The Latest
Kickstart To Be Forever Wild
David Becker participated in the Sundance Institute Independent Producers Conference for his film Small Steps: Creating the High School for Contemporary Arts, which went on to air nationally on PBS. He also coordinated the restoration and re-release of Barbara Kopple’s landmark documentary Harlan County, USA, which screened at the 2005 Festival.I’m writing from upstate New York, where the devastating effects of Hurricane Irene can still be seen all around: uprooted trees, downed power lines, the mud and mess left behind by flooded rivers.
Kickstart Five Nights in Maine
Nekisa Cooper is an independent producer who most recently worked on Dee Rees’ 2011 Festival selection, Pariah. She is currently producing Maris Curran’s debut feature Five Nights in Maine along with a team of Sundance Film Festival alumni.In 2008, I participated in the inaugural Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab and it was an experience that truly changed my life.
Stephanie Allen on the Problem with Independent Film Marketing
Stephanie Allen recently retired from her co-executive VP of marketing job at Fox Searchlight to focus on an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College. Allen spent 10 years at Searchlight conceptualizing and producing award-winning ad campaigns for films such as Slumdog Millionaire, Little Miss Sunshine, and Sideways. Her eclectic career path has included gigs at Rolling Stone, TriStar Pictures and Orion Pictures.
Adventures in Specialized Distribution (Part 2): Opportunity Costs
This is part of a series by Red Flag Releasing that documents their ongoing efforts to position We Were Here (release date September 9) in the marketplace. You can read the first part here.
Last week, it was about 110 degrees and Paul were I were in line at the post office, with about 20 poster tubes and boxes each in our arms.
A Glossary of Terms Independent Filmmakers Should Know
Do you really know what “VOD” means?There is no universal standard yet for definitions of digital rights. While IFTA (the organization that runs the American Film Market) has rights definitions for its signatories, it doesn’t cover all contracts out there. Many distributors and digital platforms use their own contracts with a range of definitions that don’t match up with those of others.
Sundance Institute to Host First-Ever Native Producers Workshop
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced that its Native American & Indigenous Program will host its first Native Producers Workshop, August 17 and 18 in Santa Fe, NM. The invitation-only event builds on the Institute’s 30-year tradition of supporting Native American cinema through its Labs and Festival and will focus on the opportunities and challenges unique to producing Native American film, as well as independent cinema in general. The workshop is an extension of Sundance Institute’s offerings for producers, including its annual Creative Producing Labs and Creative Producing Summit.
Andrew Okpeaha MacLean on Making ‘On the Ice’ 320 Miles North of the Arctic Circle
Andrew Okpeaha MacLean is an Iñupiaq filmmaker born and raised in Alaska. His short film Sikumi premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and his debut feature On the Ice screened at the 2011 Festival.Making a movie 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle is hard.
Filmmaker Heather Rae on Sundance Institute’s First Native Producers Workshop
Heather Rae is a filmmaker and Sundance Institute trustee who has produced three Sundance Film Festival selections including the 2008 Grand Jury Prize-winning and Oscar nominated Frozen River. She recently participated at the first-ever Native Producers Workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At the Native Producers Workshop this past week we sat in a circle on Museum Hill – a complex featuring four world-class museums – in Santa Fe and discussed the state of independent film and the way in which Native production plays a role in the marketplace.
Madeleine Olnek on Raising Funds for Her Sundance Film ‘Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same’
Madeleine Olnek is a New York-based filmmaker, director, and playwright whose debut feature, Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Click here to help fund her film’s distribution. As I’m writing this, an article in Indiewire with a somewhat mocking title—“The Kickstarting Never Stops”—has appeared mentioning how three films (including mine) which played at Sundance are still looking for funds.
Kickstart Rugged Guy
Jason Asenap is a Comanche/Muskogee Creek writer and filmmaker originally from Walters, Oklahoma, but now residing in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His project Rugged Guy was selected for the 2011 Sundance Institute NativeLab. Click here to learn more and help fund this film.
Laughing All the Way
The focus of the fourth Sundance ShortsLab to date, held at the Cinefamily @ The Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, August 6, was the craft of comedic short filmmaking and exhibition. Over the course of the day-long event, writers, directors, actors, and distributors dissected the art of short form storytelling.
Comedy ShortsLab: LA began with a discussion around the discovery and development of the comedic voice moderated by Emmy-nominated comedy writer Scott Aukerman and featuring Julie Delpy (2 Days in Paris), Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), and Mike White (Year of the Dog).
Kickstart Iriba Center
Anne Aghion is a New York-based documentary filmmaker whose films Gacaca, Living Together in Rwanda and In Rwanda, We Say ‘The Family That Does Not Speak Dies’ were supported by Sundance Institute Documentary Film Grants. Along with social scientist Assumpta Mugiraneza, she is using Kickstarter to fund the Iriba Center for Multimedia Heritage in Rwanda. Growing up as the daughter of a man who survived the deportation of French Jews, I spent many afternoons (and evenings) cutting classes and crying in front of movies—not just Holocaust films, but any films—in the Paris Cinémathèque.
Film Distribution Tip of the Week: Think of Digital Platforms as Stores
Orly Ravid, founded The Film Collaborative, a nonprofit educational and services organization dedicated to indie film distribution. She has 12 years of experience working in distribution, acquisitions and sales at companies including Wolfe Releasing and Senator Entertainment. TFC’s first digital book, Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul, will be available in September.
Mountain Melodies: Memories from Sundance Institute’s Composers Lab
Joy Osmanski has worked as the Film Music coordinator and served as a volunteer at this year’s summer labs at Sundance Resort.I’m not a composer. I’m just barely a musician if piano lessons, some desperate sawing on a violin, and a year of fifth-grade saxophone count as credit.
Full Circle: Back To Kenya With A Small Act
My first trip to Kenya was in the early ’90s on a yearlong foreign exchange program. I lived in a dorm called “Box,” which was named (I presume) for its utilitarian shape. Though, without much running water or electricity, the building wasn’t very functional.