history until the specter of cartel violence threatens to divide them.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"
Latino Talent: Dir. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
"Dope"
Latino Talent: Actors Tony Revolori, Michael Flores, Allen Maldonado, Lidia Porto, and Sergio Garcia
Latino Theme: Malcolm is a high school geek with a high-top fade, carefully navigating life in The Bottoms, one of the toughest neighborhoods in Inglewood, California. He and his fellow outcasts share a voracious appreciation for all things '90s hip-hop, opting to sport Cross-Colours and Z. Cavariccis at the risk of being clowned at school. He dreams of attending Harvard, but first he has to make it home every day. When a drug dealer takes a shine to Malcolm and invites him to his birthday party, Malcolm’s crew is swirled into a hilarious blender of offbeat characters and bad choices where redemption can only be found in Bitcoin.
"The Stanford Prison Experiment"
Latino Talent: Dir. Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Actors Moises Arias and Armand Vasquez
Documentary Premieres
"Fresh Dressed"
Latino Theme: With funky, fat-laced Adidas, Kangol hats, and Cazal shades, a totally original look was born—Fresh—and it came from the black and brown side of town where another cultural force was revving up in the streets to take the world by storm. Hip-hop, and its aspirational relationship to fashion, would become such a force on the market that Tommy Hilfiger, in an effort to associate their brand with the cultural swell, would drive through the streets and hand out free clothing to kids on the corner.
Dramatic Premieres
"Experimenter"
Latino Talent: Dir. Michael Almereyda and Actor John Leguizamo
"Last Days in the Desert"
Latino Talent: Dir. Rodrigo García and Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki
"Lila & Eve"
Latino Talent: Producers Tanya Lopez and Priscilla Porianda, Actors Jennifer Lopez, Andre Royo, Marisela Zumbado and Rey Hernandez
Latino Theme: When teenage Stephon is killed in a drive-by shooting, his mother, Lila, slips into a paralyzing grief. She joins a support group for women who have lost children to crime and meets Eve, a woman whose little girl was killed the same night as Stephon. Lila and Eve form a friendship, and Lila begins to crawl out of her depression. She develops a burning desire to find justice for her son, and she presses the authorities for answers, but they are slow-moving and ineffective. It’s Eve who has the idea first—join together, find the drug dealers who shot Stephon dead, and bring them to justice themselves.
- 1/21/2015
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Reinaldo Marcus Green, a native New Yorker developing a real name for himself in the world of independent filmmaking, is a voice to listen to. His latest work, "Stop", premieres this week in the U.S. Narrative Shorts program of the Sundance Film Festival. A riveting, tension-filled short that studies the uncomfortable details apparent in racial profiling, "Stop" takes place over the course of one night, as Xavier (Keishawn Butler) an African-American teenager living in Brooklyn, makes his way home after an afternoon of baseball practice. Over the course of his trip, he finds himself victim to stop-and-frisk courtesy of two NYPD police officers....
- 1/21/2015
- by Erik Luers
- ShadowAndAct
Congrats are in order for Shaka King and Reinaldo Marcus Green, whose short films ("Mulignans" and the timely "Stop") made the cut. Here is the final lineup announcement from the Sundance Film Festival, which includes its slate of short films that will be screened there next month. A total of 60 short films culled from a record-high 8,061 submissions were selected. “This year's short filmmakers have broken through their limited time frame with a high level of artistry and story that will resonate with audiences long after each film has ended,” Sundance senior programmer Mike Plante said. The next installment of the festival runs Jan....
- 12/9/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
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