Magic Hour: Carlos Reygadas's "Silent Light"

[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Carlos Reygadas's visceral cinematic sensibility can be felt in every frame of "Silent Light," briefly showcased at New York's MoMA last fall and already cropping up on numerous critical year-end lists (mine included). It receives wider U.S. exposure starting this week at Gotham's Film Forum, thankfully: As with all of the Mexican filmmaker's works, it demands to be seen on the big screen; only an immersive theatrical setting can do justice to such complex visual and aural textures, painstakingly planned camera movements, and sensitivity to light. This holds particularly true in the case of "Silent Light," in which Reygadas tames his more bravura instincts, as rapturously beheld in "Japon" and "Battle in Heaven," resulting in a film no less gorgeous, but more delicate in its beauty.
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SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | American Spectrum: "Once More with Feeling" Director Jeff Lipsky

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Jeff Lipsky's dramatic comedy "Once More with Feeling" tells the story of Frank Gregorio (Chazz Palminteri), a successful psychiatrist, loving husband, and doting grandfather to the two children of his eldest daughter, Lana (Drea de Matteo). When the universe conspires to introduce him to karaoke through both a patient's parent issues and his precocious granddaughter's birthday party, Frank rediscovers a long-suppressed dream of becoming a professional singer.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "The Lost Coast" Director Gabriel Fleming

"The Lost Coast," Gabriel Fleming's second feature as a director, premiered at SXSW last year and has since won the best feature prize at NewFest. The film follows high school friends who reunite for Halloween in San Francisco and confront experiences of the past that no one has yet dared to explore. indieWIRE talked to Fleming about the film, which is now available on Amazon VOD.
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Alive Mind Acquires "Gates" As First Theatrical Release

Antonio Ferrera and Albert Maysles' documentary "The Gates" has been acquired for North American distribution by Richard Lorber's nine-month old distributor Alive Mind. "The Gates," which chronicles the conception and evolution of artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Central Park installment by the same name, will be Alive Mind's first theatrical release. It will open in New York this spring followed by select venues throughout the country. The film will also be immediately available to educational institutions that have been actively seeking it since for its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
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SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | Premieres: "Mary and Max" Director Adam Elliot

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. "Mary and Max" will kick off the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. A claymation animation by Academy award-winning filmmaker Adam Elliot ("Harvie Krumpet"), it tells the simple story of a 20-year pen-pal friendship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle, a chubby, lonely 8-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horowitz, a 44-year-old Jewish man, who is severely obese, suffers from Asperger's syndrome, and lives an isolated life in New York City.
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SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | American Spectrum: "World's Greatest Dad" Director Bobcat Goldthwait

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Director Bobcat Goldthwait's film "World's Greatest Dad" is a dark comedy about Lance Clayton (Robin Williams), a high school poetry teacher who dreams of becoming a rich and famous writer. A single father, he tries desperately to connect with his teenage son, Kyle (Daryl Sabara), an insolent, hormone-raging smartass who defies his dad at every turn. Lance exercises his own hormones with Claire (Alexie Gilmore), a painfully adorable art teacher who may have her eyes on a bigger prize. After a freak accident, Lance suddenly faces both the worst tragedy of his life, and the greatest opportunity. Determined to make lemonade from life's lemons, Lance treads a path that could land him everything he's ever dreamed of, as long as he can life with the knowledge of how he got there.
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Reverse Shot's Best of 2008: "Flight of the Red Balloon" and 9 more

An acclaimed Taiwanese filmmaker working in France; a young Mexican director reimagining a canonical Danish film in an obscure Mennonite community in his home country; a West Coast-based American, enamored of the somber rhythms of the blasted Mississippi delta, miraculously captures them in the kind of American independent film all too rare of late; others from around the globe watching the specificities of home --character, geography, community, and class -- evaporate around them. These were the stories of our cinematic 2008, and we'd be hard-pressed to draw any solid conclusions from them, except that passion for those few terrific films that deserve attention always lives, even in those movie years considered less than stellar. Hou Hsiao-hisen's "Flight of the Red Balloon," it should be noted, was the clear winner, with a lead tally higher than any of the past Reverse Shot first placers. There's nothing outwardly trendy about Hou Hsaio-hsien's heavenly masterwork, but it captured something that feels wholly contemporary: even as it recalls Albert Lamorisse's evocation of France in the Fifties (which also saw a terrific, restored print back in theaters this year), "Flight" locates its timeless grace amidst the stuff of 21st-century living. Digital editing, video games, piano tuning, pinball: all exist in the same continuum in Hou's film. Perhaps it is the perfect movie of the moment. -- MK & JR
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Bringing the Mountain to Mohammed: Global Lens Spotlights the "Underserved"

You may recall some excellent atypical, against-the-grain films that, against all odds, found over the past six years screening venues in the U.S. and Canada. Most would probably never have been viewed in these parts were it not for the efforts of the nonprofit Global Film Initiative, which acquires and distributes around 10 titles a year for its exhibition sector, called Global Lens. The label is a misnomer, possibly even a turn-off... These films are often referred to pejoratively as the runoff from "underdeveloped" countries, or from the "Third World," but truth is, as GFI chief cog Susan Coulter puts it, they are from "underserved" nations. The bottom line, however, is that whether they arise from the First, Third, or Fourteenth World, they are for the most part really good films.
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SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | American Spectrum: "Everything Strange and New" Screenwriter/Director Frazer Bradshaw

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Wayne has a job, a wife, two kids, and a house. He's living the American Dream. There's a fine line, however, between a dream and nightmare, and Wayne finds himself at odds with the life he has and preoccupied by the life he thinks he wants. He floats passively in a swirling sea inhabited by his emotionally unpredictable wife, his out-of-control young children, and his embattled friends, who have demons of their own. As things change for others, Wayne's life takes emotional turns, which are sometimes subtle and sometimes violent but never enough to shake him off the track he doesn't remember choosing. Everything Strange and New Director: Frazer Bradshaw Screenwriter: Frazer Bradshaw Executive Producers: Stephen Bannatyne, Marcia Carver, Willie Mae Webb Producers: Laura Techera Francia, A.D. Liano Cinematographer: Frazer Bradshaw Editor: Frazer Bradshaw, Jesse Spencer Music: Dan Plonsey, Kent Sparling Sound Designer: Kent Sparling Cast: Jerry McDaniel, Beth Lisick, Luis Saguar, Rigo Chacon Jr. U.S.A., 2009, 84 min., color
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SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | American Spectrum: "La Mission" Screenwriter/Director Peter Bratt

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Feared, yet respected, as the baddest Chicano on the block, Che (Benjamin Bratt), a reformed inmate and recovering alcoholic, resorts to violence and intimidation to get what he wants. A bus driver by day, Che lives for his beloved son, Jesse, his lifelong friends, and his passion for lowrider cars. Che and the "Mission Boyz" salvage junked cars, transforming them into classics. Che's macho world is crushed when he discovers that Jesse's been living a secret life. In a violent rage, Che pummels Jesse and throws him out of the house. Lena, an attractive neighbor and a force to be reckoned with, is a woman with a few secrets of her own. Mutual attraction percolates as Lena challenges Che to reconcile the life he thought he had. La Mission Director: Peter Bratt Screenwriter: Peter Bratt Executive Producers: Tom Steyer, Kat Taylor, Dan Nelson Producers: Alpita Patel, Benjamin Bratt, Peter Bratt Cinematographer: Hiro Narita Editor: Stan Webb Composer: Mark Kilian Consulting Producer: John Amaechi Cast: Benjamin Bratt, Erika Alexander, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Jesse Borrego, Talisa Soto Bratt
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SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | Dramatic Competition: "Amreeka" Director Cherien Dabis

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Muna Farah, a Palestinian single mom, struggles to maintain her optimistic spirit in the daily grind of intimidating West Bank checkpoints, the constant nagging of a controlling mother, and the haunting shadows of a failed marriage. Everything changes one day when she receives a letter informing her that her family has been granted a U.S. green card. Reluctant to leave her homeland, but realizing it may be the only way to secure a future for Fadi, her teenage son, Muna decides to quit her job at the bank and visit her relatives in Illinois to see about a new life in a land that gives newcomers a run for their money. Amreeka Director: Cherien Dabis Screenwriter: Cherien Dabis Executive Producers: Alicia Sams, Cherien Dabis Producers: Christina Piovesan, Paul Barkin Coproducers: Liz Jarvis, Al-Zain Al-Sabah Cinematographer: Tobias Datum Editor: Keith Reamer Composer: Kareem Roustom
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SUNDANCE '09 INTERVIEW | Doc Competition: "Art & Copy" Director Doug Pray

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. "Art & Copy" takes us inside a powerful, yet surprisingly unknown, industry to reveal the most influential creative forces tapping the zeitgeist of our time. Think of those commercials we can never seem to get out of our heads. Each one is the brain child of an industry typically associated with pandering and manipulation. Is great advertising actually a rare and rebellious accomplishment more akin to--dare I say it--art? Beginning in the 1960s, a creative revolution revitalized the advertising industry. Bill Bernbach launched the Volkswagen Beetle, prompting viewers to "think small." Dan Wieden coined "Just Do It" and forever changed the way we motivate ourselves athletically. Phyllis Robinson empowered the "me generation" with a Clairol tagline. Hal Riney all but insured Reagan's reelection with heart-tugging TV ads. Mary Wells Lawrence reinvented the big bad apple via her "I love NY" campaign. George Lois gave Tommy Hilfiger the makeover of a lifetime, while Cliff Freeman wondered "Where's the beef?" and Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein asked, "Got Milk?" Renowned documentary filmmaker Doug Pray ("Scratch", "Surfwise") intermingles dazzling footage of TV satellites being launched and billboards being erected with some of the most remarkable ad campaigns of all time. Art & Copy Director: Doug Pray Screenwriter: Timothy J. Sexton Executive Producers: David Baldwin, Gregory Beauchamp, Kirk Souder, Mary Warlick Producers: Jimmy Greenway, Michael Nadeau Cinematographer: Peter Nelson Editor: Philip Owens Music: Jeff Mart
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REVIEW | The Bad German: Vicente Amorim's "Good"

[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Midway through Austro-Brazilian director Vicente Amorim's fascist parable "Good," as student radicals burn books in his university's courtyard, Professor John Halder half-jokingly scoffs at his own literary ambitions, fearing that his novel-writing effort is merely "adding to the pile." Halder, a professor of literature in 1930s Germany, can't so much as get through a Proust lecture without the interruption of loud Nazi rallies outside the classroom (or indeed censures from the dean for teaching a Frenchman).
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iW BOT | Weekend Estimates: Paramount Sees New Years "Defiance"; "Torino," "Waltz," "Wrestler" Get Holiday Cash

Paramount Vantage jump-started the New Year with "Defiance," ringing in an estimated $121,000 from two locations over the weekend, besting the per average screen numbers for the first holiday of 2009. The company reversed course with lower average estimates for "Revolutionary Road," last week's iW BOT topper, though the number of locations increased by over three dozen. Overture's "Last Chance Harvey" took on the beginning of '09 with a healthy five figure average, while both "Waltz with Bashir" and "The Wrestler" defied the economic doldrums, albeit in continued limited release.
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Dead Souls: "Alexey Balabanov's 'Cargo 200'"

[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Alexey Balabanov, the Russian director best known for foisting 1997's blunt, bracing, Yeltsin-era-defining thriller "Brother" upon the unsuspecting world, is back with a film jerry-rigged to reclaim international attention after a fallow decade since that breakthrough.
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AWARDS WATCH '08 | "Waltz" and "Lucky" Take National Society of Film Critics Honors

The National Society of Film Critics weighed in with their picks for the best of '08 today in New York, with Ari Folman's "Waltz with Bashir" receiving the group's choice for best picture. Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" won a number of categories, including best director, best actress, best supporting actor and best screenplay. In the non-fiction category, celebrated doc "Man on Wire" by James Marsh took the nod, adding to its roster of best documentary pics including the National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
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HONOR ROLL '08 | Some of the best of the year

Wrapping up indieWIRE's recent daily series featuring new or previously published interviews and profiles of some of the year's best filmmakers, writers, actors and actresses, a look back at a month of the indieWIRE 2008 Honor Roll.
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iW CRITICS POLL '08 | "Red Balloon" Tops iW Poll of 100+ Critics; "Man On Wire" & "Ballast" Showcased

Hou Hsiao-hsien's "The Flight of the Red Balloon" topped indieWIRE's annual survey of more than 100 North American film critics, which was originally published last week. It was named best film of the year and Hou was singled out as best director in a survey of 105 critics conducted last month by indieWIRE. Written by Hsiao-hsien Hou and Francois Margolin, the film was inspired by Albert Lamorisse's classic, "The Red Balloon." Released theatrically back in April and simultaneously on demand via cable TV, the IFC Films title debuted at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. James Marsh's "Man on Wire," from Magnolia Pictures, was voted the best documentary of the year in the survey.
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