The Little Theatre Rochester, New York

Greetings from The Little Theatre via @constantcontact

2010-08-05T15:59:00.000-04:00

Greetings from The Little Theatre via @constantcontact

2010-07-29T13:35:00.001-04:00

Check out our weekly e-newsletter, now posted on blogger courtesy of our resident Little film geek, Kelly Foster

Greetings from The Little Theatre via @constantcontact

Artists in the Cafe July 24-August 20

2010-07-24T09:00:00.000-04:00

A trio of artists will be showing their work in the cafe: Katherine Weston, Richard Harvey and Michael Harris.

Katherine Weston is a mixed media artist who combines printmaking with painting and collage. Her work teeters between representation and abstraction--graphic form and organic movement. The mysterious quality of her work pulls the viewer in to take a closer look at the subtle nuances she has created by sanding and wiping layers of paint and the inclusion of fabric and other objects in her work.

She is on the steering committee of the Arena Art Group, a member of the Rochester Art Club and a member of the Print Club of Rochester. Her work has been shown in National shows in New York, Chicago, Toledo, Harrisburg, Baton Rouge, Estes Park, Tallahassee, and Rochester. She has won numerous awards for both her printmaking and mixed media art.

In February of this year she took on a new project that consists of the complete renovation of an old building in Brockport. When completed later this year, the 2-story building with it’s new name, A Different Path Gallery, will house an art gallery, a retail shop and her private studio on the first floor. The second floor will consist of 4 or 5 studio spaces to be rented out to professional artists in the area. For more information visit the website: www.DifferentPathGallery.com.

Richard Harvey earned a BFA in Communication Design with a Fine Art Minor from RIT in 1972 and later took graduate work in fine art digital imaging. His fine art pursuits continued alongside a career in graphic design during which he enjoyed a twenty year representation by the Austin-Harvard Gallery in Pittsford NY. The interplay of graphics and fine art remain very evident in much of his work.

The subject matter of Richard Harvey's mixed media work is predominantly human faces or full figures that tend to portray deeply expressive, even haunting, emotional imagery. This quality is also evident in his ruggedly carved, contemporary primal sculpture, which is inspired by tribal masks, rituals and ancient artifacts.

Though the human figure is a constant theme, experimentation in process is a driving force in his work and he thrives on trying a variety of approaches, including the use of encaustic wax, metal sculpture, and imported digital images such as graffiti.

Michael Harris
ARTIST STATEMENT

While leaving the door open to the expressive possibilities of abstraction, my current work seeks to reintroduce imagery into painting. Found images and an attraction to less than conscious ideas begin the process, which is also informed by past experience with printmaking, a love of the paper surface and working methods. Perception of contrasts or dualities in the field of time (peace/turmoil, light/dark, expansive/constricted, rough/smooth, ancient/modern, etc.), provide fuel as the formal elements are explored and balance is sought. Process and search for artistic quality are uppermost concerns in what is sensed as a healing enterprise.

One night only-Herb and Dorothy!

2010-07-20T11:33:00.004-04:00

Wednesday, July 21st at 6:30 pm • Tickets $8.00
Followed by a talkback discussion with Deborah Ronnen (Deborah Ronnen Fine Art) and Douglas Dreishpoon (Chief Curator, Albright Knox Art Gallery). The Little Talkback Series is made possible through support from the New York State Council on the Arts.

About the film

HERB and DOROTHY tells the extraordinary story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to Minimalist and Conceptual Art, Herb and Dorothy Vogel quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb's salary to purchase art they liked, and living on Dorothy's paycheck alone, they continued collecting artworks guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Within these limitations, they proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists including Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, and Lawrence Weiner.

After thirty years of meticulous collecting and buying, the Vogels managed to accumulate over 2,000 pieces, filling every corner of their tiny one bedroom apartment. "Not even a toothpick could be squeezed into the apartment," recalls Dorothy. In 1992, the Vogels decided to move their entire collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The vast majority of their collection was given as a gift to the institution. Many of the works they acquired appreciated so significantly over the years that their collection today is worth millions of dollars. Still, the Vogels never sold a single piece. Today Herb and Dorothy still live in the same apartment in New York with 19 turtles, lots of fish, and one cat. They've refilled it with piles of new art they've acquired.

HERB and DOROTHY is directed by first time filmmaker Megumi Sasaki. The film received the Golden Starfish Award for the Best Documentary Film and Audience Award from the 2008 Hamptons International Film Festival. It has also received Audience Awards from the 2008 SILVERDOCS Film Festival and the 2009 Philadelphia Cinefest. Palm Springs International Film Festival named HERB and DOROTHY one of their "Best of Fest" films in 2009.

Watch a PBS clip as Herb and Dorothy Vogel travel the festival circuit with filmmaker Megumi Sasaki, sharing their passion for art and the story of their extraordinary lives. At museums and theaters across the country they are feted by crowds of artists, collectors and admirers.

Take the Collector Challenge at PBS.

Bios.
Deborah Ronnen is a private art dealer and curator,focusing on modern and contemporary art ,with special expertise in fine art print-making, and contemporary photography. Through Deborah Ronnen Fine Art, she has curated exhibitions of work by Pablo Picasso,Vik Muniz , Alison Saar, Robert Motherwell and Jasper Johns, to name just a few.

She is a Trustee of the Albright Knox Art Gallery where she serves on the Acquisition Committee, and a past Trustee of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, where she also served on its art committtee.

She is a Member of the New York State Council on the Arts, and Chair of its Visual Arts Committtee. She also serves as a Member of the Empire State Plaza Art Commission.

Douglas Dreishpoon is Chief Curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. He has worked in museums for more than nineteen years, as curator of collections at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro from 1995 to 1998, and as curator of contemporary art at the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida from 1991 to 1995. His essays, interviews, and reviews have been published in numerous catalogues, magazines and journals, including Art in America, Art Journal, Art News, and Sculpture. His essay, “Sculptors and Critics, Arenas and Complaints,” was published in Action/Abstraction: Pollock, De Kooning, and American Art, 1940 – 1976 (Yale University Press, 2008). Other recent publications include The Panza Collection: An Experience of Color and Light (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 2007) and Petah Coyne: Above and Beneath the Skin (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 2005). In 2009 he organized for the Albright Knox Robert Mangold: Beyond the Line, Paintings and Project 2000-2008.
He also organized the currently traveling exhibition: Everything: Guillermo Kuitca, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980 – 2008 (Miami Art Museum, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Walker Art Center, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2009-2011) . A former board member of the American Section of the International Association of Art Critics, Dreishpoon holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of the City University of New York

Marlene Logory displays her art in the Cafe through July 23rd

2010-07-01T21:30:00.001-04:00

Marlene Logory has been an active watercolorist for more than 10 years. Her works span reality to abstraction. Drawing and painting were childhood loves. They grew to telling stories while drawing to her own children and those at St. Joseph's Villa, on to grandchildren. Her works have been in several local galleries and she has conducted workshops. She feels her works are a latent enthusiastic display of childhood joy.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work Opens July 7

2010-06-30T20:00:00.000-04:00

"Joan Rivers — where have you been all my life?"—from the NYTimes Review

From the AV Club Interview:

AVC: There’s some conventional wisdom that good comedians tend to come from troubled and angry backgrounds. Do you think this is true across the board?

JR: I think it’s very true across the board. I think anyone who’s perfectly happy isn’t particularly funny. And when you’re very, very happy, you’re not very funny. You’re just happy. I’d rather be damaged and funny because I’ve been laughing for 76 years.

AVC: Some of the funniest jokes in the film are when you’re talking about trying to get out there more often, and not getting the bookings you want.

JR: Again, if it’s a fact of life and you laugh about it, it’s okay. Everything is okay if you laugh about it. And that’s a great weapon. That’s a cliché, but clichés come out of truth. The glass is always half-empty for me, because I say it’s filled with poison. Even now, as everyone is adoring this movie and loving this movie, I keep saying to Ricki, “Yeah, but we’ll see, well see.” But I’m also not stupid. I’m delighted and savoring the moment, too.

AVC: A lot of people are fascinated by the movie, but also wary of seeing it, because they have a very negative image of you going in.

JR: I worked at The Bitter End years ago, owned by a man named Freddie Weintraub, and we all came out of there—Woody [Allen], Bill Cosby, and George Carlin. There was a whole group that was going through there. Peter, Paul & Mary, The Mamas & The Papas; we were all mixed up together. Freddie would stand at the door after the shows and he would listen to the comments, and if people loved the act or hated the act, he brought them back. He said, “That means they have a quality people watch.” When people hate me, that’s good. They know I’m there. You’re not a chorus kid. Remember in A Chorus Line, she’s having trouble and he keeps saying, “You’re standing out,” and she’s trying not to? They hate me? That’s good.

Read the whole interview here.

Exit Through the Gift Shop Sepcial Event-Tues. June 29

2010-06-28T19:30:00.000-04:00

The Little Theatre is excited to screen Exit Through the Gift Shop for Rochester audiences beginning on Friday, June 25th. An exclusive talkback event is scheduled for Tuesday, June 29th, following the 6:30 PM screening. Tickets are $8. The film will have a full theatrical run.

Talkback guests include: The Sweet Meat Co., Artist Collective comprised of Sarah Rutherford, St. Monci, Mr. Prvrt, Lea Rizzo, and Erich Lehman. They will also be holding a free, one night artshow in the downstairs lounge of the Little 1.

“We hope to explore some of the conspiracy theories about the flick and people's reactions—there's so much to talk about in this film; the audience I saw it with earlier this year was definitely buzzing afterwards,” said Erich Lehman, owner of 1975 Gallery and talkback discussion moderator.

About Exit Through The Gift Shop
Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work, on walls and in interview. As Banksy describes it, "It's basically the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed."

About the speakers:
Erich Lehman, Owner/Curator, 1975 Gallery
http://www.1975ish.com

Building on over 14 years of art collecting experience, owner/curator Erich Lehman started 1975 as a means of sharing his love of art and helping others learn how to build their own collections while exposing the countless gifted artists he has become friends with over the years to an audience that might otherwise not encounter them.

1975 Gallery
1975 is a mobile gallery living in a semi-permanent space within SURFACE salon in the South Wedge neighborhood in Rochester, NY. We are dedicated to exposing talented artists to a community that might otherwise overlook them and facilitating the would-be collector. 1975 is born of a labor of love. As with all great love, it needs to be shared.

The Sweet Meat Co., Artist Collective
http://www.sweetmeatco.com

The Sweet Meat Co. is an art collective out of Rochester, NY. We have come together, young artists all navigating our ways through our chosen creative paths, dealing with the distractions of everyday life, of the jobs that pay our way, and feed off each other’s struggle, passion and talent. We seek to celebrate the artistic heartbeat of Rochester and expose its beautiful, raw potential. Together, we play off our mutual loves and skills and grow through exposure to each others' unique specialties.

Micmacs-opens Friday-from the director of Amelie!

2010-06-28T14:25:00.006-04:00

Whimsical Comedy 'Micmacs' is like Spy Vs. Spy on film

“Jeunet has many talents, including a James Cameron-like knack for intricate devices. But he lacks the gift for laugh-out loud humor. Like Amélie, Micmacs is less a comedy than, say, a charmedy.”

Jeunet begins Micmacs with the kind of somber intensity of imagery that distinguished his World War I movie, A Very Long Engagement. In a bravura wordless opening, a French soldier in Africa steps on a land mine; then, thirty years later, his orphaned son, Bazil (comedian Dany Boon, looking like David Niven on a bender) is a video store clerk. While happily watching The Big Sleep, he is accidentally shot in the head by a criminal on the street.

With the bullet still lodged in his brain, Bazil is eventually released from the hospital to earn his meager living as a street mime. According to Anatole France, “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread,” but that’s what this little tramp is reduced to. He decides to take revenge on the CEOs of the two weapons manufacturers who ruined his life. Conveniently, their grand offices are located right across the street from each other.

This sounds grim, but the tone of Micmacs rapidly lightens, becoming more Amélie-like. Jeunet tries to resist creeping Amélization by setting much of the film in a junkyard, where Bazil finds refuge with a quirky fellowship of stereotypical Parisian misfits (including a goateed artist, a contortionist, and a human cannonball). Because this is a Jeunet movie, however, it’s a fabulously French-looking junkyard, the dump of Baron Haussmann’s dreams. Bazil conspires—aided by his ex-video clerk’s grasp of plot twists and his new friends’ reconfigured equipment—to bloodlessly goad the two merchants of death into ruining each other. Countless sight gags ensue—all clever, some astonishing—as multinational corporate technology is outfoxed by old-fashioned French miserliness.

Read the full review here.

Beat the heat Card Locations!

2010-06-28T09:33:00.001-04:00

Our popular summer discount card is back again! It's wallet-sized and loaded with discounts. Plus, you can use it to earn a free movie ticket.

Pick them up at great places all over town:

Right here at The Little!
Great Harvest Bread Co. (Brighton)
B. Younique
Bagel Land
Great Northern Pizza Kitchens (Brighton)
Eleventh Hour Gift Shop
AE SPA
Play Better Golf
Yarn Boutique
Max Market
Murphy’s Law
Boulder Coffee
MuCcc
Geva
Stereo Shop (Henrietta)
Four Walls Art Gallery
Starry Nites
Orange Glory
Gates Public Library
Pagano’s Visual Perceptions
Veneto
Monroe YMCA
Theresa Zink, LMT
Guido’s Pasta Villa
Matthews
DFC
Fratelli’s
Java’s
Spot Coffee
Rochester Contemporary Art Center
East Ave Deli & Market
Havana Moe's
Java's (on Gibbs St.)
Temple Bar & Grille
Metro Salon
Visit Rochester
Wallace Library (RIT)
Eye Candy
Parkleigh
Jines
Camille's
Color Me Mine
Pontillo's
Pita Pit
Jim's Restaurants
Tru Salon
Aladdin's

Help 4D Films!

2010-06-21T15:24:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone, remember 4D4 films that we covered back in January? They are using a crowd-sourcing tool to help finance their next film. Check it out & help them out. Here's the link!

Margaret Lejeune & Jason Flack in the Little Cafe Gallery

2010-06-08T16:23:00.002-04:00

About the Cafe Show
The body of the work at the Little is a collaboration with artist Jason Flack (www.jason flack.com). As photographers living in vastly different landscapes, rural vs. urban, we decided to respond to the imagery that we created photographically 1200 miles apart. The result is a variety of diptychs paired thematically based on texture, color, subject or composition.

About Margaret Lejeune
Margaret LeJeune is an image-maker from Rochester, New York. Working predominately in photographic-based mediums, LeJeune explores issues of constructed gender, sexism, power dynamics and stereotypes. Her work has been exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography, ARC Gallery, Woman Made Gallery and in numerous national invitational and juried exhibitions. Recently Ms. LeJeune was awarded third prize by Roxana Marcoci (Curator of Photographs, MOMA) in the 2010 Curator’s Choice Award at Center for her series The Modern Day Diana. She currently serves as Assistant Professor of Art and the Director of the Kresge Art Gallery at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas.

Springsteen, Rush and The Doors Films Highlight “Rock Week” at The Little in June

2010-06-07T10:00:00.002-04:00

Join us for three top-notch rock films from June 10th-17th!

The Little Theatre has created a cinematic rock festival in June, featuring Bruce Springsteen, Rush and The Doors.

Also, to reward music lovers, The Little will be offering a Rock Week Pass. Once you purchase your first Rock Week Film ticket, you will be given a Rock Week Pass. If you see all three films and have the card punched, you’ll be awarded a free movie ticket to use in the future. Four films for the price of three—the opposite of ticket scalping!

About the films:
RUSH: Beyond the Lighted Stage
Opens Thursday, June 10 at 8:00
2010 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Choice Award Winner

For fans of the legendary Canadian band RUSH, this is the documentary to experience. It’s a comprehensive exploration of this extraordinary power trio, from their early days growing up in Toronto, through each of their landmark albums, to the present day. Sit back and revel in the words, music, and wonder of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart.
Runtime: 106 minutes

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
London Calling: Live in Hyde Park

Three Shows Only! 
Friday, June 11, Saturday, June 12, Wednesday, June 16 at 7:00pm 
Tickets are $15 each with 100% of the proceeds going to support The Little Theatre

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's concert film, was captured in London at the Hard Rock Calling Festival on June 28, 2009 in HD. Watch The Boss spontaneously directing the E Street Band and shaping the show as it evolves in front of an enthusiastic festival crowd.
Runtime: 90 minutes

When You're Strange: A Film About the Doors
Opens Friday, June 11

Historic and previously unseen footage of the illustrious rock quartet provides new insight into the revolutionary impact of its music and legacy. The film is a riveting account of the band's history and the first feature documentary about them. Using footage shot between the band's 1965 formation and Morrison's 1971 death, When You're Strange follows the band from the corridors of UCLA's film school, where Manzarek and Morrison met, to the stages of sold-out arenas.
Runtime: 89 minutes

Schedule
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (106min.)
Thursday, June 10 - 8:00pm
Friday, June 11 - 9:10
Saturday, June 12 - 1:00, 3:10 & 9:10
Sunday, June 13 - 1:00, 3:10, 7:00 & 9:10
Monday, June 14 - 7:00 & 9:10
Tuesday, June 15 - 7:00 & 9:10
Wednesday, June 16 - 9:10
Thursday, June 17 - 7:00 & 9:10
*Regular ticket prices

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
London Calling: Live in Hyde Park (90min.)
Friday, June 11 – 7:00
Saturday, June 12 – 7:00
Wednesday, June 16 – 7:00
*$15-100% of proceeds support The Little (no discounts available)

When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors
Showtimes for Friday, June 11 - Thursday, June 17
Evenings: 7:10 & 9:40
Weekend Matinees: 1:10 & 3:40
*Regular ticket prices

Throwback Thursday is this week!

2010-06-01T12:37:00.006-04:00

Throwback Thursday is a benefit for The Roc City Park: A group of involved citizens and small business owners are working with the City of Rochester’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Human Services and the New York State Department of Transportation to build and maintain a skate park for skateboarders and BMX riders. The Roc City Park (RCP) will be a world-class, public cement skate park located in the city.

About the Event:
We'll be showing a double-header of great skate and speed films that will take you back!
The fundraiser is presented by KRUDCO Skateshop, Etiket Clothing, Thread, The A-List and The Little Theatre. Proceeds benefit the Roc City Park project.

Tickets are $10 each or $15 for both movies and are available at Krudco, Thread and The Little Theatre box office.

Thursday, June 3
6:30pm: Quicksilver
8:45pm: Gleaming the Cube

The Films:
Quicksilver
Jack Casey (Kevin Bacon) is a brash yuppie broker who ends up losing his and his parents' wealth playing the stock market. What's Jack's next move? To drop out of the corporate rat race and become a bike messenger. Jack finds his new "free-wheeling" co-workers to be a diverse bunch, and he especially likes the down-and-out, sensitive Terri (Jami Gertz). But Jack also discovers that Terri and other messengers have an illegal and lucrative sideline delivering drugs for the nefarious drug dealer Gypsy. Can Jack rescue Terri from Gypsy's dangerous grip?

Gleaming the Cube
To 16-year-old Brian, life is an empty pool and a skateboard, until his brother is found dead and it's declared a suicide. Determined to uncover the truth, Brian risks all as he crosses into a world of deceit, contraband, and murder. Christian Slater impresses in one of his first leading roles.

Artist Martin Rogers-in the Cafe through 05/28/10

2010-05-18T14:22:00.001-04:00

Artist Statement
I find it easy to be creative.
However, the only thing I cannot create is....
....INSPIRATION.

From where does it come?
Why does it arrive when it does?
Where does it go?

There.... for but a moment, the image captured, then gone.

Like a gentle breeze, taken back into it's home; the roiling, eternal cosmic storm of all life, creation and thought.

It is far greater than me, the source of this breeze.
For, it is the source of ALL.

Am I using this inspiration, or it, me?
The question hangs, bloated and waiting.

As I use the brush to create, I ponder the concept of myself, perhaps being an instrument in the hand of the true, only, MASTER artist. For, is it not God?

Martin J. Rogers 5-10'

Robin Hood Opens, Friday May 14

2010-05-14T13:00:00.000-04:00

Russell Crowe Interview

A new book published this month claims that Crowe threatened to kill “with [his] bare hands” an elderly producer of Gladiator, whom he felt was underpaying his staff. The book, by Nicole Laporte, also reveals Crowe’s reluctance to deliver the film’s most famous line – “And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next” – telling Scott he thought it to be “s---” before adding, “but I’m the greatest actor in the world and I can make even [that] sound good”.

Today, Crowe is in a rather mellower mood. “As many times as Ridley and I have disagreed on things, we don’t yell at each other; there’s no need,” he says. “We just discuss things and we understand we might not see each other’s point of view all the time, but ultimately by the time we’re standing in front of the camera we’ve collaborated on the decision that we’ve made and what we’re doing.”

Crowe, as always, threw himself into the role of Robin Hood, losing the weight he’d packed on for Body of Lies, learning about English folklore and taking archery lessons. “I had to be able to do the things that he did,” he says. “And obviously his principal skill was with a bow and arrow.”

Read the full interview here.

Letters to Juliet opens Friday, May 14

2010-05-13T16:38:00.001-04:00

Amanda Seyfried's star continues to rise with the release of this week's romantic dramedy 'Letters to Juliet,' co-starring Christopher Egan, Gael Garcia Bernal and real-life couple Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave.

In the film (in theaters Friday), Seyfried plays Sophie, a fact checker for the New Yorker who travels to Verona, Italy (aka the city where Romeo met Juliet) with her fiance (Gael Garcia Bernal) for a romantic pre-honeymoon getaway. But when he ignores her, Sophie is left to wander the city on her own, during which she discovers a wall where people write letters to Juliet asking for her advice about love. To her surprise, Sophie finds a letter dating back to 1957, which leads her on a life-changing journey across Tuscany to reunite its author (Redgrave) with her long-lost love, Lorenzo. But when chemistry blossoms with Claire's grandson (Egan), Sophie is forced to reevaluate her own love life and wonder if he's her true Romeo after all.

See the video interviews here.

The Secret of Kells opens Friday

2010-05-13T16:21:00.003-04:00

Cool fan art page!

Excerpt from an interview with filmmaker Tomm Moore
Moore first had the idea of a Kells-inspired film about a decade ago out of Ballyfermot College in Dublin, as he and a friend formed Cartoon Saloon, their animation company in Kilkenny. Some five years later, "Kells" began to become real when the animated film "The Triplets of Bellville" received an Oscar nod -- and its European producers backed Moore's project. "We kind of got the financing from that Oscar nomination," Moore says. "That was a big boost for us because they signed us as the follow-up."

Another boost was getting acclaimed Irish actor Brendan Gleeson to do voicework -- the filmmakers' first choice. "Brendan was a really early supporter," Moore says. "He'd agreed years ago -- he was making 'Gangs of New York' at the time -- and he probably thought it was never going to happen. But then we went back to him and he said yes."

Read the full article here.

Opening Friday-Babies

2010-05-06T16:04:00.002-04:00

About the Film Babies
A nature film about humans, "Babies" is devoid of political agenda, philosophizing or, for that matter, commentary of any kind.

Visiting with four babies during the first two years of their lives, the documentary tracks their physical development, the blossoming of personality and the ways their cultures socialize them. As a portrait of children who are wanted and loved, it's intimate and often delightful.

Article/interview with the director

360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival opens Wed., May 5th

2010-04-30T09:30:00.000-04:00

360 | 365 interactively engages filmmakers and our audiences in education, discovery, and celebration through the medium of film in all aspects and directions, 365 days a year.

Live. Breathe. Film.

360 | 365 grew out of the very successful Rochester/High Falls International Film Festival. Honoring the past, the 360 | 365 Film Festival focuses a portion of its programming on the achievements of women in all roles of filmmaking. However, the new Festival expands its programming with a wide range of films appealing to both sexes, all age ranges, and all personal tastes. Beyond the Festival, 360 | 365 is a year round conversation that includes short and feature length emerging filmmakers.

Coverage in City Newspaper

Coverage in the Democrat & Chronicle

Schedule & Tickets

Opening Friday-City Island

2010-04-29T15:04:00.002-04:00

About the Film:

Andy Garcia’s Career High Turn as a Family Man with Secrets Makes City Island the Year’s Best Acted Film

By Lee Shoquist

City Island, the new family comedy starring Andy Garcia as the patriarch of a Bronx family wrestling with long-buried secrets, is the best family movie in ages and a labor of love for the star, who also produced the low-budget, independent feature.

As Vinnie Rizzo, a prison guard who secretly dreams of being an actor and undergoes a chance encounter with a son he abandoned, the actor deftly balances comedy and pathos as he comes to terms with the responsibilities of an adult man—to others and to himself.

Vinnie Rizzo is as complex a character as Garcia has played, which is really saying something considering my favorites on his resume—Oscar-nominated, hair-trigger Vincent Corleone in The Godfather III, husband to alcoholic Meg Ryan in When a Man Loves a Woman, cop crusading for justice in Internal Affairs and wet behind the ears journalist chasing a serial killer in The Mean Season. Expert, each of them. Yet in City Island, which may just be his best, the actor is perfectly pitched in a performance that is symphonic in its notes and dimensions of fatherhood and manhood. To say the character resonates deeply by the film’s climactic street corner blow-out between all parties is an understatement.
Read the full article here.

An Interview with Andy Garcia
How did you get involved with the movie in the first place?

Ray [De Felitta, the director] had it before me, trying to get it made, and he was having difficulties. It came to me through our mutual PR agency... someone suggested, 'Hey, what about Andy?' and he said, 'Why not?' At least I hope that's what he said. You'd have to ask Ray about whether he really wanted me or not. Regardless, I fell in love with the script, and I told him that I'd help him produce it, too.

What was it like playing prison guard Vince?

I loved Vince Rizzo. I love the fact that this character was put in these farcical situations, but they were all based in a very real, human emotional reality. You'll note that there are no jokes in the movie, it's all behaviour and situational. He has this private, deep-rooted painful dream of being an actor, and he's so embarrassed by it. His obsession with [Marlon] Brando too, which is something I brought to the script, is very charming. It's easy to fall in love with him.

Read the full interview here.

Walk the Dream with local filmmaker Blake Wink

2010-04-19T08:30:00.001-04:00

Blake Wink and his team of local filmmakers are about to embark on a really fun project—let's let him describe it in his own words!

1. Blake, tell us about the Walk the Dream project?
Walk the Dream is a feature length documentary about pursuing your dreams. Three film makers including myself, Dan Petracca and Josh VanBuskirk along with still photographer Sara Klem will walk from New York City to Los Angeles in search of our dreams. While walking we will interview people we meet about their dreams. I firmly believe that everyone we encounter has a passion, whether they pursue it or not. We're hoping to learn why people follow their dreams and how they become successful. There is also a lesson to learn from those who have tried to achieve their dreams and failed. Hopefully we'll be able to find insight into how we can succeed on our own path. Once we reach L.A. we will pitch scripts we have written while on the road and a picture book to attempt to secure future jobs in our respective fields. Ultimately, we hope to make a finished product that inspires those who watch it to follow their dream in life no matter what stands in their way.

2. How did it start? How will you pull it off?
Last August I was working a day job assembling medical equipment and daydreaming about what films I could make and where I should start. I used to listen to the radio for 8 hours a day to make the day pass by faster. I heard an interview with this guy who had walked across the country. He had an amazing story but he didn't document it. I thought, 'I can walk across the country!' But I needed a storyline which is where dreams came in.

Most people find walking across the entire country daunting. I have to admit making a good feature documentary seems far more difficult to me. I needed three things to pull it all off. First I needed a very dedicated team who where willing to commit over a year of their lives to this project. I recruited three producers and four walkers (including myself) from friends I've known over twenty years as well as people I had met very recently at Rochester Movie Makers meetings.

We now needed a great plan about how to execute this project. We've spent the past seven months in pre-production—planning everything from our walking path to contacting thousands of news outlets to create publicity. Of course, we've also been in the gym for 8+ hours a day. The last thing we need to pull this off is money. It's something we're still struggling with—like all film makers. We are partnered with Rochester Movie Makers which allows us to take tax-deductible donations through our websites. It seems trivial, but we're asking everyone we meet for five dollars. We may have to beg for food or do odd jobs to get all the way across the country. But sacrifice is something you need to be willing to do to make your dreams come true—and our dream is to make this film.

If you would like to donate to Walk the Dream you can visit:
www.walkthedreamusa.com
www.rochestermoviemakers.org
www.facebook.com/walkthedream

3. What is your personal take on film making in Rochester?
Film has such a rich history in Rochester, from George Eastman to Kodak. Yet, we're lucky to have a handful of feature films made in Rochester each year. I've only been working on films for five years now but I've seen a positive change in the atmosphere. Organizations such as Rochester Movie Makers encourage people who are interested in learning about film to get out there and make something.

They're really the grassroots Rochester needs to show people you don't have to own a million dollars of film equipment to tell a great story. On a larger scale, we're starting to see more financed feature length films being made here to support jobs in the film industry. There is also a film studio being built in the old Rochester Tech Park which offers the opportunity for larger motion pictures to be filmed here. Overall, I believe Rochester has the potential to cultivate an innovative film scene. If one of my bigger dreams comes true I'll be able to make feature films in Rochester for the rest of my life.

4. What's your dream film project?
It's cheesy but I think every film project is a dream to its creator. I don't know if most people think of movies as art, but the creators who spend years of their life to create two hours certainly do. There is one script I've been thinking of for years now that I'm very excited about trying to make. I'm interested in doing an ensemble piece with interweaving stories.

P.T. Anderson is one of my favorite directors and I admire the way he moves you fluidly through sequences in films like Boogie Nights and Magnolia. Many people say these types of scripts are cheap writing because you're only putting together a few shorts. However, I think there is an elegance in how they're related that can lend a lot of meaning to a film. I'm interested in using this to show how some of the characters within my script influence the lives of others in serious ways without intending too. The idea that I can show someone making a good-intentioned, well-rounded moral decision with an objectionable outcome they may not even be aware of fascinates me. One of life's mysteries to me is our complete lack of knowledge about how our actions affect others; and how our misunderstanding of events can shape our opinions and viewpoints. These will certainly be themes I play with a lot within my dream project.

5. What have your previous film experiences been like?
I've worked on mostly feature films shot in Rochester. There is really nothing like working on films. During production you frequently spend your entire waking life on a film set. The first film I worked on had a typical workweek of at least 84 hours. It can be difficult because you have to sacrifice your personal life for the duration of a film—so surrounding yourself with understanding friends, family and significant others is extremely important. The truth is, no matter how stressful or nerve-wracking a film can be, I might take time off; but in the end I wouldn't want to do anything else with my life.

Artist Bernie Lehmann is showing in the cafe

2010-04-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

Bernie Lehmann is a professional guitar builder who has been painting since he was inspired by a trip to Europe in 1994.

Color itself is often the subject of his recent paintings and the theme is often landscape.

He received a Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University in 1972 and has been a member of the Rochester Art Club and the Penfield Art Association.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens Friday, April 16

2010-04-15T15:20:00.002-04:00

About the film
LA Times Critic’s pick!

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vanger’s are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is based on the trilogy of books by Stieg Larsson and has sold over 7 million copies worldwide.

Interview: Actress Noomi Rapace

Lisbeth Salandar, she’s such a prominent, well fleshed out character in the book, so I was curious about your and [director] Niels Andres Oplev’s collaborative process when you were trying to figure out how to play Lisbeth on screen?
Noomi Rapace: I always try to use myself and dig for myself as much as I can. I don’t like to pretend things. I don’t like to fake things. I have to fully understand the person that I’m going to be in a way and then translate experiences and feelings and emotions and things I’ve gone through into her. I read the book a couple of years before so when I met Niels I had a pretty clear picture of who I thought Elisabeth was, and I said to him that if you want me to play her, I think I know who she is and I want to transform into her and do a lot of things to become her. I wanted to change my body. I wanted to be a little bit more masculine and get rid of my female body. I wanted to be more like a boy. I wanted to be able to do all the fighting scenes, so I wanted to go into martial arts training. I trained a lot in Thai boxing and kickboxing with this crazy Serbian guy five days a week. I did a lot of preparation, and I also took motorcycle driving lessons, and I cut my hair and pierced myself.

Read the full article here.

Date Night, opening Friday, April 9th

2010-04-09T11:45:00.000-04:00

About the film:

This action comedy tells the tale of mild-mannered married couple Phil (Steve Carell) and Claire (Tina Fey) who fear their relationship may be falling into a stale rut. During their weekly date night, they impetuously steal a dinner reservation, which leads to a case of mistaken identity. Turns out the reservation was for a pair of thieves, and now a number of unsavory characters want Phil and Claire killed. If they can survive a wacky life-threatening night, they may just rediscover the passion missing from their marriage. Directed by Shawn Levy. Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, and Rochester's own Kristen Wiig co-star.

Interview with Tina Fey, Steve Carell and director Shawn Levy:

Q: Tina, once they took your bag away, you didn’t have any props, but you did a great job ad-libbing. How hard was that?

Tina Fey: Thanks. Yeah once I lose my purse and coat, it was just me and my arms and the night. Just my bare arms.

Shawn Levy: I feel like we thought about…it was always what are the arms and hands doing in every scene?

Tina Fey: And I was trying to hide my arms behind like a doorjamb. The only thing they didn’t take was my heels. They didn’t take my high heels.

Shawn Levy: That’s right, because of course you would keep your high heels on as you are running for your life. Always.

Q: Did you wear the heels all the time?

Tina Fey: I mean, I took them off when we were in the car sometimes. You know I would cheat a little bit. And I think we had several sets. We had this sort of grandma set and a higher set and then the higher set.

Shawn Levy: Anytime Tina ran it was an inch and a half but with an athletic strap that went across the top of the foot.

Tina Fey: There was a steel reinforcement in the heel…but really Steve built all those shoes for me. He is also a cobbler.

Steve Carell: I am.

Read the full interview here.

The Runaways, opens Friday, April 9

2010-04-09T10:00:00.000-04:00

About the Film
Of all the bands to come out of the 1970s Los Angeles music scene, The Runaways are by far the most uniquely fascinating. This is partially due to their music but more so to the fact that they were teenage girls whose wild and reckless lifestyle was the stuff of legend.

Focusing on the duo of guitarist/vocalist Joan Jett and lead vocalist Cherie Currie as they navigate a rocky road of touring and record-label woes, the film chronicles the band's formation as well as their meteoric rise under the malevolent eye of an abusive manager.

Acclaimed video artist Floria Sigismondi directs from her own script, and her luscious camerawork captures every sweaty detail—from the filthy trailer where the women practice to the mosh pits of Tokyo. What really makes the film cook are the sizzling performances by Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart. Not to be missed, The Runaways is an ode to an era and a groundbreaking band.—from the Sundance Film Festival Notes

Interview with Cherie Currie:
So, is it strange having Dakota Fanning play you in a film?

Cherie Currie: Literally, it's like I am in a dream and I am not waking up. It is that surreal and that out of this world. I am literally living a dream. I feel like I'm dreaming right now. I keep waiting to wake up and I am not waking up. It's truly that unbelievable. I just can't comprehend it.

Read the whole interview here.

The Art of the Steal Opens Friday, April 9

2010-04-08T13:56:00.002-04:00

About the film:

The Art of the Steal plays like a thrilling whodunit as it seeks to solve what happened to the world-renowned Barnes art collection, valued in the “billions and billions.” The collection's unrivalled holdings of post-impressionist and early modernist art are staggering in quantity: 181 paintings by Renoir, 69 by Cézanne, 59 by Matisse and 46 by Picasso, including many masterpieces.

Dr. Albert Barnes was a self-made man with a well-trained eye who assembled the art in the twenties. He snubbed the provincial elites in his hometown of Philadelphia by housing the collection in the suburb of Merion, Pennsylvania. Rather than grouping canvases by artist or era as in a typical gallery, he displayed work in an idiosyncratic way to express his own aesthetic vision. Barnes was more concerned with educating serious students in his vision than reaching casual tourists, so he restricted attendance and refused to loan paintings to other institutions. His individualism earned him antagonists (notably Walter Annenberg, publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer) but also many loyal supporters.

Upon Barnes's death in 1951, his will gave control of the collection to the trustees of Lincoln University, the first black university in the United States. Eventually, lawyers and business people swarmed to exploit its resources. In the nineties, a sampling of the collection travelled the world on a multi-city tour (including Toronto). Then a scheme was hatched to permanently remove the collection from Merion that some would later call the heist of the century.

Director Don Argott previously made the endearing documentary Rock School about another iconoclastic educator from Philadelphia. In The Art of the Steal, the filmmaker deftly adopts an investigative approach to unravel the complicated politics and personalities that determined the fate of the Barnes collection. Drawing upon research from John Anderson's book Art Held Hostage, the film tantalizes us with the sumptuous imagery of the paintings, and features interviews full of intense conflicting opinions.

The story is full of twists, turns and double-crosses. Along the way, multiple questions are raised: How is art best served? Should it be reserved for true connoisseurs or made available to the most eyeballs possible? And who decides?—From the film notes of the Toronto International Film Festival

Interview with the director:

So how did you go from documentaries about rock music and the NFL Draft to one that details the intricacies of the museum world? This film came to us from Lenny Feinberg, the executive producer. He’s a gentleman who lives in the Philadelphia suburbs. Being from this area you don’t have to go very far to get peoples’ take on the Barnes. The story stuck with him, and he was itching to tell it. He found us through [Genevieve Jolliffe’s] The Documentary Filmmakers’ Handbook, which [producer] Sheena [Joyce] and I were interviewed for. He just called us up. I knew a little about the [Barnes Foundation] and the more we delved into it, the more I thought it was an incredible story. We would be the first to tell this story from the ground up. There is a ton of misinformation out there.

Read the whole interview here.

Fish Tank Opens Friday, April 2nd

2010-04-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

Fish Tank is a British drama film directed by Andrea Arnold. The film won the Jury Prize at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. It also won the 2010 BAFTA for Best British Film.

About the Film
A mother and daughter find themselves locked in an ugly battle over the same man in this drama. Mia Williams (Katie Jarvis) is 15 years old and lives in a shabby apartment block with her mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing), and younger sister, Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths). Mia is a reckless and rebellious teenager who frequently argues with her mother and sister and has run afoul of the authorities at school, leading to her being suspended.

With plenty of time on her hands, Mia spends her days drinking when she can find alcohol and partying in a empty flat near her apartment. Joanne is a single mother, and she's begun dating a new man, Connor (Michael Fassbender); when Joanne brings him home to meet the girls, Mia is immediately attracted to him, and it's soon clear Connor feels the same way about her. Mia attempts to seduce Connor to take him away from her mother, and when she succeeds, Joanne's greatest anger is not with the man who has slept with her underaged daughter, but the girl who is now a rival for the affections of her lover.

An Interview with the Director:
LW: First off, one of the things that most impresses me is how concise and precise the images are in your films. You say everything you need to say within the least amount of frames. Obviously a lot of people are going to think of the kitchen sink realism of Loach and Leigh but there’s also a poetic, nearly Neorealist quality to your work. Can you talk a bit about your filmmaking influences?

AA: Ooh, I have quite a lot. Everyone from Terence Malick to the Dardenne brothers to David Lynch, Michael Haneke –

LW: “The White Ribbon.” Everyone hated it but me. (laughs)AA: Yeah, I saw it at Telluride. I don’t know if I was just in a funny mood that day, but it was the first time during a Haneke film that I wanted to leave the cinema.

LW: That’s good!
AA: Yeah, I know. He wants me to feel that way.

LW: Well, you direct in a similar way. I mean, you don’t have a comfortable filmmaking style at all. That seduction scene between older man Connor played by Michael Fassbender and Katie Jarvis’s teenage Mia, which is the centerpiece of “Fish Tank” – that’s damn hard to watch.AA: Yeah, one of my friends described it as “everything I didn’t want and everything I wanted.”

Read the full interview here.

Music & Art in the Cafe for April

2010-04-01T15:57:00.003-04:00

April Music Schedule

Monday: Brad Batz Group

Wednesday: The Margaret Explosion

Thursday: Miche Fambro

Friday: Watkins and the Rapiers

Saturday: Nancy Perry

Art
Bernie Lehman

A Prophet Opens Friday, April 2

2010-04-01T08:00:00.001-04:00

About "A Prophet" (from The Boston Globe review):
In most prison movies, anticipation is a survival skill. How long until I’m paroled? How long until I’m jumped? How long until I’m dead? In Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet,’’ waiting runs a distant second to watchfulness. Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) puts his little brown eyes everywhere he can. He studies the fraught dynamics between his Corsican protectors and the Africans and Arabs in the prison yard. He observes how the Corsicans interact and learns their endangered species of a language. Malik is a young recidivist thug, serving his first adult stint in a French penitentiary for assaulting the police. This time he elects to give himself a Sorbonne-level education in cunning. Read the full review here.

A Prophet – Lead Actor Tahar Rahim interview

Did you do any other kind of research for the role?
I saw a lot of documentaries, and I saw movies and photos and I talked with ex-prisoners. But this only helped me for the second part of the movie. For the first part I had to forget all this to find another way of working with Jacques and talking and trying to think about the situation, the character and the way he acts at this moment. Malik was a virgin to the prison, so I am too. That’s why I discovered the set the first day of shooting. I knew that this could help me.

Which films inspired you most?
Mainly foreign jail movies. One I remember in particular was a film by Brazilian director Hector Babenco called Pixote. I watched those movies because I thought it could help me, but it wasn’t exactly like that.

Read the full interview here.

Chloe opens tonight

2010-03-26T08:00:00.003-04:00

About the film
An untrusting wife attempts to prove that her husband is cheating by hiring an escort to seduce him, inadvertently endangering her entire family in the process. Catherine (Julianne Moore) is a respected doctor, and her husband, David (Liam Neeson), is a dedicated music professor. They've been married for years and have a teenage son together, but lately the passion has faded from their romance. The morning after David misses his flight home -- and the elaborate surprise birthday party Catherine had planned to celebrate his return -- Catherine finds a text message on his phone that leads her to believe her husband is sleeping with a female student. Her suspicions grow over the following weeks, and when Catherine has a run-in with an escort named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried), she hires the ravishing blonde to test her husband's fidelity. After each encounter with David, Chloe reports back to Catherine with all the sordid details. But the further the experiment goes, the less clear Chloe's motivations for taking part in it become, and the more the untrusting wife begins to fear that the situation has spiraled out of control. Directed by Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Ararat), this erotic thriller is a remake of Anne Fontaine's French film Nathalie..., and was adapted by Erin Cressida Wilson.

Interview with Amanda Seyfried
Q: What were you attracted to with this film, and were you worried about doing the more intimate scenes?

Amanda: I was worried that I wasn’t capable of actually being able to nail them the way it was written and also the way Atom [Egoyan] wanted it to be played. It’s the study of a marriage. It seems like it’s never easy. It’s about a woman coming into this place where she feels like she’s lost and she doesn’t know exactly who she is anymore. I think it’s just so realistic and the way things happen is just so unexpected. I’ve never seen that before, in a movie. For me, it’s also a character that wouldn’t come around very often, for someone my age.

Read the full interview here.

Greenberg opens Friday

2010-03-25T16:53:00.002-04:00

About the film
A fortysomething New Yorker in the throes of a midlife crisis falls for his brother's assistant while house-sitting for his sibling in Los Angeles. Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) is single and jobless. He's at a crucial crossroads in life when his successful family-man brother summons him to Los Angeles to housesit for six weeks. Recognizing the opportunity to turn over a new leaf in a new city, Greenberg reaches out to his former bandmate Ivan (Rhys Ifans) and discovers that some old wounds aren't so quick to heal. When Greenberg meets his brother's pretty assistant, Florence (Greta Gerwig), a kindred spirit who longs to become a singer, he vows not to become too attached. But the more time Greenberg spends with Florence the more he begins to wonder whether he might have finally made a connection worth keeping. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Brie Larson co-star in a climacteric comedy drama from Oscar-nominated writer/director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding).

Interview with Ben Stiller

So how would you describe Roger Greenberg?

BS: He's somebody you don't often see in movies. Which is a guy who's obviously flawed, but is really trying to do the best he can in life. And I think a lot of us can identify with that daily struggle, of just trying to get through the day, with your ego intact and your sense of self.

And then having to deal with the thousands of things that chip away at you in life, as you're trying to make your way. And I think there's really something noble in that. Because I felt this character was really courageous, in just trying to get through his life, you know? And trying face himself. And that's a scary thing.

You know, there are a lot of people in my life, who have not been as fortunate as myself in having any sort of material success, or acknowledgement of what they do. But they're still very talented. People who have a lot to offer, but have just not been lucky enough to have that success.

It's not life and death struggles like, you know, having to fight a dragon, or what you see in movies all the time. It's just people trying to get through life. And deal with their choices, and the mistakes they've made in their life. And then to still go forward. And there are parts of that in people I know, and parts in myself.

Read the full interview here.

North Face opens Friday

2010-03-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

With the Nazis looking to assert themselves on the world stage in the lead-up to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, it became newly appealing for the Germans to conquer the infamous Eiger mountain face, alternately called “the last great problem of the Alps” or, more bluntly, “the Murder Wall.”

In spite of an attempt that ended in tragedy less than a year earlier, two cocky Alpine mountaineers, Toni Kurz and Andi Hinterstoisser, were cajoled into scaling the wall, which among other things would earn them a significant honor at the Games.

Every scene on the eponymous wall is tense and riveting, capturing the bruising physicality and constant danger of going straight up an unstable rock, helpless against the possibility of avalanches or sudden blizzards. Read the full article here.

The Ghost Writer opens Friday

2010-03-18T16:00:00.000-04:00

From Peter Travers' Rolling Stone review:

The Ghost Writer, based on the Robert Harris bestseller, shows Polanski in brilliant command of a political thriller that ties you up in knots of tension while zinging politics and showbiz like two sides of the same toxic coin.

Polanski, who won a 2002 Oscar for the Holocaust-themed The Pianist, is in a playful, prickly mood here that recalls his early work on Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown. Ewan McGregor grabs and runs with his juiciest role in years as the Ghost, a writer hired to pen the memoirs of Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), the unseated British prime minister now taking refuge in America after being accused of war crimes back home. Any resemblance between Lang and Tony Blair seems purely intentional, since Harris, who wrote the script with Polanski, is on the record as becoming disillusioned with Blair after the PM allegedly teamed up with President Bush to hand over suspected terrorists for torture by the CIA. One reviewer of Harris’ book cheekily labeled it The Blair Snitch Project.

Interview with a real-life ghost-writer:
Have you ever wondered exactly what a ghostwriter does, and how s/he makes a living doing it? Perhaps you are thinking of hiring a ghostwriter. Or perhaps you are thinking of becoming a ghostwriter. Or perhaps you're just curious. Whatever. Check out this interview with "a real, live" ghostwriter -- you'll find it interesting...

In this interview, veteran ghostwriter Clifford Thurlow describes some of his experiences and the challenges he has faced. He also gives some valuable advice both to aspiring ghostwriters and to those who may be considering using a ghostwriter.

Read the full interview here.

The Little Presents Climber Kevin Flynn—One of Only 30 Americans to Scale the Seven Summits

2010-03-18T13:27:00.001-04:00

The Little Presents Climber Kevin Flynn—One of Only 30 Americans to Scale the Seven Summits
His epic 14-year journey covered over 90,000 miles and 130,000 vertical feet–and that’s just on the way up!

The Little Theatre is proud to share the story of locally-based climber Kevin Flynn, who has reached the top of the highest peaks on each continent. He is now a member of an elite group of only about 90 people (30 Americans) worldwide to ever achieve this feat.

He has written about his experiences in a book titled, Mount Everest: Confessions of an Amateur Peak Bagger. Come hear about his big climbs—and near-death experiences—in a talkback on Saturday, March 20th, following the 6:30 PM screening of “North Face”.

Literacy Volunteers of Rochester Interview with John Williams

2010-03-15T06:00:00.001-04:00

Today we are speaking with John Williams, Development Director at Literacy Volunteers of Rochester.

1. John, tell us a little bit about Literacy Volunteers.

Literacy Volunteers of Rochester, Inc. (LVR) is an organization of trained volunteers, dedicated to providing one-to-one or small group tutoring to functionally illiterate adults and English instruction for speakers of other languages in the greater Rochester, New York area.

LVR , which is 45 years old, provides assistance to both non-native speakers and native speakers who are considered low-literate (which means that they read at a 9th grade level or lower). They are matched with a trained tutor and learn either one-on-one or in a small group setting.

2. How did Literacy Volunteers team up with the MVP Health Care Little Buddies Series at The Little?

As a former Little board member, I knew that one of The Little’s missions was to provide educational opportunities. It seemed like a natural fit to bring literacy needs and educational opportunities together. Beginning three years ago, LVR decided to become a film sponsor for screenings that were a good fit for literacy. The first year we sponsored Akeelah and the Bee about a young girl from South Los Angeles who tries to make it to the National Spelling Bee. It has been a rewarding partnership—one that has helped bring several new tutors to LVR.

This past year, LVR awarded our Friend of Literacy Award to The Little because of its advocacy for education, as evidenced by hosting and supporting the presentation of films and discussions about important community issues.

3. What are some success stories LVR can share with our readers?

Here is one example of the work our organization and volunteers do on a regular basis. Carmen is an immigrant in the United States who worked with her LVR tutor to master the English language. After completing her LVR citizenship classes and improving her English skills, she was able to become a US Citizen. She also received her driver’s license on the same day! That’s pretty amazing when you stop to think about it.

LVR is learner-centered, so we help learners achieve their particular goals. Some people are looking for help with on the job materials they need to read and understand. Some just want to read their children goodnight stories in English.

Imagine the feeling of satisfaction that comes from helping another person learn to read, write, or speak English. It is a life-changing gift to share.

4. How can people become involved with LVR?

Potential volunteers can call our main phone number at 585-473-3030. You begin your volunteer journey with a one hour preview session to learn more about tutor opportunities. We ask that you commit to working with a learner for two hours each week for the duration of one year.

Potential learners should call 585-473-3030 to set up an appointment for a skill evaluation. Once we determine the learner’s skill level and understand the learner’s goals, an appropriate learner/tutor match can be made.

The learner/ tutor experience is an interesting and educational journey for both parties. It is also an opportunity for the tutor to positively impact the community in which he or she lives and for the learner to engage more fully in the workplace and the community. Our motto is “Open a new chapter in someone’s life”. We feel that this encapsulates what happens for both tutors and learners as they work together.

5. Since the days of George Eastman, Rochester has been a hotspot for philanthropy. What is your personal take on the role of non-profits in the Rochester community today?

Non-profits provide an essential group of resources in the greater Rochester area. Their vitality helps distinguish Rochester from other mid-sized communities. This region is blessed to have a community consciousness where giving back is considered a privilege. This spirit of generosity allows our community to address integral needs for all citizens – and makes me proud to live in Rochester!

The Harvesting Justice Film Festival Filmmaker Interview

2010-03-13T06:00:00.001-05:00

Bill Jungels is a documentary maker and activist concerned with social justice issues in Latin America, with a focus on workers and indigenous campesinos in Mexico. He took time out of his busy schedule to talk with us. His films will be featured in the upcoming Harvesting Justice Film Festival screening on Monday, March 15th at 6:30. We hope to see you there.

Now for the interview:
1. Bill, how did you become involved with social justice issues in Latin America?

During the 80s when the U.S. government was supporting regimes in Central America which were committing horrible human rights violations I became interested in the plight of political asylum seekers from that region. I made a documentary called "Where is Refuge" that was shot in the U.S., Canada and Costa Rica. The Costa Rican part was to show that refugee camps in that country were incapable of fulfilling the need. At the time, Canada was admitting about 75% of these asylum seekers; while the U.S. was admitting about 3%, so I tried to show how politicized our policy was.

Afterward, I couldn't just walk away from what I had seen and I became a volunteer at Vive, a refuge house for people to stay at here in the U.S. while they completed their applications for asylum admission to Canada; and that is how my activism around Latin American issues got started. That ultimately hooked me up with the Latin American Solidarity Committee of the WNY Peace Center, which has been the focus of my activism since then.

2. What made you choose film as a format for exploring these issues and stories?

I had already made art videos and documentaries about art and dance therapy (my wife is an art therapist) and so it was natural for me to want to turn the techniques I had learned to my new interests. Everyone going into documentary has the illusion that they can change things—I did and, frankly, still do. But now I think it has less to do with shifting the gears of the mass culture and more to do with solidifying communities of resistance and winning a few converts along the way. After all, I was deeply changed by documentaries, albeit by making them rather than by seeing them.

3. Tell us about your latest film, Broken Branches, Fallen Fruit.

Broken Branches is the first documentary that I ever made that I wound up loving, warts and all. Through it I became linked in relationships of trust and mutual curiosity with individuals and families of Tzotzil-speaking Mayan Highland Chiapanecos. Chiapas is the Southernmost Mexican State, and the poorest. These people are among the poorest of the poor.

So on the foreground level—and especially in the title piece—it is about them; a particular family, the lack of work and land, and the resulting drive among the young to immigrate to the U.S. On one level it becomes a conversation between generations about immigration. On another level it becomes a gender dialogue about what it means to be in that situation. It implicitly becomes a meditation about what is worthy of preservation in the culture and the likelihood of that happening.

I decided to surround this central family story with with other material such as looking at surrounding conditions and causes—almost like layers of an onion covering the living core. I put together mini documentaries on topics like how trade agreements like NAFTA, and neo-liberalism in general, are contributing to the conditions that drive immigration; about cooperatives (weaving, coffee, etc.) that the people are forming to demand a more just price for their products; and about several other related issues. I will show a couple of these at the Little's screening.

4. What is the most interesting audience question you have had during a post-screening discussion?

I can think of two. Some people are very moved, not by my doc, but by the people in it, and they want to know what they can do. Right now I would say: support immigration reform, go to Washington on March 21st to march, and tell the administration there is widespread desire for legislation on behalf of the immigrants who come here and do our work to be treated like human beings. Also, people need to find ways to promote legislation that would monitor the effects of NAFTA on the people in these countries and modify it to make it less harmful to the poor. One young woman I know of was motivated to go to her church and get them to fund a scholarship for young women in Chiapas.

The second most interesting question concerned the similarities between the conditions that drive Mexican immigration and those that drove the great immigration from Italy. This was from a man who had just written a book on Italian immigration. I thought this question was important because we are in an era of mass human migrations not driven chiefly by natural disasters, but by political and economic factors. We have to think about immigration to the U.S., but we also have to place this in the context of a worldwide crisis.

5. How have your films helped start conversations and promote change?

The young woman who got the scholarship started is the most dramatic instance of change I know. Beyond that, I think it is mostly conversations and incremental shifts and changes. We live in a world where we are literally awash in media and the media that people spend most time with are controlled by the giant corporations.

So someone who has the hope of sparking change with documentaries is a little like David before Goliath—but not likely to have the outcome of that story. Even Michael Moore, who has reached relatively large audiences despairs about making any real dent in the way big money runs things. But I don't despair. I think that John Berger and Eduardo Galeano are right when they say that we are in a period where we need to pull together and support one another. As communities struggle against the commodification of human beings, the destruction of cultural traditions and community, we have to survive and make our values survive. I hope that my documentary work is a small tug in that direction.

All about Green Zone, opening Friday

2010-03-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

About the film:

Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) re-team for their latest electrifying thriller in Green Zone, a film set in the chaotic early days of the Iraqi War when no one could be trusted and every decision could detonate unforeseen consequences.

During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that inverts the purpose of their mission.

Spun by operatives with intersecting agendas, Miller must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil for answers that will either clear a rogue regime or escalate a war in an unstable region. And at this blistering time and in this combustible place, he will find the most elusive weapon of all is the truth.

Interview with the Director, Paul Greengrass:

Q. Why did you think this particular project was right for your third film collaboration?
Paul Greengrass: After The Bourne Supremacy I wanted to do a film about 9/11 and a film about Iraq because those were the two things that seemed to be to be what was driving our world. Also, it seemed that those were the events that were driving fear and paranoia and mistrust, all that sort of lethal cocktail of stuff that was coursing around the US, the UK and around the world in the wake of those events. United 93 became the 9/11 film, then we did The Bourne Ultimatum and then we started to turn our attention to what became Green Zone, which began as a film about the hunt for WMDs.

Q. So, what were the challenges?
Paul Greengrass: We began by wanting to make a film that would be of broad appeal [to audiences] and that created a set of challenges. It seemed to me, while making Bourne Ultimatum that there were two important things about the audience that loved the Bourne films… first, it was that audience that was being asked to fight that war, and it was from that audience that people opposed that war. So, you had both ends of the spectrum and they were attracted to those Bourne films because they had a high octane, adrenaline, thriller thing, but also because there was an attitude about those films, to do with: “They’re not telling us the truth, I need to find the truth.” So, it seemed to me that we had an opportunity to ask that audience to take one step through the curtain back to the real world, back to the intrigue-filled, dangerous, conspiracy laden weeks immediately before and after the invasion. That in the end, somewhere in that tangled thicket of events and conflicting agendas, was where all that stuff started. That’s really what began Green Zone.

Read the full interview here.

Sweetgrass opens on Friday

2010-03-11T15:51:00.001-05:00

“Impressive. Bracing. Majestic. The list of things you won’t get from Sweetgrass is almost as impressive as the film itself.”—ANTHONY LANE – THE NEW YORKER

About the Film

“Is Sweetgrass even a movie about sheep? Not in the sense that March of the Penguins is about penguins. There’s hardly a frame in Sweetgrass without a specimen of Ovis aries bleating, grazing, or even gazing into the camera, yet the educational and didactic rhetoric that typically characterizes entries in the “animal documentary” genre is noticeably absent. Diverging from the cutesy aesthetics that made Luc Jacquet’s penguin exposé an accessible, international hit, filmmakers Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor taken a far more empirical approach. There is no voice-over narration or “talking head” commentary, and until the very end of the movie there are no explanatory intertitles, either. Instead, they have crafted an ambient narrative in the cinéma vérité tradition that demands patient observation from the audience, but also rewards their attentiveness.

Documenting the journey of two sheepherders and their massive flock over the mountains of Montana, the movie is finely attuned to the intense physicality of the undertaking. It is less interested in explaining the conventional 5 W’s and 1 H (who/what/when/where/why and how) than in the imagistic expression of the process from start to finish. An opening pastoral and undeniable adorable sequence of the sheep bathed in nature’s quiet (and the vague hum of a digital camera) is first subtly disturbed by the sound of an approaching ATV, and later shattered by the violent sounds and gestures of the shearing of coats. As though to curb any simplistic political reading, there follows a sequence of shots as the farmers assist with sheep pregnancies and tend to needy babies. This wide array of sights and sounds sets up the complex, interdependent relation between man and animal that will only deepen as the two groups journey together across the Beartooth Mountains.

Read the full article here.

Movies, Art and Music this week

2010-03-11T14:44:00.002-05:00

Movies

Opening:
Green Zone
Sweetgrass

Continuing:
The Last Station
Crazy Heart
Shutter Island
Il Trovatore (Opera Series, Sun. March 14th at noon)

Art
The Little Gallery
Opening
Susan Rowley
March 6th- April 3rd
Sun. 5 pm - 8 pm 
Mon - Thurs. 5 pm - 10 pm 
Fri. & Sat. 5 pm - 11 pm

Music
Mondays
White Hots (no music on 3/1)
7:30 – 9:30

Wednesdays
AMP
7:30 – 9:30

Thursdays
DjanGoners
7:30 – 9:30

Fridays
The Bowties
8:30 – 10:30

Saturdays
Fred Stone Progressive Jazz Trio
8:30 – 10:30

‘Hurt Locker’ takes home top prizes at the Academy Awards

2010-03-09T08:31:00.001-05:00

What this year’s top film has in common with The Little Theatre

To a cultivated film viewer like myself, the first clue as to the direction the night would take began with The Hurt Locker’s win for Best Original Screenplay. With the win for Best Editing (which nearly always goes to the winner for Best Picture) they had the night locked so to speak, though it took another hour to officially declare so.

Thus, in a historic night for Hollywood, “The Hurt Locker” took home six Academy Awards, including Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow who became the first woman to take home the prize in the 82 year history of the Oscars. “There is no other way to describe it, it’s the moment of a lifetime,” said Bigelow as she accepted the award.

In what has been wildly considered a David vs. Goliath scenario, “The Hurt Locker”, a small indie film seen mostly by an art-house audience, not only won the evening’s top award but did so by defeating the highest-grossing film of all time, the 3-D juggernaut “Avatar”. James Cameron’s $300 million blockbuster managed to take home three awards, all for technical achievements, much to no one’s surprise and certainly deservedly so.

The irony of course is that, in a move designed to bring in more interest and viewers to the Awards show, the Academy opened the Best Picture category to 10 nominees so that more populist fare like “The Blind Side” could be included. Yet the richly layered, tense Iraq War tale of a bomb-disposal unit, “The Hurt Locker,” was the critics’ (and I am guessing the bulk of Little audiences’) choice all season yet goes down in history as the lowest-grossing winner for Best Picture. The reason for the win, however is simple, this film and its fierce and smart director were the best, period. The taut suspense of the film, its fully developed and smartly paced screenplay rife with human drama, all in the hands of the expert Bigelow made for a truly exceptional film. I can’t help but love the fact that when a woman finally took home the prize for Best Director, it wasn’t for a weepy drama or cute romantic comedy but for a wholly balls-to-the-wall, action film with a purpose and a heart all at once.

What I also find worth noting, both as a discerning film viewer and as someone who works within the world of independent cinemas, is that “Hurt Locker’s” win is also a victory over the Big Box Cinemas as well. That a film which could barely find a distributor at one point and who played almost exclusively in places like The Little beat out a film that is the darling of the mainstream chains like Regal Cinemas is a hopeful indicator that the trend of multi-plex domination and indie theatres’ demise may be shifting. Did the $10 a ticket, $7 for popcorn, 18 screen behemoth’s show “Hurt Locker”? when it was released late last summer? Nope, but The Little Theatre did, long before the momentum of the awards season hoopla began.

The rest of the evening on Sunday, belonged to several familiar faces as predictable wins and one not quite as predictable win were revealed.

Best Actor

In what has become an all too common case of the Academy fixing a mistake from the past, Jeff Bridges was named Best Actor for his memorable portrayal of an aging country singer seeking one last shot at the big time in “Crazy Heart.” Don’t get me wrong, I love The Dude as much as the next gal, and I do think he gave a rich and complicated performance, but he really should have won year’s ago for any one of his four previous nominations. But the Academy couldn’t ignore this error any longer, especially with such widespread respect in the industry for Bridges. On the other hand, you ignore all the history and compare individual performance to performance, Colin Firth’s heartbreaking and exceptionally complex portrayal of a man discovering the joy of life, through planning his death in “A Single Man” wins out for me. I recently watched the film a second time and was reminded why his performance and the film have stayed with me ever since.

Best Supporting Actor and Actress

As expected, both Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds”) and Mo’Nique (“Precious”) took home statues in the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories for playing truly vile human beings. For her stunning portrayal of the impoverished , cruel mother in “Precious,” Mo’Nique accepted the award, thanking the Academy for “proving it can be about the performance and not about the politics,” a subtle dig at the harsh criticism she received for not attending the many events typically attended by a nominee in order to garner support for their respective films which was then viewed by critics as a snub to the Academy.

Best Actress

The Best Actress category had shaped up to be a showdown between popular A-list darling Sandra Bullock for her fiery turn in “The Blind Side” against sixteen-time nominee and two-time winner Meryl Streep. But it was Bullock’s night to celebrate as another example of the Academy rewarding the person more than the individual performance (incidentally Bullock also took home the Worst Actress Award at the Razzies on Saturday) The problem for me is that I think if the Academy had just waited a little longer Bullock would have turned in a much more award-worthy performance, but, you know she did dye her hair, get an accent and play a character against type so let’s let her have it. What the hell the Academy is waiting for from Meryl Streep in order to give her first award since 1983 for “Sophie’s Choice” is beyond me.

In what was, for me, the only real upset of the evening (since I already predicted that “The Secret in Their Eyes” would pull an upset to win in the foreign film category) was Geoffrey Fletcher winning Best Adapted Screenplay for “Precious” over the perceived frontrunner and my pick, Jason Reitman for “Up in the Air” which went home empty-handed. The win was a historic one at least, as Fletcher became the first African American to win an Academy Award for writing.

I highly recommend that everyone see the winner for Best Documentary, “The Cove” about a daring attempt to capture on film, the horrific capture and slaughter of dolphins by Japanese fisherman…an attempt that nearly cost the filmmakers their lives. The film is currently available on On Demand.

The ceremony itself proved a bit troublesome under the direction of Adam Shankman. While I am indeed a fan of his show “So You Think You Can Dance” and the film “Hairspray,” this year’s show was far too much like a Vegas act on crack. Too many sequins and kick-lines do not a classy Oscars make. And while I adore Neil Patrick Harris, why on earth would you start the show with a song and dance number from someone other than the host? Perhaps they were trying to please the folks who wanted Hugh Jackman to be at the helm once again. Which brings me to Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, this year’s co-hosts. Thought they did have a few moments of true hilarity- Martin mentioning that Waltz’s character in “Inglourious Basterds” was trying to track down all the Jews, proclaiming, “Well here you go….the motherload, “ while gesturing to the audience. But I was expecting much much more from these two great comic talents. Their trade-offs of lines in the opening monologue did not seem to work well and their timing was not there throughout the entire evening- a real killer in the world of comedy.

In the end though, a historic evening for Kathryn Bigelow and her “The Hurt Locker” made for a truly inspired end to an extra long awards season and one that Little audiences can take pride in, for nearly all the nominees were and are seen on our screens at The Little!

A few added thoughts on the evening.
In a total Kanye move, the director and producer of “Music by Prudence,” Roger Ross-Williams, the winner in the documentary short subject category was interrupted by a seemingly crazed woman named Elinor Burkett in a bizarre moment that left everyone scratching their heads. The backstory is this: Turns out the two had a falling out nearly a year ago resulting in a lawsuit and Burkett was removed as a producer and Williams given ownership of the film yet Burkett still qualified as a producer under Academy rules. However it was Williams who was to speak if the film won, though it seems Burkett disagreed. She claimed that she was not included in all the pre-awards events and was not going to let that continue.

Kudos for including the heartfelt tribute to the late John Hughes. He was too important and his contribution too great to just be included in the In Memoriam section. When I was lowly student in film school, all my classmates worshiped at the alter of Scorsese and the like while I credit Hughes for my love of film from an early age. Some days I still wish I could be Watts in “Some Kind of Wonderful” and articulate the world around me like Hughes did. Bravo.

On the other hand, forgetting to include Farrah Fawcett in the In Memoriam is unforgivable.

Doing the Robot to a music from “The Hurt Locker,” and the rest of the interpretive dance section probably not something that will repeat next year.

What the hell was the deal with all the blue ribbons on the men’s tuxes and all the blue dresses? One bit of note though is that the dress and gardenia worn by Mo’Nique was an homage to Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an Oscar in 1939- who wore the same color gown and flower in her hair.

Charlize Theron’s dress? As a friend remarked, “She’s got cinnamon buns on her boobs.”

Sorry but the Oscars is no place for the likes of Miley Cyrus and Taylor Lautner, you had no business being there. That goes for you too Amanda Seyfried. At least Zach Ephron was in a worthy film this year in “Me and Orson Wells.”

Those overwrought and long intros to the 10 Best Picture nominees were unnecessary, a montage would have sufficed. Especially since 8 of the 10 stood no change in hell of winning, yes “I’m mostly talking to you “Blind Side” and “District 9.”

Of the four producers of “The Hurt Locker” why were only three (including Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal) on hand to accept the awards? That is due to the Academy campaign violation by producer Nicolas Chartier, who, in the weeks leading up to the awards, had emailed is friends privately encouraging them to vote for his film and not the mega monster “Avatar.” As a result, he was disinvited from the ceremony, but was given lots of acknowledgement by Boal and Bigelow. The irony is that this kind of thing happens EVERY year- and Harvey Weinstein has been the worst offender and yet never cited.

Did anyone notice that they are returning to using the phrase “And the winner is” instead of the more so-called polite phrase of recent years, “ And the Oscar goes to..?”

Movies this week

2010-03-05T15:10:00.003-05:00

Films
Opening: Seraphine (1 week only!), Il Trovatore (Tue, March 9th at 7:00pm)

Continuing: Crazy Heart, Animated Oscar Shorts, The Last Station, Shutter Island, The White Ribbon

Seraphine opens tonight-one week only!

2010-03-05T15:05:00.003-05:00

About the film:
The award-winning French drama Seraphine unfolds with quiet, unassuming grace -- in stark contrast to the elaborate, colorful creations of its subject.

But then Seraphine Louis, or Seraphine de Senlis, was also a contradiction.

Possessing a self-taught artistry that would translate into paintings still exhibited today, she spent the majority of her life as a domestic servant, cleaning floors and folding linens. With no illusions of fame (until later), she painted because she was compelled to do so. It gave joy to her otherwise-drab existence.

Director and co-writer Martin Provost opens the story in France in 1914. The middle-aged Seraphine (Yolande Moreau) works numerous jobs to pay for the art supplies she can't make herself.

By happenstance, one of her paintings is spotted by art critic Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), whose shirts and floors Seraphine scrubs.

He is enthralled -- and soon encourages her to paint more and clean less. Seraphine is happy to oblige, but the war interrupts everything. Or almost everything.

While the German Uhde flees the country, and nations fight, Seraphine continues to paint. The two meet again years later, but the artist's mental state has deteriorated -- even as her technique has improved.

Tuesday Social Media in March Coupon!

2010-03-02T16:15:00.002-05:00

As a special thank you to all of our Facebook Fans, Twitter Followers and Blog Readers, print and bring this ticket to our box office on any Tuesday in March and receive a free ticket when you purchase one.

Consider it our version of March Madness!

Just print this & bring it to the box office for your buy one, get one free ticket!

Thanks for following us online!

Interview with Rochester Movie Maker's Own Stan Main

2010-02-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

Today's guest is Stan Main, the Chairperson of Rochester Movie Makers. They are a local group who will have a screening of the submissions to their 72 hour Mind 2 Movie Challenge next Tues., March 2nd at 7pm at The Little. Tickets are $5.00. More about the challenge in a minute.

Hi Stan, Can You Tell Us—What is Rochester Movie Makers?

The RMM Mission Statement- to create, develop and promote filmmaking and
filmmakers in Rochester, NY.

RMM is a NY State Educational Cooperative 501(c)(3) designed to help connect
local film makers and persons interested in learning more about film making.
Attend meetings regularly to be exposed to other people in the Rochester
area that want to help and be helped executing the sometimes complicated,
time consuming but usually very fun and rewarding process called film
making. Learn by doing at RMM.

For more info on RMM visit www.RochesterMovieMakers.org.

Tell me about the 72 hour challenge.

The premise? Filmmaking teams have just one long weekend to make a short
film. All creativity - writing, shooting, editing and adding a musical
soundtrack - must occur in a 72 hour window beginning Thursday evening at
7:00 and ending Sunday at 7:00. The following week, the completed films are
screened to an eager audience.

For the whole poop on Mind2Movie-2010, visit
www.RochesterMovieMakers.org/m2m. You will find a FAQ on that page that
explains everything.

What's your take on the filmmaking community here in Rochester?

I think the talent for feature films is definitely available in Rochester.
Great actors, writers, directors and crew. The challenge is getting groups
here to work together and grow together better than they do in other
markets. We haven't been as successful as I would like in attracting
students from the big schools and some of the more high end film and video
maker pros in Rochester to meetings or to serving on the Executive Board.

What are some other events and ideas the group has coming up?

In March we have the RMM Summer Shorts Screenplay Contest where Screenplay.
Writers come with 10 page screenplays and we read them and vote for the top
3 best. Then we shoot as many as we can in the RMM Summer Shorts. More
info at http://www.rochestermoviemakers.org/summershorts/

How can people join?

Sign up for free 24/7 at www.RochesterMovieMakers.org. We meet at least
once every week. The complete list of meetings is on the homepage. Sign up
at the website for last minute changes to scheduled meetings.

What's the most important thing you see happening when a bunch of
filmmakers get together?

I think the most important thing RMM can do is continue to provide
opportunities to improve local skill sets through activities that get people
who don't know each other to work together. The best thing I see at
meetings is people discovering each other's potentials and making new
connections.

February/March Music

2010-02-26T14:03:00.001-05:00

February Music Schedule

Monday: Kevin DeHond

Wednesday: The Margaret Explosion

Thursday: Trio East

Friday: Madeline Forster

Saturday: Kinloch Nelson Trio

March Music Schedule

Monday: The White Hots (No music on 3/1)

Wednesday: AMP

Thursday: DjanGoners

Friday: The Bowties

Saturday: Fred Stone Progressive Jazz Trio

The Last Station-Opens Friday Feb. 26th

2010-02-26T13:51:00.002-05:00

About The Film (from the LA Times):

Under the accomplished direction of Michael Hoffman, who also wrote the script, "The Last Station" is well-acted across the board, but the film's centerpiece is the spectacular back and forth between Christopher Plummer as the great man, a count as well as a writer, and Helen Mirren as Sofya, his wife of 48 years and always a force to be reckoned with. For those who enjoy actors who can play it up without ever overplaying their hands, "The Last Station" is the destination of choice.

The notion for "The Last Station" came from writer Jay Parini, who was so fascinated to discover that numerous people around Tolstoy in the fatal year of 1910 kept diaries with their versions of events that he wrote a novel telling the story from six points of view. Hoffman's screenplay simplifies this a bit but keeps the story's fine sense of the complexities of human relationships, of the war in Tolstoy's household between the welfare of family and the welfare of mankind. Read the full article here.

Excerpt from an Interview with Helen Mirren
QUESTION: Now, I understand that one of the attractions for you to do Last Station was the fact that it had - within this passionate drama, a great sense of humor.

HELEN MIRREN: Yes. It does, it's funny. Most of all, it's funny. Without being gag-driven, or comedic in that sense. It's just very funny about real life. And that's the kind of comedy I always enjoy the most.

QUESTION: Could you identify at all with any facet of this character, or this marriage?

HELEN MIRREN: No, I mean, I'm so not like Sofya. I wish I was more like Sofya. Instead, I get quiet and resentful and cry and angry and sulk. You know, Sofya does not do that. She lets it all out immediately. And I wish I had more of her characteristics. I'm certainly not like her, in that sense. But I think that anybody who's married - of course, they're not confronted with the same kind of problems as Sofya and Tolstoy were at the end of their marriage. Those sort of massive problems. But every marriage goes through those moments of conflict and disagreement. Even quite fundamental disagreement. And - you know, you fight your way through it. One of the most wonderful lines in the film is when Tolstoy says to Sofya, you know, "Yes, I love you. But, why do you make it so hard?" And she says, "Of course it's hard. What do you expect?" She said, you know, "You are that - you're the work of my life. I'm the work of your life. That's what love is." And I think that's a wonderful description of love. Read the full interview here.

Aspiring filmmaker, Ryan McPherson

2010-02-22T06:00:00.001-05:00

Today we're talking with aspiring filmmaker, Ryan McPherson--a student at SUNY Brockport.

Ryan, tell us about how you develop a script.

What I have done in my short time writing, is taking an idea, an image, or even just a small detail, and trying to run with it. Generally I try to stick with things that are at least somewhat familiar only because I feel more confident in what I'm writing when I actually know what I'm writing about.

What kind of stories do you think translate well into film?

I have always felt that the stories that adapt best to film are ones with really strong and unique characters. I feel like good dialogue and good character development can make any idea into a decent movie. My favorite scene in film history is the beginning scene of Reservoir Dogs. The fact of the matter is that it really doesn't "do" anything for the film and it's not vital to the rest of the story, but it gives you some insight on who the guys are. After that scene you almost want to root for these guys. Without that scene the rest of the movie might have just been a typical gangster film that would easily have been forgotten.

You are currently in pre-production on a project, what are your next steps?

I have been trying to put together a film project for the past couple of years. I have found quite a few interested people in both acting and working as crew members on the film. I have been trying to accumulate funding for such a project. After finding funding I would try to push something right into production.

What do you think about the filmmaking community in the Rochester area?

I don't know as much about the filmmaking community in Rochester as I do about the film community. The film community seems to be a rich one. Every time I go to the theaters be it a megaplex or an independent theater there is usually a huge crowd. I think the filmmaking community is growing with the great programs at the area colleges and the new possibilities there are for independent filmmakers.

Any advice for other aspiring screenwriters or filmmakers?

I am quite new at this myself, so I would feel bad giving advice to people who aren't far behind me. I guess I would say read and watch films. Some great filmmakers never spent a day in film school. You can get a lot of experience with a movie rental and library card. See what people are doing and what their writing and making. I haven't gone to film school (yet?), but I have seen thousands of movies and read dozens of scripts and books about filmmaking.

You can contact Ryan at:
rmcpherson610@gmail.com
585-944-6480

The White Ribbon

2010-02-19T06:00:00.001-05:00

About the film
In a village in Protestant northern Germany, on the eve of World War I, the children of a church and school run by the village schoolteacher and their families experience a series of bizarre incidents that inexplicably assume the characteristics of a punishment ritual. Who could be responsible for such bizarre transgressions? Leonie Benesch, Josef Bierbichler, and Rainer Bock star in director Michael Haneke's Palm d'Or-winning period drama.

Interview with cinematographer Christian Berger

The White Ribbon is so different from the other films you’ve shot for Haneke. Why did you choose black and white?
It was our goal to make not black and white because it’s 1914, or to evoke a kind of nostalgia, or to fake something authentic. It was actually to create a strong abstraction. Michael Haneke said, of course all the photos and film of that time are in black and white. But we didn’t want to recreate that black and white. I hope it worked, because it’s a kind of modern black and white, even if I don’t know what it means. Read the full interview here.

Film and music this week

2010-02-18T13:39:00.002-05:00

There are tons of openings this week at The Little!

Openings
The White Ribbon
Shutter Island
2010 Oscar Shorts
Spotlight on Black History Month, including: Shadows of the Lynching Tree, Pressure Cooker and Heart of Stone (For Black History Month film descriptions, showtimes and other events, click here.)

Continuing
Crazy Heart

Music
Monday: Kevin DeHond

Wednesday: The Margaret Explosion

Thursday: Trio East

Friday: Madeline Forster

Saturday: Dave Arenius Trio

Spotlight on Black History Month-Films & Schedule

2010-02-16T12:22:00.002-05:00

Our Spotlight on Black History Month Series Returns to The Little for the 4th Year
A rich mix of documentaries and premieres headline this year’s offerings

From February 19th to the 25th we celebrate the fourth annual “Spotlight on Black History Month” here at The Little Theatre. This film series brings various aspects of African-American life to the big screen; including the drive to embrace the American Dream, the revitalization of a scarred community, and the ongoing struggles to overcome the dark sides of black history in America. The goal of the series is to present a varied range of film topics and to provide a forum for open discussion and education. We've been highlighting some of the filmmakers on our blog during the past few weeks. Tickets to all the films are $5.00. Here's everything you need to know about the series:

The films include:
Shadows of the Lynching Tree (Rochester Premiere), directed by Rochester native Carvin Eison. This movie explores the history of lynching in the United States and reveals an underlying ideology still alive today at some levels of American culture. His documentary, July ‘64, was a standout in 2007 at The Little. Talkback with the director following the 6:30 showing on Fri., Feb. 19th.

Pressure Cooker, a documentary about the lives of a strict, but loving teacher of culinary arts in an inner city high school in Philadelphia, and a half dozen of her students. In an area where most kids don't have a lot of opportunities, these kids are learning to be professional cooks and competing for a few scholarships to big name culinary schools around the US.

Heart of Stone, a documentary about a gutsy Newark high school principal's efforts to stave off gang violence and boost student morale. The setting is the city's once-famed Weequahic High, known for fostering more Ph.D.s than any other American high school from the 1930s-'50s. What makes this chronicle poignant is its illustration of how African-Americans and Jewish alum helped each other turn the school in a new, safer direction. The film won the Audience Award in Slamdance's documentary competition.

MVP Little Biddies Series, Bring the kids and enjoy a little light fun with Space Jam, where Michael Jordan agrees to help the Looney Toons play a basketball game vs. alien slavers to determine their freedom.

“This year’s program takes a look at the darker side of our nation’s past,” comments Bob Russell, Executive Director at The Little. “But, also on the hope that creates the bright side of our future.”

The Emerging Filmmakers Series will highlight short films by African American filmmakers or films about the African American experience. This regular monthly program screens films produced by up-and-coming New York State filmmakers, regardless of age or educational status, or films shot in New York State.

Film Times:
Shadows of the Lynching Tree
Fri., Feb. 19, 6:30 pm (Followed by Talkback with Carvin Eison)
Sat., Feb. 20, 12:00 pm, 9:00 pm
Mon., Feb. 22, 6:30 pm
Wed. Feb. 24, 9:00 pm

Pressure Cooker
Sat., Feb. 20, 6:30 pm
Sun., Feb. 21, 9:00 pm
Wed., Feb. 24, 6:30 pm
Thurs., Feb. 25, 9:00 pm

Heart of Stone
Fri. Feb. 19, 9:00 pm
Sat. Feb. 20, 3:00 pm (Followed by Talkback with Rick Smith - Principle of John Marshall High School, Chris Cuby - President of Realizing Others Outstanding Talents,LLC, and Anthony Jordan - Assistant to Commissioner of City of Rochester Parks and Recreation)
Sun., Feb. 21, 6:30 pm
Thurs., Feb. 25, 6:30 pm

Little Buddies Series
Space Jam, starring Michael Jordan
Sat., Feb. 27, 10:00 am

Emerging Filmmakers Series
Mon., Feb. 22, 9:15 pm

NT Live presents NATION at The Little-What the heck is this?

2010-02-15T06:00:00.001-05:00

The Little Theatre has joined theatres around the world to present NT Live, a production of The National Theatre of London and an initiative to broadcast live performances of plays into cinemas around the UK and internationally.

What is it?

Live music, dance and puppetry will combine to bring to life the spectacular and surprising world of Terry Pratchett's NATION on the National Theatre stage. NATION is the third play in the pilot season of NT Live, the National's ground-breaking initiative which launched in June with the hugely successful broadcast of Phèdre with Helen Mirren, which was seen by 50,000 people in 19 countries around the globe. NT Live continues with a worldwide broadcast of the National's acclaimed production of NATION, based on a novel by Terry Pratchett, adapted by Mark Ravenhill, directed by Melly Still.

NATION tells the story of a parallel world, 1860. Two teenagers are thrown together by a tsunami that has destroyed Mau's village and left Daphne shipwrecked on his South Pacific island, thousands of miles from home. One wears next to nothing, the other a long white dress; neither speaks the other's language; somehow they must learn to survive. As starving refugees gather, Daphne delivers a baby, milks a pig, brews beer and does battle with a mutineer. Mau fights cannibal Raiders, discovers the world is round and questions the reality of his tribe's fiercely patriarchal gods. Together they come of age, overseen by a foul-mouthed parrot, as they discard old doctrine to forge a new Nation.

When Does It Play at The Little?
There are two presentations:
Thursday, February 18 at 7:00pm
Tuesday, February 23 at 7:00pm

Suitable for 10yrs+
Tickets: $20 / $18 for Little Members, Seniors & Students

The NT Live Series is proudly supported by City Newspaper.

Artist Belinda Bryce in the Cafe Gallery

2010-02-13T07:30:00.002-05:00

Belinda Bryce is showing her work in the cafe's gallery through 03/05/10.

Artist Statement
This recent work is a playful exploration of the figure-ground concept in painting: the figure or subject is set against the background. A fundamental principle of visual perception, the figure-ground relationship allows the artist to delineate the foreground and the background.

I am interested in flattening the space between figure and ground. I am also interested in scale, how large or small something appears based on its relationship to other visual elements or based on its relation to the edge of the painting. Shrinking or enlarging the figure changes the ground. Some paintings pay more attention to the figure; others focus more on the space that surrounds the figure.

In previous work, I have used images of pears, bowls, birds, dogs, and dresses. The rabbits, like these other images, are visual metaphors that relate to the experience of being female. In addition to the symbolic imagery, I am interested in creating unflustered but interesting juxtapositions of textures, color and shapes.

This work is influenced by many artists. Some who immediately come to mind are Matisse, Milton Avery, Louise Bourgeois, Susan Rothenberg, Mimmo Paladino, Sqeak Carnwath, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Outsider Art as well as children’s art.

_________________________________________________________________________
Belinda Bryce is a Rochester artist. For more information, please go to www.belindabryce.com.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee Opens Tonight

2010-02-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

This film is a New York Times Critic's Pick starring Robin Penn Wright, Blake Lively and Alan Arkin. Summary: A move to a retirement community with her successful, much older husband triggers huge changes for a seemingly serene woman with a turbulent past.

From the NY Times review:
"Together Ms. Penn and Mr. Arkin create a portrait of a marriage in which you sense the intertwining crosscurrents of devotion, boredom, anger and gratitude. As the movie shows, the decision to settle is only the beginning of a new phase and can be undone. As people keep changing, stasis is the enemy. A happy ending is never guaranteed."

From an Interview with the Director, Rebecca Miller

She's the daughter of the great American playwright Arthur Miller and the Magnum photographer Inge Morath, and therefore it's no surprise that so much of her work is informed by questions of identity, or the desire to escape the past, and other people's definitions of you - and the impossibility of ever managing to.

"That's right," she says. "I think we all want to believe, especially Americans, that we are free to redefine ourselves, usually by moving to California. Changing it all. But I think, really, all the past is with us. Our parents are with us. Who we are. You can only escape so far. Pippa succeeds to a degree, she moves on to the next stage, but it's only to a degree."

In this Miller is a larger, starrier, more illustrious version of ourselves. She's like a metaphor for the rest of us, or an avatar, a more obvious version of the inescapability that we all have, as our parents' children and our partners' partner, I say to her, although it's the kind of question that she bats away, like an irritating fly.

"I am also so good at just ignoring things. And just, you know ... I find denial is very handy."

She does. She's incredibly articulate on the thorny subjects of parent-child relations, and how the self can be subsumed within marriage, but only with regard to her characters. Because when it comes to Rebecca Miller's parent-child relations or her marriage, you get only answers like the above. Because from being Arthur Miller's daughter, she became Daniel Day-Lewis's wife, and her books and her films and her interviews sometimes feel like an almost Darwinian struggle for survival; an attempt not to be suffocated by the people around her.

It's precisely the sort of struggle in which Pippa Lee, her eponymous heroine, is engaged. Read the full interview here.

Movies and Music this Week

2010-02-11T12:00:00.003-05:00

FILMS

Opening
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
NT Live Presents NATION (Thurs. Feb. 18 at 7:00 pm and Tues. Feb. 23 at 7:00 pm

Continuing
Me and Orson Welles
The Bad Lieutenant
Crazy Heart
A Single Man
Up in the Air

MUSIC
Monday: Kevin DeHond

Wednesday: The Margaret Explosion

Thursday: Trio East

Friday: Madeline Forster

Saturday: Dave Arenius Trio

Me & Orson Welles Talkback this Saturday night

2010-02-04T15:56:00.002-05:00

Author Robert Kaplow will be at The Little this Saturday night for a talkback after the 6:30 showing. Tickets are $10.

You may know him for his books or his NPR series, "Moe Moskowitz and the Punsters." Here are some excerpts from his production diary during the making of the film.

Richard Linklater [director, Me and Orson Welles] is gracious, low-key, and excited. He tells me he’s “nervous about the Shakespeare, but nervous in a good way.”

Christian McKay is now slimmer by 26 pounds from the last time I saw him in New York (in May,) and he looks even more like Welles.

He knows his entire part by heart. His wife Emma will play Virginia Welles in the movie, and she’s lit with enthusiasm and love for Christian. McKay has so internalized Welles’s speech patterns that you feel, even when you’re talking to him casually, that you’re actually talking to Welles (whom Christian refers to as The Old Man.)

Claire Danes arrives with her English boyfriend Hugh Dancy. She’s pale and pretty and all eyes—in her cowl-neck sweater—and she has a quirky and powerful flirtatious energy that she seems very aware of, that she can turn on and off like a blowlamp: or so it seems to me. She asks me where I grew up, and she tells me she grew up in Soho with an artist father. Hugh Dancy has Leading Man written all over him: poised, playful, handsome. He tells me that my friend Marc Lanzoff thrust a copy of Me and Orson Welles into his hands outside of Journey's End in New York. Read the full article here.

Chuck Lundeen raves about DIE WALKURE

2010-02-02T14:19:00.002-05:00

Chuck Lundeen is kind enough to preview our opera offerings and offer his opinions. Here we go!

Scheduled for Tuesday February 2 at 7 PM and Sunday February 7 at noon. $18 for Little Theatre members, senior and students. $20 for all others. With a 235 minute running time (there will be two short 'rest breaks,' too) that's less than 7 cents a minute! You'll never see a RING opera for a better rate!

If you're not already a member of THE LITTLE THEATRE FILM SOCIETY please give serious consideration to joining. The Little is non-profit membership organization, not at all like the multi-plexes. We depend on members to help meet the expenses of running a 5-screen cinema in an old building! In addition, because of the length of this opera, The Little will not be able to fit in a second screening on Tuesday evening or a second Sunday matinee. They are really sacrificing for us! End of commercial.

If you want a brief recommendation so you don't have to read much further it's: "Hojotoho!" You'd better go! For those of you who have put off Wagner for any reason, or if you are at all interested in a first exploration of the work of this musical genius (Even if he wasn't a very nice person!) this is the perfect opportunity. Of the four parts of The Ring Cycle, DIE WALKURE can stand alone. You don't need any background to enjoy it, but if you want background, plenty is provided for you if you listen and read the subtitles carefully.

This production comes once again from Valencia, Spain and from the outside shots of the opera house the building itself must have been designed by Calatrava. Someone can research that: Palau de les Arts "Reina Sofia" in Valencia.
The conductor is ZUBIN MEHTA who got his orchestra to produce astonishing sounds--from uber-sensitive to absolutely majestic. Sigmund is Peter Seiffert and Juha Uusitalo sings Wotan. Petra Maria Schnitzer is a beautiful Sieglinde and Jennifer Wilson is a fully competent Brunnhilde. Many of these were new names for me, and I was delighted to hear wonderful Wagner voices. I hope some of them will eventually get to our shores--or perhaps I've missed some of them.

This is a continuation of last year's DAS RHINEGOLD which many of you loved even though it was quite an unusual production. After watching this WALKURE I have a feeling we're seeing the future of Ring Cycles, created with projections rather than realistic scenery. I know that's the plan for the Met's new production, now in process. In this production the costumes are a bit sci-fi for my taste. Unfortunately, the designer of the breastplates for the Valkuries must have had a mad-on for these women warriors, for he could not have made them any less attractive. Gartefully they all sang gloriously!

In addition to the projections, the immortal characters are standing on metal vehicles that allow them to be pushed all around the stage and to be raised and lowered depending on the scene. They wear regular costumes and can step off the vehicle when necessary. The vehicules are remarkable to watch because they give the characters a wonderful 'god-like' capability. They are literally pushed, raised, and lowered by nearly invisible 'pushers' who were given their own curtain call at the end of the opera for their amazing work. I can't even begin to imagine how much time was spent choreographing all these mechanical movements. It was like watching dance--especially when the eight Valkuries were doing their thing.

In ACT I the focal point is, without a doubt, the tree. Created by a projection it literally fills the stage, changes colors, weeps leaves, and once Sieglinde screams Sigmund's name, the trunk and branches fill with the word SIGMUND and letters from his name drop to the ground like tears. You will definitely be impressed!

At the beginning of the act Sieglinde moves on all fours and her hands are held very much like paws, indicating her wolf heritage. She also wears a noose around her neck which Hunding pulls on when he speaks to her and yells his orders. Needless to say, the noose is the first thing to go once she and Sigmund begin their duet. In her scene in ACT II when she declares herself unworthy, she reverts back to some of these wolf-like movements.

As you can see, I could go on forever about the wonders of this opera and this particular production. During the final Wotan/Brunnhilde scene I had tears running down my face. It is the only time I have seen REAL fire used to encircle Brunnhilde in her long sleep.

It's a time investment, but you won't regret a minute of it! Please feel free to let me know your thoughts if you go.

Chuck
clundee1@rochester.rr.com

Indie Filmmaker Interview, Rochester's Carvin Eison

2010-02-01T06:00:00.003-05:00

Carvin Eison's film “July ’64: Roots of Urban Unrest" screened during our Spotlight on Black History Month Series in 2008. We are pleased to share his latest film, "Shadows of the Lynching Tree" in this year's Series. In this interview Carvin chats with us about his latest film, funding a movie and how he develops ideas. We hope you will come out and see his film during February.

Carvin, what draws you to film as an artistic medium?

Documentary work is my expression right now. At a purely academic level, I’m fascinated by the complex intersection of images, words and sounds. In skillful hands, these elements can influence perception and tap deeply into subconscious arousal. This medium has impact on human behavior. The craft and tools are alluring but what’s most important to me is how I can use this medium to search through time in pursuit the truth. Documentary picture making is about getting as close as possible to the truth of a matter while establishing an emotional connection with the viewer. If I accomplish this, it is likely that the substance of my work will remain with a person, in some way, for some time. This is what I am attempting to do in “Shadows of the Lynching Tree.”

How did receiving a grant from the Sundance Documentary Fund help Shadows of the Lynching Tree most?

Sundance as well as the Diversity Development Fund at ITVS and the Paul Robeson Fund were very important to the completion of “Shadows of the Lynching Tree.” These organizations gave the project stature and clout and they continue to say to film community, including festivals, broadcasters and distributors, this film is worth paying attention to. I am grateful for all they have contributed to this film. However, I was never able to generate enough funding here in the United States to complete the picture. But in Europe and particularly Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, (MDR) Germany Public Television provided the critical levels of funding that made the production possible. This singular fact suggests that in the United States lynching remains a difficult subject to address.

How do you distribute your films?

My previous documentary, “July ’64: Roots of Urban Unrest,” is distributed by California Newsreel, the oldest distributor of political documentaries in the country. It is possible that California Newsreel will also distribute “Shadows of the Lynching Tree.” The plan is first to have the film screened at film festivals in the country and around the world. It is already an official selection at the 2010 San Diego Black Film Festival and at the 2010 Idée Suisse BaKa FORUM on TV and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany. We are currently in conservation with PBS that may lead to a national broadcast once the festival circuit has run its course.

If there is one takeaway from Shadows that you hope audiences will have, what is it?

There’s an old saying that goes “let sleeping dogs lie…,” in other words, leave that certain thing alone cause if you keep on bother it again it could cause you trouble. The shrouded history of lynching in America is one such sleeping dog. It’s a sleeping dog because unlike other human atrocities such as the Jewish holocaust or South African apartheid, lynching in America has largely been ignored. Our nation has never come to terms with the brutal killing of its citizens because of the color of their skin. As we have so completely repressed this history, it has become the blueprint by which we negotiate cross-racial communication. With Shadows of the Lynching Tree, I am kicking that sleeping dog and disturbing the troublesome past. The dog is awake, will we finally confront the beast or does it return to an uneasy slumber?

How did you develop the idea for Shadows?

March 2005 I came across James Allen’s book on lynching photography entitled “Without Sanctuary.” They disturbed me to my core. I could not believe what I was looking at. I could not put it down – I could not pick it up. From that day to this, in every way, it changed the meaning of my life. It took me years to come to terms with the images. I couldn’t figure out my relationship with them, I didn’t know how to present them, I didn’t understand their full meaning, in some ways I still don’t. Gradually I realized that after the barbarity of the killing, it was the “onlookers,” those who linger in the background, those who crane their necks to be seen in the photograph, in the images, the women and children, the gentry, the festive atmosphere. I never get over these images. I knew then that Shadows of the Lynching Tree would be my next work.

There are three basic strands that form the foundation of Shadows of the Lynching Tree - historical - mythical - contemporary. First is the historical fact of the Waco Horror: The lynching of Jesse Washington. The documentation of this story shows that more than 15,000 people closed their shops, abandoned their farms, and brought their families to take pleasure in the killing of this boy. The second strand evolves from James Baldwin’s short story “Going to meet the Man,” in which a second boy named Jesse is taken by his father to a lynching. The third and perhaps anachronistic element grew from the candidacy of President Barack Obama. As Obama gained more traction in the general electorate, certain quarters of the country formed a more resolute opposition.

Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal Opens

2010-01-28T06:00:00.001-05:00

"Hand the Oscar to Jeff Bridges right now,and let's be done with it."
- Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

All About the Music
...Jeff Bridges originally passed on the movie; it was only after his old friend T Bone Burnett signed on that he agreed to play busted-up country singer Bad Blake. “When T Bone got involved, I knew it was a pretty safe bet the music would be good,” Bridges said.Read More Here.

From an Interview with the Director

How many liberties did you take with the book [source material]?
Oh, many. It was great source material, but it really only served as a blueprint and I then I added my personal touches to it, for better or worse. It really is a fantastic book and it gave me a wonderful place to start.

Not being very familiar with the source material—is the story set in New Mexico?
Yeah, it takes place in the southwest. It's a very obscure and fine novel. It's out of print but it's being re-released in February—as it should, because it's a lovely piece of work.

Has Crazy Heart novelist Thomas Cobb written anything else?
He has written some stories and a book that came out last year called Shavetail. He's a very talented writer.

How long ago did you start adapting this?
I started in 2005 or '06, and it didn't take long to adapt—maybe six weeks to have a first draft ready. Then I sent it off to Robert Duvall and said, "Yeah, I love it, let's make this." It took a while to get Jeff attached, took a while to find financing, took a while to find the right time and to get everyone's schedules to align.

Read the whole article here.

Crazy Heart opens Friday, January 29th

The Messenger is coming

2010-01-27T15:01:00.002-05:00

The Messenger opens Friday, January 29th.

Excerpt from an interview with the director:
How did your own experiences in the military affect the making of this film?
To tell you the truth, I think it had an impact on directing the film, much more than in writing it. There's nothing in the movie that I can say is my own experience. But what I think my experience allowed me to do was to understand the emotional landscape of a combat soldier. I could then communicate to the actors what the characters they're portraying are going through and what kind of experiences they're having and how they're feeling about it. The problem was projecting my own personal biases of how I felt about being in a combat zone, or what we call in the movie "the other planet," and then coming back from that. Read the full interview here.

Since a big part of the movie took place on the home front, it was all about what kind of emotions the combat vet was experiencing, and I think I was able to communicate that by telling stories and by talking with them about my feelings.
Woody Harrleson Doesn't Like to Cry
Find out more about why he cried in The Messenger.

From the NY Times Review
"No movie can convey the truth of war to those of us who have not lived through it, but “The Messenger,” precisely by acknowledging just how hard it is to live with that truth, manages to bring it at least partway home."

Closed tonight from 9 on

2010-01-26T14:40:00.000-05:00

It's our staff holiday party tonight. So we're a little late..

Indie filmmaker interview-Jennifer Grausman

2010-01-25T06:00:00.004-05:00

Jennifer's film, Pressure Cooker, will be screening at The Little as part of our Spotlight on Black History Month Series.

Here's a bit about the film:
Three seniors at Philadelphia's Frankford High School find an unlikely champion in the kitchen of Wilma Stephenson. A legend in the school system, Mrs. Stephenson's hilariously blunt boot-camp method of teaching Culinary Arts is validated by years of scholarship success. Against the backdrop of the row homes of working-class Philadelphia, she has helped countless students reach the top culinary schools in the country. And under her fierce direction, the usual distractions of high school are swept aside as Erica, Dudley and Fatoumata prepare to achieve beyond what anyone else expects from them.

And now for Jennifer's interview:

1. Jennifer, how did you first hear about Wilma Stephenson?
In 2005-2006, I researched several public high school culinary programs in NYC for a possible documentary, and kept hearing about Wilma Stephenson from teachers who had met her, as well from personnel at the Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), which runs the scholarship competition in the film, and was founded by my father, Richard Grausman. I finally went down to Frankford to meet her in June 2006. We had a three hour conversation and I knew right away from her passion and charisma that she was a character. It was clear how much she loved her students and that there was something special going on in her kitchen classroom.

2. What was it like to record the class and kids over time?
It was really wonderful to be able to film the kids throughout the whole year - we were able to watch them grow and change immensely. But filming in the kitchen was definitely a challenge. It's a tight space, with challenging sound issues, and we always had to be careful to stay out of the way - especially Mrs. Stephenson's way - since nothing was more important to her than teaching her students.

Spending so much time in the classroom was also valuable in that it made us a part of the class. This led to the naturalism and candid behavior of Wilma and the kids when we were around, which became a true strength of the film and allowed us to use primarily verite footage.

3. Tell us about your upcoming trip to Sundance?
I am going to Sundance for the premiere of a fiction feature film that I co-produced, 3 BACKYARDS. It was written and directed by Eric Mendelsohn and stars Edie Falco, Elias Koteas, Embeth Davidtz, Rachel Resheff, Kathryn Erbe and Danai Gurira.

4. What's the biggest thing you learned from the kids?
The kids were incredibly inspiring. They handled the stress of the competition, school, jobs and family issues with grace, maturity and a sense of humor.

5. Tell us about the Take Part campaign.
Participant Media executive produced the film and they run a social action campaign associated with PRESSURE COOKER. If you go to the website: http://www.takepart.com/pressurecooker you can learn more about C-CAP and donate to their efforts, as well as sign a petition to support the the Perkins Act, learn about ACTE - the Association of Career and Technical Education and support such programs in your own community.

6. How have you approached your participation in film festivals?
Mark and I were lucky to get to travel with the film to many film festivals all over the US and abroad. It was great to see the film with different audiences, do Q&As after screenings and especially participate in educational screenings with middle, high school, and college or culinary students.

Our very first screening was a special screening at the Los Angeles Film Festival for 1200 public high school students. They loved the film and we were lucky to have Wilma, Erica, Fatoumata and Dudley with us for the Q&A. The LA students treated them all like rock stars - asking for autographs - and also asking Mrs. Stephenson if she would move to LA and teach them! Many students said they could relate to PRESSURE COOKER because it told their story - and not many films do. It was an incredible experience.

Crib Sheet for Sundance

2010-01-23T06:00:00.003-05:00

So, you aren't an indie filmmaker and your company sure didn't pay for you to go...here's how to keep track of Sundance from your own home.

1. Twitter.com/sundancefest
2. iPhone app--Sundance iPhone App
3. Filmmaker interviews on YouTube (youtube.com/sff

Enjoy!

MovieGeek covers the Golden Globes

2010-01-22T10:45:00.002-05:00

Hi, I'm Kelly Foster. I handle all of the Special Events at The Little; and I've been dubbed MovieGeek when I guest write blog columns.

I will be offering my personal coverage and opinions as we move through the awards season. I've been involved in theatre and film since I was a youngster--no trivia is too arcane for me! Here's my take on the Golden Globes. Sorry it's a few days late, but I had to calm down after the whole Avatar thing. I hope you enjoy reading. I look forward to hearing your comments!

I think Warren Beatty put it best when he commented "The Golden Globes are fun, the Oscars are business."

If the Academy Awards are The New York Times, then the Globes are The Weekly World News. This year's show had one recurring theme - "NBC Sucks", starting with Julia Roberts on the red carpet proclaiming "NBC is in the toilet right now!", followed by Tom Hanks chiming in "NBC said it was going to rain at 10, but they moved it to 11:30". That pretty much set the tone for the night.

Here are a few standout moments to begin with…
Mo'Nique winning Best Supporting Actress for Precious and gave a teary, emotional thank-you speech. Mo'Nique has not endeared herself to voters this awards season (by skipping most of the awards show and not campaigning for votes), so this was the perfect way to show that she's serious ... about winning an Oscar.

Meryl Streep winning Best Actress (Comedy) for Julie and Julia, and gave what can only be described as a very "Streep-ian" speech. If I didn't know better, I'd say she was mocking the Saturday Night Live bit that mocked her the night before.

Ricky Gervais was fine as host (although I do think there is such a thing as being too self-deprecating), and he had the biggest "oh no he didn't!" moment of the night when he introduced Mel Gibson saying, “I like to drink as much as the next bloke, unless the next bloke is Mel Gibson.”

Sandra Bullock wins Best Dramatic Actress for The Blind Side. You've got to be kidding me. Let’s wait a few more years till she actually gets the right role to warrant an award. And I say this as a HUGE SB fan.

Now let me delve into the turbulent waters of the Best Picture and Best Director races and I will try and restrain myself.

The 100 or so members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association must have really loved James Cameron's “Avatar” to keep from voting for his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow as Best Director for “The Hurt Locker”. Ask yourself: Given the chance to honor the maker of what may become the biggest box office hit of all time with a Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Motion Picture and take the rare opportunity to acknowledge a woman for besting men in a man's world, shouldn't you take the double?

I like “Avatar”, but Cameron is a technological master, not a master director. He's certainly not a writer, not of scripts and not of speeches. On Sunday, the ‘King of the World’ was a bag of wind, and his ex-wife -- his better on this night -- was nowhere in sight.

In the turnaround time between their nominating and casting their final ballots, the foreign press drop-kicked both their drama favorite 'Up in the Air' and their comedy/musical favorite 'Nine' to the curb. 'Up in the Air' cashed in only one of its six nominations -- the best screenplay award to 'Up in the Air' -- and 'Nine' went oh-for-four. Quentin Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds,' which also had four nominations, felt the love just once, for Christophe Waltz's supporting actor performance.

The foreign press spread their awards with apparent equanimity. No movie got more than two Globes and only three -- 'Avatar,' 'Up,' and 'Crazy Heart' -- got that many. But neither 'Up' nor 'Crazy Heart' is in the running for a Best Picture Oscar. 'The Hurt Locker' was, but, after it was shut out at the Globes, may no longer be. Certainly, unnecessary damage has been done to Bigelow.

OK, the foreign press, as someone noted during Sunday's Globe broadcast, is a strange bunch. They're not driven by logic or even by taste; they're driven by their need for writing assignments. And they are going to get a lot more assignments for a movie that's about to gross more than $1 billion overseas than for one that has already run its course in foreign markets with barely $3 million in ticket sales.

THE ‘OSCAR EFFECT’
People often overstate the predictive power of the Golden Globes when it comes to the eventual Academy Award winners. After all, there’s no overlap between the voting bodies. But after Sunday night I can’t help but feel several races beginning to shift, for better or worse. For instance:

Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress
Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique were locks before last night, and they’re even stronger locks now.

Best Actor
It was certainly a race between George Clooney and Jeff Bridges. That Bridges received the heartiest standing ovation for any Globe winner means the Hollywood community isn’t just loving his touching performance in Crazy Heart, but that they’re also looking at this like a career-achievement award. The foreign press can take pride in the Globe they gave to Jeff Bridges as Best Dramatic Actor for 'Crazy Heart.' It was a career-capping performance, and Bridges' humble acceptance speech is one that Oscar voters will want to hear in their own hall. After four losses at the Oscars, he may just get the big trophy after all.

Best Actress
They tied at the BFCAs, and now Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock picked up Globe wins. Everyone will now say it’s between the two of them for the win, and they’ll be right. The Globes were Carey Mulligan’s best shot at a victory; she and Gabourey Sidibe will now need to be content with a nomination. (And I hope they will be!)

Movies and music this week

2010-01-21T06:00:00.001-05:00

Continuing:
A Single Man
Broken Embraces
The Young Victoria
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Sherlock Holmes
Up in the Air

Music:
Monday: Annie Wells

Wednesday: The Margaret Explosion

Thursday: Deborah Magone

Friday: Don Mancuso & Regi Hendrix

Saturday: Steve Greene Trio

Bob Russell Takes on the Critics Choice and the Golden Globes

2010-01-19T06:00:00.003-05:00

Our Executive Director, Bob Russell shares a few of his personal reactions as the awards season begins. Hit it, Bob...

The televised film awards season has officially kicked-off with the announcements of both the Critics Choice and Golden Globe winners. It was a great weekend for a few folks, especially those who scored “a double”—walking home with awards from each ceremony. Jeff Bridges was honored as Best Actor for his performance in “Crazy Heart” (which opens at The Little on February 29), Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor as the “Want to Hate Him but Secretly Love Him” Col. Hans Landa in “Inglourious Basterds” and Mo'Nique was recognized for her strong, breakout dramatic performance in “Precious”.

I felt the Critics Choice Movie Awards deserved a better production than bad jokes and bland presenters. I was very disappointed that the Best Foreign Language Film award, which was given to “Broken Embraces” (now at The Little), was not presented live, but in a pre-announcement.

I was thrilled to see Kathryn Bigelow become the first female ever to be honored with the Best Directing award for her amazing film “The Hurt Locker”, which was also named Best Picture.

And I’m wondering if the Meryl Streep/Sandra Bullock kiss will receive as much media attention as the Madonna/Britney kiss did?

The Golden Globes had its share of memorable moments, as usual. Though I must ask – was it necessary for the Red Carpet “reporters” to ask every star about the rain?

Highlights:

Best Acceptance Speech: Robert Downey Jr. “refusing” to thank anyone, especially…
Most Heartfelt Acceptance Speech: Mo'Nique
Most Glamorous Presenter: Sophia Loren
Best Foreign Language Film Award: “The White Ribbon” (opens at The Little on February 19).
Best Drama: “Avatar”—Really? Best Drama winner over “The Hurt Locker” or “Precious”? Really?

Indie Filmmaker Interview--Seattle's Own 4D4Films

2010-01-18T06:00:00.003-05:00

Will and Valerie, tell us about why you established a film company?

We are fans of great stories and characters. Whether it is books, TV, or the movies, there is nothing like a well-crafted story based on interesting characters. I (Will) had been complaining about movies and “if we had their budget we could do something better” for many years. Finally one day, Valerie said “let’s do it, let’s make a movie.” I (Will) had done some video production stuff back in the day, real basic stuff, but Valerie hadn’t been on a set, so we volunteered behind the scenes on a couple of local films to get some much needed experience. We asked as many questions as we could and walked away with a better understanding of the process. While we were getting our “real education”, we formed 4D4Films with the primary goal of producing the best no-budget films we could utilizing the talent, locations and resources of the Pacific Northwest.

What is it like trying to get films made?

Aside from finding and making time, it’s been a fairly easy process. Locations have been pretty easy to find, it’s amazing how excited people are just to be a part of the process and willing to welcome you into their home. As far as casting goes, there are plenty of talented people in the area who are willing and interested in participating in local films. We like to keep things pretty simple on set and usually shoot with only a couple of crew members and have our cast help out when they aren’t in a scene. They like being a part of things behind the scenes as well and it makes it much easier to manage the set.

What's your take on the filmmaking community out near Seattle?

There are far more productions going on at any given time in the area than most people realize. It’s a very active area, with a wide variety of subjects and styles. I think the Seattle area attracts artistic people and this really shows in the films that getting made. There are also some great festivals in the area that treat everyone very well, even those of us that aren’t trying to make a career out of filmmaking. There are also a lot of resources for those pursuing it as a career and some great indie screening venues as well.

Tell us about your documentary. How did you select your subject?

It’s a story of one man’s 20 year journey as an independent record store owner. He’s seen and survived it all from CD’s, to illegal music sharing, big box stores selling CD’s for less than cost (a common practice most people don’t know about), and the economic collapse of the last couple years. I (Will) have known him since college and he’s always been an interesting character and a great human being, a real stand-up kind of guy. We’ve been talking about doing a documentary on his story and with his 20th anniversary coming up next summer; it seemed like the perfect time.

What's the most difficult part of being an indie filmmaker? The most rewarding?

The biggest challenge is time – shooting, editing, marketing, and promoting our films. We’ve been really fortunate in having the creative material, talent, and locations, but time is always a challenge. We are huge Vancouver Canucks hockey fans so we try to shoot during the summer and edit in the fall/winter.

The most rewarding part is seeing it play on the big screen at festivals. Sitting there watching along with the audience and getting their feedback when it is over is a truly amazing feeling. To get to share that experience with people in those settings is great. When they watch it and get what you were trying to do, nothing can beat that feeling. Winning awards are fun too, but that is really icing on the cake – the screening is where it’s at.

You can reach Will and Valerie at:

www.4D4Films.com

Broken Embraces-Opening Friday, Jan. 15th

2010-01-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

About the Film

Broken Embraces (Spanish: Los abrazos rotos) is a 2009 Spanish film by Pedro Almodóvar set in the 1990s and present day. The film centers on a four-way tale of dangerous love, and was shot in the style of a hard-boiled 1950s American film noir^[2], more themed to the neo-noir genre. However, it is filmed in bright color, as most of Almodovar's films are, rather than black-and-white. The cast includes many Almodóvar regulars such as Ángela Molina, Lola Dueñas and Penélope Cruz (her fourth film with the director). The film's soundtrack includes Cat Power, Uffie, and Can.

Many themes include noir references such as posters in sets, the lighting and the characters themselves.

The film was accepted into the main selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the prestigious Palme d'Or,^[3] his third film to do so and fourth to screen at the festival.

The film has also been nominated for the 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Almodóvar's sixth film to be nominated in this category. It has also been nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as the Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama for Penélope Cruz's performance.

Synopsis

A man writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years before, he was in a brutal car crash on the island of Lanzarote. In the accident, he didn’t lose only his sight, he also lost Lena, the love of his life.

This man uses two names: Harry Caine, a playful pseudonym with which he signs his literary works, stories and scripts, and Mateo Blanco, his real name, with which he lives and signs the film he directs. After the accident, Mateo Blanco reduces himself to his pseudonym, Harry Caine. If he can’t direct films he can only survive with the idea that Mateo Blanco died on Lanzarote with his beloved Lena.

In the present day, Harry Caine lives thanks to the scripts he writes and to the help he gets from his faithful former production manager, Judit García, and from Diego, her son, his secretary, typist and guide. When Diego has an accident and circumstances are such that Harry is left to take care of him, Diego asks Harry about the time when he answered to the name of Mateo Blanco.

With the idea of entertaining the him, Harry tells Diego what happened fourteen years just as a father tells his little child a story so that he’ll fall asleep.

What's being said about the film
"Can there be such a thing as exuberant melancholy? I can’t think of another way to describe the spirit of “Broken Embraces,” Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film, the title of which carries a telling hint of paradox. It is grave and effervescent, tender and cruel."--The NY Times

"You may get whiplash following the twists and turns in the latest wild ride from Spain’s Pedro Almodóvar. But it hurts so good. Broken Embraces is the fourth film in which Almodóvar has directed his muse, Penélope Cruz. They bring out something elemental in each other..."--Rolling Stone

The Little Theatre LOVES Christopher Plummer!

2010-01-14T13:38:00.002-05:00

We have asked roughly a dozen indie film stars to show their support for us by providing signed photos.

Our first respondent is Mr. Plummer. We are very grateful to him. Look for him in the upcoming film The Last Station which opens here Feb. 26th.

Film and music this week

2010-01-14T13:11:00.003-05:00

Opening:
A Single Man
Broken Embraces
Falstaff (Opera Series--Tuesday, 19th at 7pm, Sunday 24th at noon)

Continuing:
The Young Victoria
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Sherlock Holmes
Up in the Air

Music:
Monday: Annie Wells

Wednesday: The Margaret Explosion

Thursday: Deborah Magone

Friday: Don Mancuso & Regi Hendrix

Saturday: Steve Greene Trio

A Single Man--Opening Friday, Jan. 15th

2010-01-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

A Single Man is based on the book by Christopher Isherwood.Here's a little history...When A Single Man was originally published in 1964, it shocked many by its frank, sympathetic, and moving portrayal of a gay man in midlife. George, the protagonist, is adjusting to life on his own after the sudden death of his partner, and determines to persist in the routines of his daily life; the course of A Single Man spans twenty-four hours in an ordinary day. An Englishman and a professor living in suburban Southern California, he is an outsider in every way, and his internal reflections and interactions with others reveal a man who loves being alive despite everyday injustices and loneliness.

About the film

'A Single Man' is based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. Set in Los Angeles in 1962, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, it is the story of a British college professor (Colin Firth) who is struggling to find meaning to his life after the death of his long time partner. The story is a romantic tale of love interrupted, the isolation that is an inherent part of the human condition, and ultimately the importance of the seemingly smaller moments in life.Starring: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode, Jon Kortajarena

Excerpt from an interesting interview with the film's Director, Tom Ford. (yes, he's the famous fashion designer)
Question: Now that you’ve started this second profession while keeping at the fashion, I’m curious about what you saw yourself doing as a child?

Ford: God. I thought that I was going to be an actor. I actually studied acting at NYU and I made a lot of television commercials which is how I put myself through college. I quickly realized that I didn’t want to be an actor because I didn’t feel secure enough at that time. I remember doing a Purell shampoo commercial when I was nineteen and this kind of bitchy hairdresser said, ‘You’re losing your hair. It’s all going to fall out.’ I just remember becoming so paranoid about my appearance that I wasn’t a good actor because I was too self-absorbed and nervous. I realized that wasn’t going to happen for me so I went back to school and studied architecture and fashion and now I’ve sort of ended up here. But when I was a kid I thought that I was going to be an actor.

Read the entire interview here.

Indie Filmmaker Interview-Zoje Stage

2010-01-11T06:00:00.002-05:00

Zoje, tell us about your background in filmmaking and screenwriting.

I am primarily a self-taught writer and filmmaker - although I did take a screenwriting class and a couple of Super-8 filmmaking classes at Pittsburgh Filmmakers in the late 80's. I knew as a teenager that I wanted to be a filmmaker - it was an art form that seemed to encompass all of my creative interests. However, my path has been very circuitous, which has allowed me to pick up a diverse set of skills along the way. I've been a very disciplined writer for a long time, and my method and style has evolved in a very intuitive way. Also, I have a deep background in theatre. Theatre was accessible in a way that filmmaking opportunities often weren't (especially before digital video became ubiquitous) - so via theatre I had the chance to work in a collaborative environment, get my writing up on its feet, and experience the art of "live production" both behind the scenes and on stage. (The one area where I am trained is as an actor.) All of these things have contributed to my ability to be an effective storyteller as a filmmaker. Once I got my own DV equipment I had a chance to experiment and refine my skills, and learning to edit was a vital step in understanding the complete process of filmmaking = preproduction (writing), production (directing), post-production (editing).

What's it like trying to attach creatives to a script in production?

I am glad this is not my main responsibility! But seriously, this is where an experienced producer can make a big difference. I'm in the process of getting my award-winning script "The Machine Who Loved" into production, and after more than a year of false starts former-Rochesterian Richard Bosner has come on board as producer. Rick lives and works in California and is very experienced . I've said for a long time that the key person on any set is the Production Manager, because that's the person who knows everything about the logistics of getting a film made, and that's Rick's background - and in the last two years he's produced two other feature films. He has developed relationships with people in many different areas of the business and we're drawing on his contacts to attract our initial key people. A project like this builds incrementally, and given the enthusiasm that people have shown for the script we anticipate being able to put together a great, professional crew and cast. Getting people attached, especially to a low-budget film, is a matter of having a project that people get excited about and believe in - and this script has dynamic roles for actors so, in addition to Rick's contacts, we know we'll be able to attract great talent.

What's your take on the filmmaking community here in Rochester?

On the one hand it seems obvious that Rochester has a very active indie filmmaking community, since it is the home of Eastman Kodak. But on the other hand, when non-artists ask me what the filmmaking community here is like they seem shocked when I say that it is thriving - so obviously there is not great awareness about what's going on. Not to kiss your ass or anything, but I think to have a blog like this affiliated with the Little Theatre is a great idea, because the people here who love and support independent film might not be aware that there are a ton of filmmakers here, dashing around with their cameras, cooped up in their rooms editing, and screening their stuff around the country - and locally at Emerging Filmmakers and other fests. To a lot of people, a "film" is a multi-million dollar extravaganza - but long before any filmmaker is allowed to helm something with that big of a budget, she makes what she can with almost no money, honing her skills until she gets a bigger opportunity. There are a lot of people here working toward that bigger opportunity.

What is it like having a screenplay staged compared to what it would be like watching a film?

After winning the 2009 Screenplay Live! screenwriting competition, I had the opportunity to direct my script "The Machine Who Loved" as a staged reading for the High Falls Films Festival (now the 360/365 George Eastman House Film Festival). The short answer to your question is a staged reading bears absolutely no resemblance to a film. I was well aware of this while I was directing the reading, and my singular goal was to keep the audience engaged: in a film, you are surrounded by dynamic moving images; at a reading, you see actors sitting on a stage, reading from a script for ninety minutes. And all the descriptive stuff - what should be imagery - is read aloud by a narrator. It's a pretty boring proposition. As part of my work with the actors I continually found myself explaining how their intention might be rendered on film in one simple close-up, whereas on the stage you need to create something broader that a live audience can see, while still trying to maintain realism and naturalism. It was a really great experience getting the script on its feet, and the audience enjoyed it - it's a chance for them to appreciate a movie's unheralded origins: the screenplay. But ultimately, a screenplay fulfills its purpose only when it becomes a film.

What's the most difficult part of being an indie filmmaker? The most rewarding?

Many years ago I spent a couple of months in Los Angeles and when people found out I wanted to be an independent filmmaker they looked at me with pity and asked "Why?" Their idea of success in filmmaking had everything to do with money and power. My only vision for success is as an independent filmmaker, because at heart I am a person who thinks too much, dreams too much, feels too much, and likes to make stuff. I think it's fine that there's an avenue of cinema that's just about entertainment, but the body of work I hope to make has more to say.

At some level, the difference between a studio film and an independent film begins to blur, because the films are seeking the same exposure and distribution opportunities. Let's face it, whether you make a feature for $1 million or $100 million, your goal is for people to see it. Things get difficult for someone shopping around an indie project when their work is perceived as being not commercial enough - for whatever reasons. The real challenge is to get the exposure opportunities, because I fervently believe that humans are moved by things in a similar way - whether they are laughing, crying, hiding in fright, or cheering on a protagonist. I think smaller budget films tend to actually be better at connecting human beings with other human beings, precisely because there are fewer whistles-and-bells. But in a world where big studio films can make $200 million dollars, people don't appreciate that the profit margin for a smaller film can be just as great. So in part, being an independent filmmaker is a battle of perceptions. I think the ultimate reward is being able to say "I did it my way" - because of course artistically, I'm not functioning as part of a corporate committee.

Zoje's Contact Info.:
zstage@masterbuilderfilms.com
www.masterbuilderfilms.com

New Member Perk-Nationwide Arthouse Theatre Discounts

2010-01-08T06:00:00.005-05:00

If you are a Little member (if you aren't follow this link), we have a new perk for you.

The Little has joined forces with independent arthouse theatres across the country to extend special membership discounts at the following theatres:

Florida
Cinema Paradiso (Ft. Lauderdale)

Tampa Theatre (Tampa)

Louisiana
Robinson Film Center (Shreveport)

Massachusetts
Cape Ann Community Cinema (Gloucester)

Coolidge Corner Theatre (Brookline)

New Hampshire
Red River Theatres (Concord)

New York
ART Mission and Theater (Binghamton)

North Dakota
The Fargo Theatre (Fargo)

Oklahoma
Circle Cinema (Tulsa)

Oregon
Hollywood Theatre (Portland)

South Carolina
Nickelodeon Theatre (Columbia)

Washington
Olympia Film Society (Olympia)

Brother Towns/Pueblos Hermanos Film Information

2010-01-07T10:12:00.001-05:00

One Showing Only! Monday, January 11 at 6:30
Part of the Harvesting Justice Film Festival, a collaboration between Rural & Migrant Ministry and The Little Theatre

“Brother Towns / Pueblos Hermanos” chronicles the human interchange over the last quarter century between two towns: Jacaltenango, Guatemala and Jupiter, Florida. During the Guatemalan violence of the 1980s refugees began heading north to save their lives. Some three thousand indigenous migrants from the highlands of Guatemala have made their way to the coastal resort town of Jupiter. Jupiter and Jacaltenango have signed a sister city agreement, and try to face head on the challenges presented by change. The film raises many questions about the new immigrants in small communities across the country. It underlines the challenges in the U.S. as well as the tremendous pressures on Guatemalan families, whose members must decide whether to leave to provide for them or stay behind to keep the family together.

Following the film will be a talkback with the films director, Charles Thompson.

Sponsored by the Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School

Tickets: $10

Film and music this week

2010-01-07T10:04:00.003-05:00

Opening this week:
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Brother Towns/Pueblos Hermanos (one showing Mon. Jan. 11 @6:30-Harvesting Justice Film Festival)

Continuing:
Up in the Air, Nine, The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes

Music in the Cafe:
Monday, 7:30-9:30 Annie Wells
Wednesday, 7:30-9:30 The Margaret Explosion
Thursday, 7:30-9:30 Deborah Magone
Friday, 8:30-10:30 Don Mancuso & Regi Hendrix
Saturday, 8:30-10:30 Steve Greene Trio

Indie Filmmaker Interview, Scott Coblio

2010-01-06T07:00:00.005-05:00

Scott, tell us about your background in filmmaking.

I was a film minor in college--we shot everything on 16mm film and edited it on a Moviola. The sound had to be recorded separately on a reel to reel tape machine called a Nagra and the two tracks unified later in editing. It was all very old school, but in hindsight I'm glad I learned that way. I love old movies and I felt a connection to them using their technology.

After college, around 1990, I bought a VHS movie camera--they cost about $1,000 then, so not many people had them. I started making what I called "Media Whore Movies"--basically short funny films starring me and my friends. Sometimes they would be parodies of popular movies that were out at the time. A lot of them were pure nonsense. I was very into Dadaism or absurdism then. I thought a movie with no plot and one joke played out incessantly was a hilarious idea. But there was really no place to show them. We use to sell compilations of them at Godiva's (vintage clothing shop on Monroe Ave) and I think we sold one at the Pyramid Art Auction one year. But it was not a really serious film making endeavor, it was more just a way to keep my creative juices flowing, and a fun way to spend weekends!

There was also no youtube then. All we had was Cable Access, which nobody wanted to watch or be seen on. Now everyone's a film maker. It's not quite so novel as it was then. The technology is cheap and kids are growing up with iMovie or whatever on their computer and it's nothing for them to make a movie just for fun. There's no heavy financial investment or technology to learn any more, which in a way is bad, because it means that you might have to weed through a lot of stuff to get to a movie that was made by someone with a serious interest in film making. The flipside, I guess, is that you can reach a much broader audience now. If my youtube video gets 6,000 hits for example, that probably beats the number of people who saw our Media Whore movies by quite a bit.

Eventually the group of friends I had been making movies with kind of dissipated and moved away to different places, and I got some work making training and instructional videos for banks and other businesses for extra money. It wasn't creative but at least I learned video editing technology, since the Media Whore stuff was all edited "in-camera". You just had to shoot them in order and rewind and re-film a take if something went wrong. So I was learning the ropes.

I got much more into my music and photography at this point. I found that I only loved film making when I had people around me that were fun to make movies with. It was really about the collaboration for me. I also found that I'm basically a storyteller who can work in different mediums. Some stories are film ideas, some are songs, and some are photographs. And it's okay to bop back and forth and tell stories in different mediums. It's just that collaboration is more important to some mediums than others. So I put film on the back burner until I was with people that made me want to make movies again.

In 1997, I moved from Rochester to L.A. and got a job as a video editor, which got me back into film, and I started to make little videos again. Then I decided to bite the bullet and make a "real" movie, and started my first feature "Murderess" in 2004 and finished in 2007. It was a historical murder mystery based on a true story that happened in 1931, and I shot it on mini DV, although I tried to give it a film-look to match the feel of a 1930's or 40's film noir. I very much wanted it to look NOT like a contemporary film.

What is it like trying to get films on the festival circuit?

Expensive! There's an entry fee for most of them, and it can add up--$25 here, $50 there, you can end up spending thousands just to enter festivals--maybe more than you spent on your film! I entered the festivals for about a year and then ran out of money. Also, as in any other field, there is a certain amount of nepotism going on--it helps to know people on the inside if you want your film get that extra consideration. Not that you can't enter "cold" and be accepted, but knowing people sure doesn't hurt!

"Murderess" eventually went on to win something--"Best Animated Feature" in the 2008 DIY (Do It Yourself) festival in Los Angeles, which was funny because it's really not an animated film. It's a live-action film using marionettes. But I'll take what I can get! Jack Garner (columnist for the Democrat & Chronicle) called my movie "by far the weirdest entry" when it showed in the ImageOut Festival at the Little and that amused me.

What's your take on the filmmaking community here in Rochester?

I wish it was more of a "scene"--that is, a kind of art fraternity where more film makers get involved in each other's projects. Like Salvador Dali and Louis Bunuel and the other surrealists of the avant-garde movement in the 1920's, or Pabst (Pandora's Box) and the Neo-Realists in Germany. Something where everybody gets involved in the same area of interest can be really exciting, more than just a bunch of isolated film makers all doing separate things. But I'm glad people are picking up cameras and shooting. The most important thing is to hold on to the importance of storytelling. It's vital on a basic human level. We need to tell stories and we need to hear them--in any medium. It's unifying and healing.

Any upcoming projects?

I'm writing a melodrama where every character looks like Joan Crawford. It's called Confessions of a Passion-Fruit Moose. I guess I'm back to Dadaism!

What's the most difficult part of being an indie filmmaker? The most rewarding?

The most difficult is money, or lack of it. The more money you have, the better equipment you can afford, the better costumes and sets you can create, the more people who's talent you can access. Obviously, when there's no budget, you have to make do and it can be frustrating making something out of nothing.

However, this also accounts for the most rewarding aspect. You really have to have a good story to make an arresting film with no budget. So you can't rely on bells and whistles--there has to be a good story--and there has to be heart--or it won't work.

I keep saying that now that everyone can make movies and everyone can afford the bells and whistles, the most radical thing anyone's going to be able to do is just tell a good, simple story. Maybe the technological boom--by creating so many filmmakers-- will ultimately signal a return to basic storytelling. The criteria will be, not who can make the fanciest movie, but who can tell the best story; which would be a good thing.

Thanks for sharing your insight, Scott! If you enjoyed our inaugural filmmaker interview, let us know. It's our goal to provide insight into all parts of the filmmaking process here on our blog!

You can reach Scott at:

Scott Coblio

7718 W. Norton Avenue, Apt. 18

W. Hollywood, CA 90046

323-252-6512 cell

kookoo@roadrunner.com

This week's films

2009-12-31T06:30:00.000-05:00

Playing this week:
Up in the Air, The Young Victoria, Nine, Sherlock Holmes, Invictus, A Serious Man

Music in the cafe:
Thursday: Watkins and the Rapiers, Friday: The Westview Project, Saturday: Fred Stone Progressive Jazz Trio

Happy New Year!

Opera in Cinema Series--Thais for 2 Showings only!

2009-12-30T12:21:00.000-05:00

From the Teatro Regio di Torino (Italy)

Tuesday, January 5 at 7:00pm and Sunday, January 10 at Noon. Tickets $20/$18 Members, students, seniors

See the trailer here.

Thais is an opera in three acts by Jules Massenet, to a French libretto by Louis Gallet, based on the novel of the same name by Anatole France. It was first performed at the Opéra in Paris on March 16, 1894, with the glamorous American soprano Sybil Sanderson, for whom Massenet had written it, in the title role.

The monk Athanaël attempts to convert the beautiful courtesan Thaïs to Christianity, despite the many warnings of his friends. After Athanaël rejects her advances, Thais eventually agrees to renounce her worldly possessions and join a convent. It is only upon their arrival at the convent that Athanaël realizes he will never see the beautiful Thaïs again. After their separation, he is consumed by desire for her, and has a vision of her immenent death. He returns to convent to see her, and finds her on her deathbed. He confesses his love and extols the power of earthly desire, but Thaïs has been changed forever—she sees him only as the man who brought her to salvation. Thaïs receives heavenly visions and dies Athanaël’s arms, while Athanaël is left in despair and anguish.

Indie filmmakers in Rochester, NY

2009-12-29T13:39:00.002-05:00

If you are an indie filmmaker or know someone who is that would like to be profiled in a blog article, let us know. Contact Beth@thelittle.org

We would love to help you tell people about your projects.

http://validator.w3.org/feed/check.cgi?url=http%3A//littletheatreroch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

EMERGING FILMMAKERS SERIES, Mon., Dec. 28, 9:15pm

2009-12-27T12:04:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving • 15:33 minutes • Stan Main • Rochester, NY

DJINN • 15:00 minutes • Eliane Lima • Binghamton, NY

Vietnam: The Puerto Rican Experience • 22:16 minutes • Ismael Rivera • Rochester, NY

Backwards • 4:30 minutes • Aaron Hughes • Brooklyn, NY

Total running time: 57:17 • Tickets $5.00

Visit the Emerging Filmmakers Series page for more information.

The Emerging Filmmakers Series is made possible through support from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Social Media Club of Rochester

2009-12-24T13:43:00.002-05:00

The Social Media Club of Rochester, NY holds monthly get-togethers so people interested in social media can meet face to face & share ideas. If you are into social media check them out. They have monthly meetups, etc.

Sherlock Holmes--Opening Dec. 25th

2009-12-24T08:16:00.000-05:00

About the Film
“Sherlock Holmes” unfolds against the backdrop of London in 1890, when the
city seems at the center of the world, with technology extending mankind’s reach and all
things new racing to replace the old. “There’s a growing engagement in technologies of
the near future, and this sense of wonderment,” Robert Downey Jr. observes. “They’re
verging on all these incredible things.”

But for all the polish and prestige, 1890s London is also a cesspool into which all
the criminals of contemporary society drain…which makes it the ideal city for a man like
Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes has made his reputation finding the truth at the heart of the most
complex mysteries. With the aid of Dr. John Watson, his trusted ally, the renowned
“consulting detective” is unequaled in his pursuit of criminals of every stripe, whether
relying on his singular powers of observation, his remarkable deductive skills, or the
blunt force of his fists.

But now a storm is gathering over London, a threat unlike anything that Holmes
has ever confronted…and just the challenge he’s looking for.
After a string of brutal, ritualistic murders, Holmes and Watson arrive just in time
to save the latest victim and uncover the killer: the unrepentant Lord Blackwood. As he
approaches his scheduled hanging, Blackwood—who has terrorized inmates and jailers
alike with his seeming connection to dark and powerful forces—warns Holmes that death
has no power over him and, in fact, his execution plays right into Blackwood’s plans.

And when, by all indications, Blackwood makes good on his promise, his
apparent resurrection panics London and confounds Scotland Yard. But to Holmes, the
game is afoot.

A Bit from Behind the Scenes
In creating a tangible feel of Sherlock Holmes’s London, Guy Ritchie wanted to
portray a city at the crossroads between the past and a newly dawning future—an
expansive and gritty place with bold new architecture being layered over the old.
“As the
center of the Industrial Revolution, London really was throbbing with enthusiasm and
creative energy,” Ritchie observes. “Tower Bridge was being built, one of the many very
ambitious things the Victorians were undertaking at the time.”

“The film is set when the British Empire is at its height,” adds Robert Downey Jr.
“There was a sense of being on the cusp of the modern age, with a real interest in
technological developments.”

The directive on all levels of design was to be at once authentic and grounded in
the reality of the times while also creating a fresh look for Holmes’s world. “That was
the key to this film,” says costume designer Jenny Beavan. “My instruction was to avoid
the infamous deerstalker hat that has become emblematic of the old Holmes,” she
continues, noting that the deerstalker hat did not come from Conan Doyle’s words but
from an early illustration of one of the stories. “Our Holmes has a rumpled, scruffy look.
You get the sense that he throws his clothes on the floor when he’s done with them and
picks anything out of the pile when he gets dressed. For example, he wears a dinner
jacket for the meal with Watson and his fiancée Mary but gets the shirt and cravat just
slightly wrong. There’s a bit of a vintage store feel to his clothes.”

What's Being Said About the Film
"If you can get over the idea of Sherlock Holmes as an action hero -- and if, indeed, you want to -- then there is something to enjoy about this flagrant makeover of fiction's first modern detective into a man of brawn as much as brain. "--Variety

This week's films

2009-12-23T14:22:00.000-05:00

Opening Tonight: Up in the Air

Opening Friday: The Young Victoria, Nine, Sherlock Holmes

Continuing: Invictus, A Serious Man

Emerging Filmmakers Series Mon. 28th 9:15pm, tickets $5.00

Holiday Film Openings: The Young Victoria

2009-12-23T08:27:00.000-05:00

Edited by Rochester's own Matt Garner!

About the film
From Martin Scorsese & the makers of Gosford Park and The Departed, comes the story of Queen Victoria’s early rise to power. From an object of a royal power-struggle in to her romantic courtship and legendary marriage to Prince Albert, Emily Blunt (Devil Wears Prada) gives a stunning performance as The Young Victoria.

The Duchess of York on "The Young Victoria"

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, is the ex-wife of Prince Andrew, a one time confidante to Princess Diana, a Weight Watchers spokesperson, Britain's traditional punching bag and, now, a movie producer -- and she's out on the circuit doing press for "The Young Victoria," her first venture into film production.

Americans are suckers for British accents and aristocracy, so regardless of any accompanying infamy, it was inevitable the Duchess would show up and give good copy to promote the release...Read the Full Report Here.

What's Being Said About the Film

"With a transcendent Emily Blunt in the title role and Rupert Friend splendid as Prince Albert, director Jean-Marc Vallée has created a terrific period piece that retains a modern-day freshness."--The LA Times

Holiday week film openings: Up in the Air

2009-12-22T11:34:00.000-05:00

Opens Dec. 23rd

About the film:
Up in the Air is a 2009 American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and co-written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner. It is a film adaptation of the 2001 novel, Up in the Air, written by Walter Kirn. The story is about a corporate downsizer in his travels and follows his isolated life and philosophies, along with the people that he meets along the way.

Kirn wrote the book after meeting another passenger in a first class cabin who enjoyed being on the road more than 300 days a year. Reitman started adapting the book in 2002, but did not complete the screenplay until 2008 because of directoral duties for both Thank You for Smoking and Juno. Reitman wrote the parts specifically for George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Danny McBride, Melanie Lynskey, Amy Morton, Sam Elliott and Zach Galifianakis. Reitman included twenty-two recently laid off workers who played themselves being fired. Filming was primarily in St. Louis, Missouri which substituted for a number of other cities shown in the film. Several scenes were also filmed in Detroit, Michigan, Omaha, Nebraska, Las Vegas, Nevada and Miami, Florida.

What People Are Saying:

"People I meet always ask if there is something wonderful to see at the movies. Now I have an answer. See Up in the Air, a transporting comedy from slump-resistant director Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking, Juno) that jet-fuels the Oscar race, rattles with romantic turbulence, rumbles with the terror of living in a cratering economy and takes a never-better George Clooney on the ride of his acting life."—Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Link to the trailer here.

Holiday hours-Christmas, New Year's

2009-12-21T14:27:00.000-05:00

Our holiday hours are as follows:
Christmas Eve Thurs 12/24- Theatre & Cafe CLOSED

Christmas Day Fri 12/25 - Theatres will be open regular business hours. Cafe is closed.

New Years Eve Thurs 12/31- Theatre & Cafe open regular business hours.

New Years Day Fri 1/1- Theatre & Cafe open regular business hours.

Nine--Opening Dec. 25th

2009-12-21T08:01:00.000-05:00

Director Rob Marshall Talks About Casting

The corridors of New York’s historic Waldorf-Astoria Hotel are lined with black-and-white photographs of famous visitors and guests who have stayed there in the past. But it is unlikely that the hotel has ever before seen such an august gathering of stars as the group of six Oscar winners and one nominee who met there the other day to talk about their roles in the lavish movie adaptation of the stage musical Nine.

“I was just upstairs with the entire cast, and I still can’t believe it,” says the film’s director, co-writer and choreographer Rob Marshall as he joins me in a fourth-floor suite. “It’s overwhelming.” Read the whole UK article here.

About the film
Arrogant, self-centered movie director Guido Contini finds himself struggling to find meaning, purpose, and a script for his latest film endeavor. With only a week left before shooting begins, he desperately searches for answers and inspiration from his wife, his mistress, his muse, and his mother. As his chaotic profession steadily destroys his personal life, Guido must find a balance between creating art and succumbing to its obsessive demands.

The movie boasts the highest density of Academy Award-winning talent than any film this holiday season: Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Sophia Loren and Penelope Cruz. For a movie about moviemaking -- the plot is inspired by Fellini's "8 1/2" -- the casting is a triumph.

What's being said about it
"...the movie is a feast for the eyes, highly stylized like "Mad Men" all’italiana..."—New York Times

So many openings this week

2009-12-21T07:49:00.001-05:00

We've got a huge slate of openings this week. Because we have so many to cover, I'll be posting more in-depth bits about them all week. We wish you and yours a safe holiday--and we hope to see you at the movies!

Openings:

Dec. 23rd
Up in the Air (Directed by Jason Reitman, Starring George Clooney and Vera Farmiga)

Dec. 25th
Nine (Directed by Rob Marshall, Starring Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, Fergie and Kate Hudson. Holy cow--all of them in one film?! Screenplay by the late Anthony Minghella and Michael Tolkin)

Sherlock Holmes (Directed by Guy Richie, Starring Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law and Rachel McAdams)

The Young Victoria (Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. Starring Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany)

Opening this week: La Danse - The Paris Opera Ballet (one week only)

2009-12-18T09:45:00.000-05:00

About the film:
The Paris Opera Ballet is one of the world’s great ballet companies. The film follows the rehearsals and performances of seven ballets: Genus by Wayne McGregor, Le Songe de Medée by Angelin Preljocaj, La Maison de Bernarda by Mats Ek, Paquita by Pierre Lacotte, Casse Noisette by Rudolph Nureyev, Orphée and Eurydice by Pina Bausch, and Romeo and Juliette by Sasha Waltz. The film shows the work involved in administering the company and the coordinated and collaborative work of choreographers, ballet masters, dancers, musicians, and costume, set, and lighting designers.

Acclaim:
“La Danse,” however, does more than offer intimate access to great dancers. It showcases performers like Nicolas Le Riche and Agnès Letestu and choreography by Rudolf Nureyev and Pina Bausch, but it also ventures beyond the stage and studios and into sewing rooms, cafeterias and administrative offices. Like most of Mr. Wiseman’s movies it is above all a portrait of an institution.–Dennis Lim, The New York Times

About the Director:
In 1993, in Frederick Wiseman's film BALLET, he followed the American Ballet Theatre rehearsals in New York and performances in Europe. For a long time Wiseman had wanted to make a film in France and in 1995 he tackled that most French of institutions, The Comedie Francaise. Both in BALLET and LA COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE Wiseman raises questions about the conditions necessary for artistic creation: how to create those conditions which allow a director, an actor, or a dancer to achieve the goal of a perfect even sublime performance; how the specific dialect for the theatre works, the dialect which both places in opposition and transcends the solitude of individual creation and group collaboration. Read more about him here.

Opening this week: Amreeka (playing one week only)

2009-12-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

About the film:
Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle.

About the Director:
Amreeka is a film that writer/director Cherien Dabis very much needed to make. It’s a personal story that draws on her own memories of growing up with her Palestinian/Jordanian family in rural Ohio.

“My parents immigrated to the U.S. right before I was born. I was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and grew up in rural Ohio and Jordan. When people ask me where I’m from, it’s always a confusing question,” Dabis explains. “For most of my life I felt like I wasn’t American enough for the Americans, nor was I Arab enough for the Arabs. And as a Palestinian, I inherited my father’s quandary in not having a nation or a national identity, which only exacerbated my sense of not belonging anywhere. My own desire for a place to call home, a place where I belonged, was always a very big part of my identity.”

In Ohio, during the first Gulf War, Dabis’s family was ostracized. Dabis, who was 14 at the time, says, “We got death threats and the Secret Service even came to my high school to investigate a rumor that my 17-year-old sister threatened to kill the President.”

As Dabis’s family returned to Jordan regularly, she was able to see what was happening in the world from different perspectives. “In my travels to and from the Middle East, watching and reading news from different perspectives, from Arabic satellite to English news, I started to see how the media often made way for more conflict and misunderstanding, perpetuating stereotypes that affected me and my family in this small Ohio town.” Read the whole interview here.

Acclaim:
Amreeka made its world premiere in dramatic competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and played as Opening Night of New Directors/New Films, a co-presentation of The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center. "Amreeka" made its debut internationally in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. The film has been nominated for three Film Independent Spirit Awards including Best Feature.

Twitter and its box office impact

2009-12-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, word-of-mouth about a film used took days to circulate; now it can happen directly from the movie theater. It used to be when films opened strongly their first day of an opening weekend, they would stay strong all weekend. But now studios are noticing new patterns--upswings or dropoffs (and dramatic ones at that) before the weekend is even over.

More and more people are Twittering opinions as they leave the theater--likewise, they are listening in to Twitter chatter to determine if they will attend a film or not. Generally, people will pay attention to what the people in their network have to say because they have things in common with them.

When "Inglourious Basterds" (which played here) was being marketed, the Weinstein Company went all out to court Twitter users. A couple of examples include: their screening at San Diego's Comic Con was filled with people who won their seats on Twitter, they also conducted the first "Red carpet Twitter meetup" which generated lots of celebrity-level tweets about the experience.

What do you think? Do you pay attention to Twitter input when deciding about movies? Do you like the ways studios are trying to use it as a marketing tool?

Golden Globes are Golden for The Little

2009-12-15T15:46:00.000-05:00

The 67th Annual Golden Globe Award nominations were announced this week and films that played (or will be playing very soon) at The Little accounted for 41 total nominations!

Films receiving nominations include: Julie & Julia, (500) Days of Summer, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, An Education, A Serious Man and Invictus.

Nominated films showing on our screens in the coming weeks include: Up in the Air, Nine, The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, Crazy Heart, Broken Embraces and The Messenger.

For a complete list of nominations please click here.

What are your opinions? Overlooked films? Performances? Any nominations you are particularly happy about? Let us know.

--Beth

Why We Blog

2009-12-15T15:19:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Little Theatre's blog. We've been connecting with our friends, fans and supporters via Facebook and Twitter--however, there are topics we'd like to cover in more detail than those formats allow. This is our inspiration for the blog. Our goal is to pull back the curtain a bit and share our take on modern cinema from many different viewpoints.

We'll also keep you in the loop on doings here at The Little. Let us know what you think by commenting on our posts--we love opinions and dialogue.

See you online--and at the movies!

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

2009-01-07T07:00:00.005-05:00

Opening: Friday, January 8th
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present-day. It tells the story of Dr. Parnassus and his extraordinary ‘Imaginarium’, a travelling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Doctor Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. An inveterate gambler, thousands of years ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick, in which he won immortality.

Centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr. Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his daughter reached her 16th birthday, she would become the property of Mr Nick. Valentina is now rapidly approaching this ‘coming of age’ milestone and Dr. Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr. Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls.

Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr. Parnassus promises his daughter’s hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr. Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles – and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all!

A Peek at Distribution for this Film
Since so many of you are always curious about what happens before a film hits the screens, here's a blurb from Variety...

Heath Ledger’s final film has finally found a Stateside buyer. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group is in advanced talks to pick up "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," with plans for it to go out theatrically via Sony Pictures Classics.

Terry Gilliam’s adventure also features Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, who replaced Ledger in various fantasy scenes after the Ledger died during the film’s production in January 2008.

"Parnassus" was officially unveiled at Cannes this year in an out-of-competition slot toward the end of the festival. Several buyers screened the film just before Cannes, but a deal didn’t immediately emerge.

What the Blogosphere Is Saying About the Film
"Where have you taken us this time Mr. Gilliam? In the latest film from one of the wackiest and most beloved filmmakers, we’re given a somewhat psychedelic glimpse into his truly wonderful imagination. It’s his best film in a decade, the very last film starring Heath Ledger, and the first starring role for model Lily Cole." Full review here (scroll down for it).

"Short version: Despite its flaws, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus still offers some jaw-dropping visuals, fine performances and showcases a fantastically creative imagination that make it worth seeing."--ScreenRant Full review here.

Arthouse Theatre Map from PBS

2009-01-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

As you travel, this interactive map highlights other arthouse theaters and visitor comments. Use it to find other places like The Little to add to your itinerary! Also, here's a blurb from PBS' Independent Lens, talking about arthouse theaters. To read the whole article, click on the link that follows.
From In Focus

Across the U.S., community-based art house theaters screen independent films for appreciative audiences—even at a time when home entertainment centers and video downloads have become the norm.

From glamorous historic movie palaces to down-home beer and pizza pubs, art house theaters are anything but cookie cutter, and the people that run and support them are anything but blasé about film.

Inside Indies contributor Elizabeth Meyer spoke with folks around the country who are working to keep these theaters alive.

Art House Theaters: Where Film Lovers Go Local By Elizabeth Meyer

Multiplex theaters have become a fixture of the suburban American landscape. And like their neighbors, big box stores and strip malls, the multiplexes offer pretty much the same fare from one locale to the next. Hollywood blockbusters screen next door to one another in theaters boasting as many as 20 screens.