In our feature length documentary, “Houston We Have A Problem,” Van Jones, founder of Green for All and author of “Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our two Biggest Problems” states, “We need to honor the people in the oil industry, the coal industry, at this point they’re heroes in a way…stop the name calling, let’s work together. It is possible to go from the oil age to the solar age in a way where the wisdom and the genius of our existing energy sector is tapped and utilized. They know more about energy, better then anybody else. We now need to see that genius for the next stage.” Doesn’t sound like the Van Jones you’ve seen portrayed in the media lately, does it?

Attacks between the Left and Right have gotten this country nowhere, especially when it comes to discussions about energy. This theme resonates loud and clear throughout the documentary, to quote the director/producer Nicole Torre, “this is not a pro ‘Big Oil’ film, nor an anti-oil film, this is a pro domestic energy film.” After viewing “Houston” at the Cambridge Film Festival in England, Chris Peck wrote that “the film bores deep into the western world’s dependence upon oil, unearthing some uncomfortable truths. In particular it questions why political figures have constantly allowed the ‘sleeping dog’ of a global energy crisis to lie… (The Director) Torre approaches the issue with restraint, allowing an array of genuine Texan oil men to tell their own stories with candid honesty and humour and this is to the film’s benefit.” In the program guide at the Wine Country Film Festival, Asalle Tanha writes that “Director Nicole Torre has brilliantly gathered exclusive interviews with an A-list cast of Texas oil barons, Wildcatters, and top executives, including the former president of Shell Oil, the chairman of BP Capital, Sen. Harry Reed, the US Senate Majority Leader, and Middle East adviser Joanne Herring, who married the founder of Enron and was the basis for Julia Roberts’ role in “Charlie Wilson’s War.” You may just be pleasantly surprised to hear what they have to say. ‘Houston We Have a Problem’ is a devastatingly fresh documentary that stands out in the surge of films that address ‘green’ issues. Torre’s boldness in approaching oilmen shows that the energy problem extends far beyond profit, politics, and party lines. The film is nothing short, as David Clifton, the president of Rational Broadcasting puts it of ‘a masterpiece.’”

I’m proud to have been a producer on the film especially after it premiered at AFI-Dallas in March to a mixed crowd of Texas oil supporters and environmentalists and almost all congratulated us because we had made a film seeking solutions, not blame. That’s exactly the response we had hoped for, people to start thinking about solutions, together, as a country. As KERA-PBS wrote in their Art Seek blog review after the screening, “wildcatters got us here, and wildcatters are going to lead us out.” AFI-Dallas posted an interview on Vimeo. The film has also shown at the Maui International Film Festival, the Calgary International Film Festival, the San Diego Film Festival and has upcoming screenings scheduled for Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the Austin Film Festival, and the San Francisco Documentary Festival. I’m especially excited to be part of “50 documentaries from 50 countries” in a planned worldwide tour as part of the United Nations Association Film Festival under their theme “Energy and the World.”

Van Jones wrote in his book, “the best answer to our ecological crisis also responds to our socio-economic crisis. The surest path to safe streets and peaceful communities are not more police and prisons, but ecologically sound economic development. And that same path can lead us to a new green economy.” As Carl Davidson writes in his review of the book, “Jones is a strategic thinker who gives definite answers to the question, ‘Who are our friends, who are our adversaries?’ He narrows the target to speculative capital with roots in carbon-based energy industries and the militarism needed to secure their supplies. He seeks close allies in the wider working class of all nationalities, especially in the Blue-Green Alliance formed on the core partnership of the United Steelworkers with the Sierra Club. He also looks for allies among faith communities, environmentalists in the suburbs and rural populations suffering at the hands of anti-ecological agribusiness, offering a vision of wind farms and solar arrays for sustainable rural development. He sees the importance of cutting back defense spending and opposing unjust wars abroad.”

This is radical thinking from a self-described “radical, rowdy black nationalist.” But as exemplified in our film, he isn’t the only one thinking this way and most are far from what Glenn Beck could term “Communists.” It’s the kind of thinking to move this country from dependency on foreign energy resources. That’s why I was so excited when I heard that Van Jones had been named “Special Advisor to President Obama on Green Jobs.” Here was a man who was right for the job, a job that required immediate attention. Judith Lewis writes in her LA Times article, “Meet the Real Van Jones,” that for 20 years, Jones worked trying to get Americans to pay attention to the urban poor. “We would call newspapers, television stations, saying kids are dying, we’re going to funerals every weekend. ‘Not interested.’ The deeper he got into it, …the more he realized that the environment was central to the kind of social justice he cared about. For the affluent lefties in the audience, he teased, environmentalism might be about polar bears and other “charismatic megafauna.” But “in the poor part of town, when they say, ‘Oh, the environment is terrible,’ they’re talking about air pollution, asthma, cancer clusters and birth defects.” As Carl Davidson states, “putting young people to work at low-to-medium skill levels retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency seemed like a no-brainer, so the demand for “Green Jobs, Not Jails” was raised.

In the film, Van Jones believes, “we have to have the determination as a people, as a country to continue to move aggressively into alternative energies.” From the blog, ODE, “Van Jones redefines ‘green’ change-makers from the rich or the fringe to everyday people that are looking for ways to be successful in the long term. Instead of distancing himself and others from entrepreneurs by idealizing them, he looks for ways that regular people can become progressive.” There is also a good interview with Jones from a few years back at Poptech.com.

Sadly, those committed to the past, a conservative mindset that would rather attack then seek solutions, quickly portrayed Van Jones as a “Communist.” Another McCarthy-era “Witchhunt” was ignited, first by Cliff Kincaid, of America’s Survival, when he wrote, “it appears that a Communist Party spin-off, the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS), was instrumental in some way in getting Jones his job.” As Harvey Wasserman writes in his article “Obama has feed his Green Jones to King CONG,” “like millions of Americans he (Jones) signed a petition asking for an investigation into the 9/11 felling of the World Trade Center. He used the dreaded term “asshole” to accurately describe some Republicans, and then used it to describe himself and his friends.” Fox News fueled the attacks with misinformation and as papers like the National Review followed up, it soon became obvious that Van Jones could no longer do a proper job for the President and he resigned.

I really don’t care what Van Jones did in the past as a “radical,” just like I don’t care that T. Boone Pickens (also in our film), formerly with BP Oil, now promoting wind power, helped fund the inaccurate “Swift Boat publicity” that harmed John Kerry’s Presidential run. I don’t believe President George W. Bush’s past drinking and cocaine snorting was a reflection on his presidency. People change, Thank God, and it was all about change for Van Jones. Changing this country for the better. As Lewis writes in her article for the LA Times, “These days, Jones is far from the wild-eyed radical Kerpen described. In fact, he has been moving to the center, where the power is, for years. He has spent his time writing grants, appealing to city councils and working with legislators such as Nancy Pelosi on green-jobs bills. He sat on the board of the Apollo Alliance, a group more-radical environmentalists have criticized as a mainstream sellout for its work linking industry with a greener agenda. And his nonprofit advocacy group, Green For All, recently launched a program to involve the private sector in building an ‘inclusive green economy.’”

“With clarity and verve, Jones finally brought to the mainstream the critical message that what’s good for the environment is also good for the economy… finally injected into the mainstream the message that there will be no prosperity, no full employment, and no survivable planet without the necessary and doable conversion to a green-powered Earth,” writes Wasserman. This is the message that comes from both Big Oil and the Sierra Club in our film, “Houston We Have A Problem.” We can free ourselves of foreign oil, but it’s going to take everything, (solar, wind, geo-thermal, algae, nuclear, clean coal and even new oil fields like the ones recently discovered by Occidental Petroleum in Kern County, California) but most of all it’s going to take brave new thinking, new ideas. We can’t be frightened of the new thinkers because all ideas usually start off radical, look at Darwin. As Lewis writes, “Jones’ departure is a big loss. He should be judged not by a few missteps but by his long history of working toward a highly desirable but elusive goal: an environmental movement that crosses boundaries of place, skin color and class. By working to bring green jobs to ‘the poor part of town’ and involving mainstream environmental leaders in the cause of fighting poverty, Jones has made a huge contribution…one can only hope that this… will have the positive side effect of galvanizing support for his work; that it will call attention to urban poverty, pollution and his ideal of a green economy.”

I agree with Harvey Wasserman, “Van Jones, as imperfect as the rest of us, was Obama’s critical firestarter in a green-powered revolution that is decades overdue… Pushing Van Jones aside is a major coup for the destroyers of the planet, and a big loss for those of us who would re-power and save it.” We need lots more Americans like Van Jones, otherwise the real terrorists win.

Last Saturday night I had the pleasure of attending a free live performance by Bear McCreary and his team of world class musicians perform his original scores from the Emmy-deserving television show, “Battlestar Galactica.” It was the opening for this summer’s Grand Performances in downtown Los Angeles, a consistently wonderful showcase of world music.  We’ve been going for years.  One of those hidden treasures of LA.

As indicated on these pages in January, I think “Battlestar Galactica” is fracken great.  However, I didn’t really understand how important the series was until I attended a panel last week hosted by Geoff Boucher (LA Times Hero Complex) as part of the LA Times “Envelope” Emmy screening series. Writer/creators Ronald D. Moore and David Eick were there, as well as stars Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, but the surprise was that they were joined by United Nations Senior Human Rights Official, Craig Mohkiber and United Nations Senior Political Affairs Officer, Stephen Siqueria. I guess last March, this same group sat in front of the United Nations (video links here) and discussed issues ranging from human rights accountability to peace and justice in the world. They not only talked about how these issues related to BSG, but what we as nations can learn from the decisions made in the show, both by the military, demonstrated in the series by Admiral William Adama, played by Olmos, and, on the civilian side, by President Laura Roslin, played by Mary McDonnell.

If who haven’t seen the show, tens of thousands of human survivors have escaped annihilation from the man-made Cylons by taking refuge aboard a group of spaceships, lead by the aging warship Galactica. They begin a search for a new home planet, the mythical 13th colony, called Earth, chased by the Cylons, many that look human. As President, Laura Roslin sacrifices thousands of innocent civilians, abolishes reproductive choice, executes enemy combatants without trial and nearly steals an election over the course of the series. That was the point of the UN event and the Los Angeles event billed as “TV – making global issues relevant.” After showing clips from the series, the speakers shared how these shameful and violating acts continue for real across our world. As UN official, Craig Mokhiber said, “every nation on this planet has broken the rules of human rights,” and talked about how part of the UN mandate was to safeguard the human rights of everyone, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, and station. This fictional series gave us all an opportunity to think and discuss human rights, justice versus revenge, punishing people who perpetrate crimes against humanity, by watching episodes that take place on a spaceship in the future.

Isn’t that amazing? A fictional television show that carries significant political and world issue relevance. Most important, BSG was entertaining, I never felt like I was being preached too. That is the true genius of Ron Moore and David Eick.  In addition, the contribution of director Michael Rymer, as Moore acknowledged that night as “the third creative force that contributed heavily to our vision.” (It was fun to see the director get credit publicly for their creative input on a television series.  It rarely happens.)

It doesn’t have to be mindless, to be entertaining. That’s why I got into filmmaking.  To tell stories that make us think, react, research, formulate an educated opinion. We understand this to be true with documentaries, but as Basil Tsiokos reminds us in the terrific blog he wrote for indiewire,”8 Documentary Dos and Don’ts,” no one needs another wrongly executed doc film that’s only about message. Basil is a programming associate for the Sundance Film Festival and was Artistic Director for NewFest for twelve years.  He screens a lot of films and knows that a documentary can be important and informative, but it still needs to be entertaining.

That was our goal for the documentary, “Houston We Have a Problem” directed by Nicole Torre. The film explores our dangerous addiction to oil through candid insights from the Barons, Wildcatters, CEO’s and Roughnecks that comprise the world of Big Oil. An inside look into the culture of oil that explores the history of our dependency and how it has led us to the current energy crisis.  I’ve written about this film before here, when it premiered at AFI-Dallas and it continues to play the festivals. The issues the film addresses are important, but I believe we presented them in a fun, sometimes humorous, never boring way.

However, I am no Ron Moore. I’ve tried to write screenplays with significance, usually with them ending up being obvious and heavy.  I look forward to Mr. Moore’s television movie “Virtuality” airing June 26 on Fox about a group of astronauts who pass the time in virtual reality modules as their interactions are beamed back to Earth as a reality TV show. The new BSG series “Caprica” starts in January, about the kind of people, think us, that would create Cylons in the first place.  There is also “The Plan,” the Battlestar Galactica story from the Cylons perspective airing on Sci-Fi in November.  Directed by Edward James Olmos, a trailer was shown at the event and to quote Olmos, “it is breathtaking. It’s fantastic… I couldn’t have imagined this kind of a situation happening at the end of a show, where you would actually start at the beginning. That’s a masterful piece of understanding, Ron is a genius. Because after you see ‘The Plan,’ you’ll want to go back and view the whole series again.”

In these days of Twitter informing the world of election protests in Iran before the news can cover the story, important stories, fact or fiction, WILL FIND an audience. Smart filmmakers are figuring out how to find that audience. BSG is just one of many, many great shows on television, so why go out and spend big bucks on a crappy studio remake. If you want your film seen, it’s about getting it out there, any way possible.  In fact tonight, I’ll be watching the pilot episode of “Caprica” on DVD that was rented from Netflix. I’m sure the hope is that as a fan. I’ll like the new show as much as BSG and so when it airs, I’ll tell my friends and it will become “must see TV.” That’s forward thinking and we need more writers, showrunners and filmmakers to be looking forward and to tell the stories that have important relevance to our lives, yet still are entertaining. And so say we all!

When I added the press and PR responsibilities for “big AFI” to the “joint custody” agreement I had previously with AFI FEST and AFI DALLAS, one of the programs I immediately looked forward to working with was the AFI Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) program.

Each year, the program gives a handful of women an opportunity to develop a short film script and then direct the film under the watchful eye and guidance of the American Film Institute, yet ensure that they take full responsibility for their own projects. Upon being informed of its existence, it struck me as a workshop that effectively could serve as that connective tissue for talented women that had a career or background in other areas of filmmaking or storytelling, but hadn’t found the way or the means to get themselves behind the camera in a true director capacity on one end of the spectrum or needed to round out their filmmaking experience so they could take the next logical career step at the other end.

And honestly, since I am still learning about the program – that’s simply the way it looks to me from the outside. But even if the truth falls a somewhat short of that potential, it still is giving a dedicated push or assist to female filmmakers. And that alone makes it a very cool, if not absolutely vital program and as far as I’m concerned, a small, but brilliant gem in the AFI crown of programs, film festivals and achievements.

Basically, following the dynamic and ambitious programming and presentation that both AFI FEST and AFI DALLAS have become known for the last couple of years, AFI DWW is one of those things that genuinely makes me proud to be at the American Film Institute. All three are forward looking and thinking celebrations of film and filmmaking artists not rooted in the past, yet taking a respectful lead from the artists that preceded them. Few things are more fun and exciting than a director coming back to AFI FEST or AFI DALLAS with their first feature after we gave them their first red carpet experience with one of their short films. It just gives you a sense that you’re helping somehow, shining the light on someone and giving encouragement to the filmmaker and in a small, but important way – validating the time, the creative energy, the dedication, even the money they had to put out to get their work made. And all of that applies here as well.

I’ll state it bluntly: AFI DWW is one of those programs that makes this place relevant.

So tonight at the DGA Theatre will be the unveiling of the films the seven participating women of the last workshop has created. And the combination of the films together will make for a great program. Perfect? No. Of course not. But across the board, they show great ambition for storytelling and exploring what can be done with film. And what I love the most – no short cuts, no cynical audience assumptions and certainly no laziness here.

Anyway, here are some brief thoughts on each film:

ABUELO
Mary Ann Kellogg’s ABUELO follows the relationship between a little girl and her grandfather following their first meeting. He has come to America from Argentina to watch over her so her father can work. There is a language barrier and she doesn’t make the situation easy on him from the outset. However, the old man has some tricks up his sleeve and watching what transpires is genuinely joyful. Kellogg began her career as a dancer with Twyla Tharp, is an Emmy nominated choreographer and she displays real grace with the film. She even incorporates dance into the story deftly, subtly, beautifully, in a way that reminds you how cool it can be onscreen after garish show-tinny (yeah, I meant “tinny”) things like High School Musical have long convinced you otherwise.

GOSIA’S WITCH
Dominika Waclawiak’s GOSIA’S WITCH also takes a child’s view of things. This time the little girl in question is dealing with a nasty headmistress at her Catholic school. And the way she does so, is through entering the world of a children’s story her mother has read to her. Waclawiak has worked as a visual effects artist on more than a few films and she translates that into delivering a magical little film with hints of Guillermo del Toro’s work. Films focusing on kids can be tough for me to hang with, but she stops well short of cloying with her little actress, telling me her talent isn’t completely tied up with production design and art direction.

VOID
Meredith Berg’s VOID is a supernatural thriller about a female FBI agent investigating a series of grisly murders in a small, desert town. What she finds through her investigation is the involvement of a little boy in a way she never could have imagined. Berg has a love for/background with editing comic books and graphic novels and this short film has the kind of darkly clever premise and twists within it that are borne directly from that world. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I will say that it bears some DNA from the classic TWILIGHT ZONE episode “It’s a Good Life”. I will also add that Berg doesn’t shy away from the gore – and the horror genre could use a smart female storyteller not afraid or shy to dole out some scares from her perspective.

THE HONEYSTING
Alexa-Sascha Lewin’s THE HONEYSTING shows us some very clear parallels between hunting big game and operating within Chinatown’s black market underworld for the “spoils” of that hunting. What I initially liked about it was the way Lewin refused to show her hand as to the real connections between the two worlds until she absolutely had to. Then ultimately, I was impressed by the fact that she has made a movie with a cause that doesn’t broadcast to you what the cause is. Lewin has spent several years as a natural history filmmaker and I have to believe that it took some doing to show the restraint she does here to allow the narrative of her film deliver the punch, rather than doing so through some preachy exposition.

INK
Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s INK also manages not to preach – to the choir or otherwise – as it shows us the last days of a tattoo artist and single mother dying of AIDS and determined to do so with grace. It is simply told, but not in a way without giving some visual flourishes. There is also a very nice balance between the intensity and immediacy of the emotions (especially between the mother and her young son, struggling to deal with the encroaching reality ahead for the two of them), yet framed by a lyrical quality that is more than understandable knowing the nature of Jean-Baptiste’s acting work as well as her composing background. It also features a wonderfully nuanced performance by Theresa Randle in the lead role – clearly another beneficiary of being directed by Jean-Baptiste.

ROOMS
Joanna Jurewicz’s ROOMS also benefits from the talents of Jean-Baptiste – this time as the actress plays the lead character of an immigrant maid at an airport hotel who cleans up the rooms of the travelers in a solitary daily work routine. It is a subtle work that shows a deft touch in opening up the woman’s lonely world without ham handedly delivering a moment of pathos for the lowest common denominator viewing the film to understand. Instead, the film allows the cumulative effect to creep up on us as we watch the woman allow herself a touch of hope of real human connection with one of the hotel’s guests. And to Jurewicz’s credit, the ending is as expected and melancholy as scenarios like this all to often are.

18
Joy Gohring’s 18 is about a teenage girl facing the decision of whether or not to remove her mother from life support when she is given power of attorney on her eighteenth birthday. That’s the “gift” she receives. The gift Gohring gives the audience is doing everything she can to not address the dilemma directly, not to give us a textbook afterschool special speech from the cool and caring guidance counselor or mentor of your choice and veering as far away as she can from hitting any nails on their heads. Instead, she sends the protagonist off to a pool party in search of the boy she harbors a crush on and possibly a much needed immediate distraction from her situation. What I find special in films that deal with subjects like this are the moments where nothing is being said, because (at least in my experience) the interior monologues and conversations with myself are far more maddening than anything said out loud. Gohring is a comedienne by trade and that time onstage has obviously taught her the economy of words.

There you have it – seven short films by seven women – creating an impressive program that delivers exactly what something like this should: accomplishment and promise. I can easily see each of these films hitting the festival circuit and more importantly, I can just as easily see each of the women taking the next step into feature territory as well.

Looking forward to tonight!

Let’s start this simply: Like every film festival, AFI DALLAS had to deal with serious money issues this year. Nothing unique, surprising or original there. Now what did that mean really?

Well, it meant a change in presenting sponsors – going from Target to NorthPark Center. To their credit, Target remained as the sponsor for the big $25K prizes the festival gives to the winner of its narrative and documentary competitions. And those are important. Really important. Because, while the hallowed laurel wreaths that frame an award title from any given film festival is great validation and oftentimes proof of smart purchase for potential theatergoers or DVD buyers, that tangible immediate return on the investment weighs big in an independent filmmaker’s mind as they decide where to take their film. And having NorthPark Center literally buy in to the festival was helpful in that they were obviously very much invested in the presentation and success of what we were doing far beyond what happened to be screening or taking place at their location.

It also meant that a core group of individuals had to come forward to provide the financial backbone to ensure AFI DALLAS’s third year would be every bit as impressive as the first two years. And that is something worth re-stating: AFI DALLAS 2009 owed a great, great deal to its Deep Ellum Film Festival roots because the people who had come together throughout that film festival’s life were the ones that stood tall when the economic crap gave sucker punches to the more recent arrivals that weren’t as solidly dedicated to this film festival.

Of course, it meant the festival had to contract: a couple fewer days and less films. And a lot has already been written how that actually highlighted the programming vision of Michael Cain, James Faust, and Sarah Harris. I had a conversation with Robert Koehler (the noted film critic that is joining programming forces with AFI FEST Artistic Director Rose Kuo for the 2009 edition) a few days ago where he compared the paring down of film fest selections with the NCAA Basketball Tourney after the first round when 64 teams suddenly become 32. The idea being that those 32 teams (or those fewer films) had to prove their mettle to stay in the game. They didn’t just make it in because they were the least worst option from their divison or part of the country, they had to literally beat another team to live for another day. In a similar manner, less films means less dubious choices because you simply don’t have the screening slots to waste – you have to make each one count.

And somehow, with less days and fewer films, we wound up with a larger audience. An audience that was frequently buying individual tickets -therefore they were making discerning choices on what they wanted to see. And still going to see nearly everything offered in droves. Which is one of the many great things about Dallas. If you haven’t been there and you’re painting it with a big secessionist red paint brush – you need to stop – at least if you’re a filmmaker, because the people there will turn out to see a wide, wild variety of films and give a movie its shot and its due.

But what about me and my needs? Or less meglo-maniacal – the press and public relations department? How did all of this contraction due to the economy affect what we do? Well, it meant an even greater dependence on volunteer staffing. Other that myself and the cheerfully dedicated force-of-nature Michael DeVous Jr., who served once again as my Publicity Coodinator – it was all about the volunteers. (To be clear, this does not including the Video Department, Photo Department and AFI DALLAS Daily News Department – which, while also staffed almost entirely by volunteers, did have a paid supervisor and in a couple cases coordinators that were given a token (and I do mean token) amount to tide them over somewhat.

None of which would be an issue if I didn’t insist on trying to do everything we could to get PR for every film of ours within our reach, so-to-speak. I began at AFI FEST in 2006 as the Filmmaker Press Liaison with a mandate to get PR for the “little” films, the indies, the foreign productions and the shorts. At that time the staff had a Director of PR, a PR Coordinator, a Special Events (Galas) Coordinator and myself.

Not here. Not now. No – two people were given the task of trying to accomplish what by this point has become ten times the work and output attempted by that team in 2006.

The smart money (meaning the money that wants to sleep eight hours each night) would say answer the phones, get screeners out to the major reviewers, direct some movie star foot traffic and call it a day.

Not so much. Instead, Michael and I organized our volunteer usual suspects and added some new recruits and more or less gave them titles and responsibilities that a lot of people getting their feet wet with stuff would kill for. It meant we had to train them to do things as if we were doing it personally and it meant we had to trust them in a big way to pull it all off. But we had no choice in the matter. Therefore, the following volunteers – again, let me really emphasize this: VOLUNTEERS. Working days and nights. For free. No money. Anyway, here is a sampling of the remarkable army that I have endless amounts of gratitude for:

Carolyn Hodge (Daily Filmmaker Interview Junkets Studio Producer)

Every day, each attending filmmaker had an opportunity to do sit down interviews with whatever outlets or journalists that had signed on that day. Set up with the same template that any film junket would be done for any studio (just somewhat smaller), schedules were created, massaged and then coordinated between both the filmmakers and journalists like clockwork. Sites like Indie Express, Real TV, Gordon & the Whale, publications like Envy Magazine, The Dallas Observer, even some local TV benefited by the professional, courteous and efficient way that Carolyn and her series of location producers and site escorts ran that show.

Theresa Pegues (Visiting Journalist Liaison)

Theresa, in many ways, had to replace the national PR agency that for the past two years had done the heavy lifting for the effort to bring in national journalists and coordinate their travel once in Dallas as well as the communication regarding screenings, panels, parties, events, etc. I think we were responsible for eight individuals and two complete crews’ travel to participate on the panels and to cover the film festival and almost all of it was on her personally. One person replaces one agency basically. Of course, that wasn’t nearly all that the agency had helped us with but I think you get the message of how much responsibility that was for one person. And those people could not have been in better hands.

Chessica Moon (Red Carpet Coordinator)

For the first time in all of the film festivals and all of the gala events I have done PR for or produced in the past three years, I had to be absent from my own red carpet for a portion of those entrances. Because we had some “high risk” celebrities and panel moderating duties that required my personal handling, timing just sucked. But fortunately for me and AFI DALLAS, this was Chessica’s third year at our little movie rodeo and she had the system down. Each day she was on top of the prep for that night’s show and when it came time for he deputy to fill in and keep things moving along in an orderly manner, she missed not a single beat. “Thank God,” I was saying to myself as I would walk up to the carpet and see it rolling along smoothly…

Tanya Wright (Press Events Liaison)

The worst part of this job, for me, are the parties. And I’ll tell you why. Because it’s all about guest lists and how much room there is and who I’m allowed to let in and deserves to get in (because they’re REALLY covering the films and the filmmakers) versus the pain-in-the-asses that just want to get in the door and party on the festival’s dime. To do what I think I need to do – which is talk up our filmmakers to anyone press-wise who will give me the time of day, and moderate Q&As and panels and basically be an in-person advocate for the films our programmers have chosen, I can’t be at a laptop 24/7 managing guest lists. Enter Tanya. Despite never having done something like this before, Michael and I through her into the deep end of the pool, occasionally gave her a life preserver of coaching and advice and she became the lifeline of info for each of those journalists for the parties and the gala film presentations as well. And she did it much more nicely and politely than I have ever managed.

Barton Peters (Social Networking Coordinator) and James Stanton (Archive and Impressions Data Coordinator)

These were the new guys. A SMU student (Barton) and a lawyer prepping for his final bar exams (James), these two went far beyond their titles (which were beyond vital for us to pull off in a dedicated, organized and efficient manner), but also bled into being the right hand office guys in terms of managing and organizing the incoming materials and supplies for the films as well as various of-the-moment tasks and jobs and questions that randomly rear their complicated little heads. And they were there – day-in, day-out. And what they did added to a shit-load of peace of mind for me. By this point, the Social Networking aspect of film festival PR encroaches on and threatens to usurp so much of the more traditional outreach efforts and as far as those sponsors that are so important to us are concerned – it really is all about that final impressions report. So, we can bust ass, make inroads to new journalistic avenues and outlets, but if we can’t prove the audience numbers, readership or online hits…no one with a corporate insignia cares. Bottom line.

And beyond that were additional volunteer rock stars (handling positions within our Ethnic & Special Interest Outreach Programs, “Adopt a Film” efforts, serving as junket and red carpet interviewers, press event check-in spots, and red carpet escorts) – including (in alphabetical order): Heather Amend, Stacy & Mike Archip, Kim Cicio, Richard Dodder, Todd Drake, Betsy Dyer, Marty Ezelle, Joyce Foy, Wendy Golman, Lauren Hadaway, Ashely Hall Bryant Hicks, Joe Hwang, Joy Ingram, Jackie Jones, Kevin & Linda Rush, Tricia Shissmacher, Jackie Smith, Robert Smith, Debi Spear, Kayla Svec, Claudia Taylor, Dawn Thomas, Natalie & Saji Thomas, Cristina Uranga, Jean Vaughn, Allen Warchal, Melissa Zales.

I hope to God I haven’t missed anyone or misspelled a name with these. And again, this doesn’t even get into the video, photo or news departments. And I don’t, for a second, think AFI DALLAS is unique in how much we lean on our volunteers to make this event work. I just want to underline the professional level they do the jobs (in this case) that we ask, and skill with which they handle the details of the job – which 90 percent of the time isn’t their career skill set. But we gave them ownership of those roles as well as the titles befitting those jobs and placed a lot of the PR effort this year in their hands.

And to a person – they came through for us. I retool and refine the Press and PR system not just once a year, but with each film festival I’m in charge of throughout the year (which currently stands at five with an advisor’s role for a sixth) and there is always A LOT to retool and refine and reconsider. But this year’s AFI DALLAS was a huge confirmation to me that people both work and volunteer for a film festival because they literally LOVE films and filmmakers. They either work for less, or work longer, or work for nothing at all and still work longer because it matters to them. It matters that they are a part of an effort to screen and celebrate films – all films. More often than not, the people working for studios can’t compete with that. They can’t even come close.

The bottom line is that is why AFI DALLAS was so successful this year. Because the people that didn’t have a stake in the game, the ones that were lukewarm with their support, each sponsoring company that didn’t return to the fold simply showed that it wasn’t that important to them. They exhibited the fact that they didn’t understand the worth of the film festival. They didn’t and don’t “get” it. And those people were far outnumbered by the ones that do get it – in Dallas, in Texas, nationally, internationally, critically, in filmmaking communities, and with the general populace.

All of those people are following the lead of the AFI DALLAS volunteer army and leaving everyone else behind.

Of course, we’re always happy to let them try to catch up with us.

No sooner did I get comfortably back home in L.A. than I was immediately in the thick of things with the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and all of the AFI stuff (Life Achievement Award, AFI Conservatory Thesis screenings and the upcoming DWW showcase), oh AND The upcoming edition of The Vision Awards. So my apologies for the lack of “original content” in between the plethora of press releases, but I’m still figuring out how to do all of this stuff at once.

Anyway, I have had some time to think and think and think some more about this year’s AFI DALLAS Film Festival, and I feel there is so much to write about that I have decided to do it in three of four parts.

So in no particular, in fact very random order – here goes:

Part One – The Ladies of AFI DALLAS

One of the overriding themes for me this year was the influx of very cool women that came to Dallas for the festival. Some of these women I have known, known of, and in some cases been a fan of for a little while now. Yet most of these women I met for the very first time at AFI DALLAS and thrilled that I did. They are (in alphabetical order):

Alice Krige – We had Anthony Fabian’s thoughtful drama SKIN at AFI FEST last fall and we were fortunate enough to have it come to AFI DALLAS for an encore of sorts since it became part of AFI’s very cool Project 20/20 program. The program basically travels various filmmakers that have had their films play at the AFI film festivals around the world to literally and truly use film and filmmakers as a way to build a bridge between cultures. It’s a shining example of AFI taking an ambitious lead to do something outside of trotting out classics for another look and promote and utilize film for the next generations. It’s one of those things that make me proud to be here.

Anyway, we got a huge bonus at AFI DALLAS by having Alice Krige come to town to represent the film with the director, Fabian. She provided one of those high expectations payoffs by putting the “red” on my carpet to shame with a crimson gown that just stopped everyone in their tracks. Not only that, she exuded all kinds of ethereal grace and charm. Great moment.

Jordan Ladd – I almost have to include Jordan’s father, David with this shout out because I really spent time with them both while she was in Dallas. Let me begin by saying that if I was a cheerleader for any single film this year, it was for Paul Solet’s creepy instant classic GRACE. And Jordan gives the kind of performance in the film that transcends genre and should place her several rungs up the respect ladder if the right people are paying attention. So, I kinda almost willed both the film and her and Paul to be at AFI DALLAS (thank god that James Faust and Michael Cain will listen to me sometimes with recommendations for this festival). But beyond that, within moments of talking to her and her father, I wanted Jordan to move in to my condo so my wife and I would have the prototypical nicer-than-nice and coolest neighbor that anyone could conceive of. Unassuming is a word. And two words that trump that one are “Jordan Ladd”. And her father, David Ladd was great too. If you didn’t know your film history or (as I was) could be lulled into forgetting it, you would think you were just hanging out and talking to a proud dad just happy to be there and see the attention his daughter was getting for her new movie and not a guy who has forgotten more than a lot of us will ever know about film production and the business. Even if that movie involved her as a mom dealing with a newborn baby with a bloodlust for mommy. If we could have, we would have extended both of their visits for the duration of the festival.

Karina Longworth – I was looking forward to having Karina attend a film festival of mine for some time now. Tough, tough writer and critic and I was anxious to have her around not just to weigh in on the programming (in this case) that AFI DALLAS offers but frankly because I wanted an opportunity to hang out with her and get to know her a little. And the truth is, I didn’t get to spend nearly as much time with Karina as I had hoped. But watching her moderate a panel and then give MSN’s James Rocchi all he could handle at a lunch afterwards was more than worth the price of admission. Listening to the give and take between those two was fun. I have to think that if you were a movie blow hard then she would scare the shit out of you. But if you can hold your own, have something to say, and are willing to lay it out there with her then I have to think she gets the automatic invite to any party (movie-related or otherwise) you might want to throw.

Heather Matarazzo – I kid you not, AFI DALLAS scored Heather to be part of our jury this year because we are Facebook buddies. I had admired Heather not just due to her work in film but her outspokenness regarding her choices and career. And from the moment she arrived, I had everyone at AFI DALLAS thanking me for reaching out to her. Never for a moment do I believe I’m the only one that cares as deeply as I do about this stuff, but Heather combines that damn near uncompromising notion of what potential is out there for us too achieve through film, but goes about delivering her opinions – which are strong and direct to be sure – more gently and considerately than I could hope to. You hope for an “ambassador” when you ask someone to serve on a film festival jury – and she was the epitome of that.

Carri McClure – Here’s the thing about personal publicists: They can make the dealings with their clients a joy or a wanna-slit-your-wrists job – bottom line. I came from personal PR, and it kills me when the personal pub is simply a road block. Either out of a lack of imagination, laziness, or just because they happen to be a sour pain-in-the-ass, it is rare, rare, rare to find a personal publicist that both “gets it” and is genuine in their dealings with you. Carri does. In consecutive years, we have had her clients Ron Livingston (twice) and Robert Towne come to Dallas and the experience all three times has been near-flawless because Carri knows what she’s doing. And she also plays fair. And let me be clear – she is tough on the facts and the details on behalf of her clients. She is no push over by any means. BUT she also works toward the greater good of the event and her client to make sure that things will run smoothly and logically – as opposed to just standing in the way of everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. There are actors and actresses that I advise the people in charge of film festivals and events I do to cross off their lists because life is just way too short to deal with the person in charge of their PR.  Carri is at the other end of that spectrum. And that trust and working relationship make me want to give her first “dibs” with her clients whenever I do events.

Monique Parent – Another My Space and Facebook pal. My first year at AFI FEST, Monique allowed me to publish an article she had written about the intricacies and oftentimes awkwardness of shooting explicit love scenes for films. But we had never actually met until this year when we had an idea for a filmmakers’ panel for Women in Film Dallas. I wanted her presence and opinion on that panel and knew she would have the right personality to bring to town. And that thought was right on all counts. Monique is smart, beautiful and a straight talker. You could see a filmmaker wanting to write a part for her just for the excuse to have her on set – let alone raising the game of their film. She has done plenty of service in the land of soft core and really, really deserves someone giving her a Tarantino-type spotlight role in a cool indie thing somewhere.

Robin Wright Penn – Robin’s publicist Mara Buxbaum (who is a friend) more-or-less made it clear to me that the only way Robin would be coming to Dallas was if I could…let’s just say…uhm…take a personal interest in her well-being while she was here. No problem. Now Mara had been to Dallas with the Wilson brothers a year or so ago so she knew what to expect (and more importantly knew it was “safe”), but this was a specialized situation. And frankly, it’s important to have someone like Robin come to the festival – not just for this particular one but for the future well-being celebrity-wise. Because, AFI DALLAS only being in its third year is still in that process of forming a reputation as a destination for people of Robin’s ilk. And you know the “ilk” I’m speaking of, don’t even pretend. Therefore, even though I had Mara’s trust in this case, we still need to impress each and every big league actor and actress and send them away very happy and gushing with praise with how we run this particular film fest machine. Because they’ll tell two actors and then they’ll reassure two actors and they’ll convince two more actors and so on and so on…

Two, Robin was coming to town to support a documentary, HAZE, about teenage binge drinking – which I personally thought was an important one beyond just being a good film. And as the spokeswoman for The Gordie Foundation which was deeply involved, if not the outright inspiration for the film, it was important to Robin for her participation to be done properly. And that’s what impressed me. Because we get “demands” all of the time. And a lot of the time, those demands come from a place of personal comfort or convenience or sheer “testing” to see how much they can get away with (like the old lion film reviewer we flew into town – gruff but not lovable). And Robin’s specifications (I won’t even characterize them as demands because I want to make sure the context is precise here) were all in the service of what she thought was right for the film, for The Gordie Foundation and for her friends Leslie and Michael Lanahan, who began and lead that foundation in honor of Leslie’s son, Gordie. Robin has seen that documentary and the testimonials countless times by this point and I saw it still bring her to tears after all this time and all of those repeated viewings. Seeing that made me want to be just that much more careful to help navigate the tricky press and publicity waters for her and them. She was patient and dutiful on behalf of the film and the foundation and deserving of a lot of respect for making the trip.

Lisa Rosman – When Kim Voynar isn’t writing for Movie City News, I think she serves as Lisa Rosman’s (who works and writes for US Magazine and Flavorpill) publicist. She sold me on the fact that I needed to bring Lisa to Dallas to be a panelist and talk movies because in one bought plane ticket and hotel room we would be instantly upping the ante on the AFI DALLAS coolness quotient. And, as I have come to trust – Kim was right on the money. After moderating one panel with Lisa as a participant and one dinner rife with banter and provocative topics – film and otherwise – I became an instant fan. She has style, she’s got a knowing awareness spiced with just the right amount of acerbic – and all in a classic dame package. I became an instant fan – simple as that.

Tiffany Shepis – Again, thank you facebook. And, to be fair – thank you very much Loyd Cryer at Texas Frightmare Weekend because he teamed up with me to make Tiffany’s appearance possible. Some people were scratching their heads a bit on why I instantly jumped at the idea of bringing Tiffany to Dallas to be a panelist but I knew it would be great. And once again, she exceeded all expectations for the couple of days she was there. There are people who are game for whatever you’re gonna throw at them and then there are people like Tiffany. Instantly, you can see why she is an evergreen draw at the Fangoria-type conventions and why she is one of those actresses in the genre that is seemingly always working. If you are a fan or a filmmaker in horror I have to imagine that a crisis ridden internal debate would be “Watch Tiffany on screen or have Tiffany on my set – what’s more important to me at this very moment?!”

Kim Voynar (and her daughter Neve) – Even though technically (by my own rules for this blog) I shouldn’t – I have to include Kim in this list. I’ve known her and had her attend my film festivals a few times now, but frankly, she kind of sets the tone (or should if I was choosing the person that got to) for how film festival behavior and “dialogue” between film fans and filmmakers and journalists should go as far as I’m concerned. I just flat out like Kim’s writing and her viewpoint on film and socio-politics. She is possibly the most effective devil’s advocate writer around right now. She’ll offer up a contrarian’s position from a balanced, inquisitive place that few people have either the guts or the talent to delve into. And her daughter, Neve (pronounced with a “long E” not like the Canadian SCREAM queen) is primed to follow right in those impressive footsteps. Smart, sweet and fun, Neve had the poor timing to get sick just after she arrived in Dallas after she had been looking forward all year to coming to the festival following her first visit with Kim a year ago. It sucked for her – obviously – but I was also genuinely disappointed. You see, Neve is not just a great, smart kid, but seriously, she has the beginnings of her mom’s writing talent. I was hoping to have her weigh in on our Family Friendly section as only she could. Instead, my goals for her were lowered to hoping I could help Kim get Neve well and feeling better before she had to go back home.

Last week, I was having a conversation with AFI FEST Artistic Director Rose Kuo about the fact that just screening movies does not a film festival make. It just doesn’t. If that’s what you think, then you’re fooling yourself. That’s film without the festival as far as I’m concerned. It’s the filmmakers, the actors, the jurors, and the journalists. It’s the people that are there doing Q&As, participating in panels, talking up movies in the lounges that make a film festival unique and special and a place you want to be or should want to be. And this group of women were a major reason that AFI DALLAS was something special this year as far as I’m concerned.

2009 AFI DALLAS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
FOUNDING SPONSOR VICTORY PARK,
PRESENTING SPONSOR NORTHPARK CENTER
ANNOUNCES AWARD WINNERS

“GIGANTIC” RECEIVES THE $25,000 TARGET FILMMAKER AWARD
FOR BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE

“PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI” RECEIVES THE $25,000 TARGET FILMMAKER AWARD
FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

“ST. NICK” RECEIVES $20,000 IN CASH, GOODS AND SERVICES FOR THE MPS STUDIOS TEXAS FILMMAKER AWARD

“CRUDE” RECEIVES THE $10,000 CURRENT ENERGY FILMMAKER AWARD

“PRINCESS MARGARET BLVD.”, “HUG” AND “CHICKEN COWBOY”
ARE NAMED WINNERS
FOR BEST SHORT FILM, STUDENT SHORT AND ANIMATED SHORT

AND

AUDIENCE AWARDS GO TO “SKIN” FOR NARRATIVE FEATURE, “ROCK PROPHECIES” FOR DOCUMENTARY AND “LUCY: A PERIOD PIECE” FOR SHORT

DALLAS, TX, April 2, 2008 – AFI DALLAS International Film Festival, Founding Sponsor Victory Park, Presenting Sponsor NorthPark Center, announces its 2009 award winners with Matt Aselton’s GIGANTIC as the winner of the unrestricted $25,000 cash prize for the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature with Peter Callahan’s AGAINST THE CURRENT receiving a Special Jury Prize, and Paul Saltzman’s PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI as the winner of the unrestricted $25,000 cash prize for the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Documentary Feature with Gustav Hofer’s and Luca Ragazzi’s SUDDENLY LAST WINTER receiving a Special Jury Prize. The awards were presented by Heather Matarazzo (WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE, THE PRINCESS DIARIES) and Elvis Mitchell (THE BLACK LIST), each of whom served on the Narrative Features and Documentary Features jury, respectively, for AFI DALLAS this year.

Presented by Current Energy’s Joe Harberg, Joe Berlinger’s CRUDE won the $10,000 cash prize for the Current Energy Filmmaker Award, while MPS Studios’ Mark Stephens presented MPS Studios’ Texas Filmmaker Award and $20,000 in cash, goods and services to David Lowery for his film, ST. NICK.

Kazik Radwanski’s PRINCESS MARGARET BLVD. won the award for Best Short with Honorable Mentions going to both Todd Luoto’s OIL CHANGE and Denis Villeneuve’s NEXT FLOOR. The award for Best Student Short went to Khary Jones’s HUG. Jurors John Magary and Bent Jorgen-Pearlmutt presented the awards. Reel FX Entertainment Vice President of Creative, Brandon Oldenberg presented the award for Best Animated Short to Stephen Neary’s CHICKEN COWBOY.

Anthony Fabian’s SKIN won the Audience Award for Best Narrative, while John Chester’s ROCK PROPHECIES won for Best Documentary and Julie Sagalowsky’s LUCY: A PERIOD PIECE won the Audience Award for Best Short. AFI DALLAS Director of Programming James Faust and Senior Programmer Sarah Harris presented the awards.

The winners of the jury prizes for Best Short, Best Student Short and the Audience Awards each receive production and scheduling software from Entertainment Partners.

Faust said, “This year, we were fortunate to have so many exceptional films that challenged the audience artistically and conceptually. It was a very competitive year in that respect and while we were all the beneficiaries of that, by its nature the jury had the difficulty of having to choose one film to honor over the others.”

Michael Cain, AFI DALLAS Artistic Director, added “In our third year, the city of Dallas and the international film community truly have begun to take note of the distinctive personality of this film festival – both through the evolution of our programming and what is becoming more accepted every year – the peerless presentation and hospitality that have been hallmarks of AFI DALLAS from the very beginning.”

JURY AWARDS:

TARGET NARRATIVE FEATURE: GIGANTIC
DIR:     Matt Aselton (USA)
Cast:     Zooey Deschanel, Paul Dano, John Goodman

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: AGAINST THE CURRENT
DIR:     Peter Callahan (USA)
Cast:    Joseph Fiennes, Justin Kirk, Elizabeth Reaser

TARGET DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI
DIR:    Paul Saltzman (USA)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: SUDDENLY LAST WINTER
DIR:    Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi (Italy)

CURRENT ENERGY FILMMAKER AWARD: CRUDE
DIR:    Joe Berlinger (USA)

MPS STUDIOS TEXAS FILMMAKER AWARD: ST. NICK
DIR:    David Lowery (USA)

SHORT: PRINCESS MARGARET BLVD.
DIR:    Kazik Radwanski (Canada)

HONORABLE MENTION: OIL CHANGE
DIR:    Todd Luoto

HONORABLE MENTION: NEXT FLOOR
DIR:    Denis Villeneuve

STUDENT SHORT: HUG
DIR:    Khary Jones (USA)

ANIMATED SHORT: CHICKEN COWBOY
DIR:    Stephen Neary (USA)

AUDIENCE AWARDS:

NARRATIVE: SKIN
DIR:     Anthony Fabian (UK/South Africa)
Cast:     Sophie Okonedo, Sam Neill, Alice Krige

DOCUMENTARY: ROCK PROPHECIES
DIR:    John Chester (USA)

SHORT: LUCY: A PERIOD PIECE
DIR:    Julie Sagalowsky (USA)

2009 AFI DALLAS JURY MEMBERS:

NARRATIVE FEATURE JURY includes:

Richie Mehta
Richie Mehta is the director of 2008 AFI DALLAS Audience Award winning movie, AMAL. The film has since received multiple Genie nominations in Canada.  Previous films include SYSTEM OF UNITS and ANAMIKA.

Heather Matarazzo
Heather Matarazzo is an acclaimed actress known for her award winning performance in WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE.   Heather is also know for her role in THE PRINCESS DIARIES series and HOSTEL 2. She has also appeared on hit TV series such as LAW & ORDER, LIFE ON MARS and THE L WORD.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE JURY includes:

Elvis Mitchell
Elvis Mitchell is a former film critic for The New York Times, and is currently the host of KCRW’s pop culture and film interview program “The Treatment.” Mitchell recently produced THE BLACK LIST with director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. The film examines race, culture and the seeds of success through portraits of 20 influential African Americans.

Doug Pray
Doug Pray is documentary filmmaker and the director of ART & COPY, which screened at the 2009 AFI DALLAS International Film Festival in the Documentary Showcase. Past films include BIG RIG, SCRATCH and HYPE!

CURRENT ENERGY EARTH FRIENDLY JURY includes:

Current Energy
Current Energy is a Dallas-based company that provides energy efficient solutions that are environmentally friendly. The company was founded in 2001, anticipating the impact that energy deregulation would have on companies, and was recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy in the fall of 2007 with an Energy Innovators Award.

MPS STUDIOS TEXAS COMPETITION JURY includes:

David Pomes
David Pomes is the writer/director/producer o COOK COUNTY, which won the2008 AFI DALLAS MPS Studios Texas Filmmaker Award.  David quit his job as a lawyer to film his movie in Texas.

Meredith Stevens/MPS
Meredith Stephens is Vice President of Business Development at MPS Studios and served on the board of the Women in Film- Dallas and the former President of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance.

SHORT COMPETITION JURY includes:

John Magary
John Magary won the 2008 AFI DALLAS Short Jury Award for his film THE SECOND LINE. Past films include OUR NATIONAL PARKS and SITE IN FISHKILL CREEK.

David Zellner
David Zellner is an Austin filmmaker whose movie GOLIATH screened at the 2008 AFI DALLAS International Film Festival. Past films include AFTERMATH ON MEADOWLARK LANE, REDEMPTITUDE and FLOTSAM/JETSAM.

STUDENT COMPETITION JURY includes:

Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt
Bent-Jorgen Perimutt is the 2008 AFI DALLAS Student Short award winner for his movie THE VULNERABLE ONES (Les Vulnerables).

Ben Levin
Andy Anderson is an accomplished artist and filmmaker who served as Chair of the Art and Art History Department at University of Texas at Arlington, where he now continues as a Professor and Writer in Residence, teaching Introduction to Screenwriting, Advanced Screenwriting and the Narrative Film class.

ANIMATION COMPETITION JURY includes:

Henry Selick – Director, Tex Avery Award winner
Henry Selick is the director, production designer and screenplay adapter for CORALINE, the first stop-motion animated feature film ever produced in stereoscopic 3-D.  His feature film directorial projects, including the iconic NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH.

Brandon Oldenberg/Reel FX
Brandon Oldenberg is Vice President of Creative at Reel FX Studios.

Reel FX Creative Studios, founded in 1993, is an award-winning creative studio where accomplished artists and preeminent technology converge to produce extraordinary creative solutions. Their services include visual effects, animation, design and creative editorial.

AFI DALLAS kicked off with the Opening Night Gala presentation of Rian Johnson’s THE BROTHERS BLOOM with Johnson, Adrien Brody and Rinko Kikiuchi in attendance on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at the AMC NorthPark in Dallas. The evening’s festivities also included the presentation of the AFI DALLAS Star Awards (designed from Steuben Crystal, courtesy of Neiman Marcus) to Brody.

Other highlights included a Centerpiece Screening of Guillermo Arriga’s THE BURNING PLAIN with Arriaga and Joaquim de Almeida in attendance, a screening of the cinema classic CHINATOWN with Robert Towne including the presentation of the AFI DALLAS Star Award to him prior to a special Q&A with film critic Richard Schickel and a special screening of THE LAST PICTURE SHOW with Peter Bogdanovich in attendance (and set to be honored with the AFI DALLAS Star Award the following day at the AFI DALAS Texas Day celebration). Also honored with the AFI DALLAS Star Award were Kathryn Bigelow, prior to a screening of her film THE HURT LOCKER and Rita Hayworth (presented posthumously), while Henry Selick was given the Texas Avery Award. The festival also featured Talk Show panels at the Nasher Sculpture Center and Speakeasy panels at the AFI DALLAS Festival Lounge.

The festival closed with AFI DALLAS Closing Night Gala presentations of Louis Psihoyos’s THE COVE and James Toback’s TYSON on Thursday, April 2, 2009 at the AMC NorthPark in Dallas attended by the two directors.

Other notable attendees at this year’s AFI DALLAS Film Festival included Alice Krige, Jordan Ladd, Patton Oswalt, Rob Siegel, Devon Aoki, Robin Wright Penn, Justin Kirk, Jeremy Renner, Jason Ritter, Jess Weixler, Patrick Warburton, Elaine Hendrix, Tiffany Shepis, Monique Parent, Carlos Cuaron, Matt Tyrnauer, Lou Gossett Jr., Doug Pray, Tim McCanlies and Janine Turner.

Overall, the 2009 AFI DALLAS International Film Festival showcased 81 features and 96 shorts for a total of 177 films from 22 countries.

Photo courtesy: Mehul Shah

The mood at The Magnolia was exuberant on Wednesday.

The neighborhood cafes bustled with people and music. Customers jammed the ice-cream parlor. The traffic was congested. And at the main entrance of The Magnolia, moviegoers lined up to watch the second screening of Bollywood Beats, one of the selections of the AFI Dallas International Film Festival.

While the privileged people entered the theater unabashed, the rest waited.

And waited.

The line at the main entrance had stretched half a mile by 9 p.m.  Standing there were people who worked in the movie, some distant relatives of the director and people with interests in Bollywood, the Indian film industry.

Waiting and wishing for their luck to go inside and watch the movie, people talked and even networked. Some were chatting incessantly about the director, the acquaintances they had with him. Some were making frantic calls, giving directions to the theater. And some were just gazing at the ticket collector, waiting for a sign to go inside.

As the clock struck 10 p.m., people at the front of the line rushed with big smiles to grab a seat . Their wait was over, and it surely was an accomplishment.

Before the movie started, Mehul Shah, director of the movie, gave a short brief about Bollywood Beats. And then the lights dimmed and the show started.

The crowd of native Indians, American-Indians and a diverse race of people laughed, clapped and cheered when someone they knew appeared on the screen.

The two-hour musical melodrama is a “dreamer’s story,” Shah said. After the movie, he interacted with with the audience who bombarded him with questions about the movie.

It seemed the crowd had enjoyed a slice of Bollywood. People masked with happy expressions made gleeful exits, some talking about their favorite scene from the movie and some humming the tunes from the movie.

Q & A with Shah.

Movie trailers have become such an accepted part of our collective movie-going experience that some us actually feel gypped if we miss a few due to a late arrival to the theater. If you haven’t ironically narrated your day’s activities with a ponderous baritone at least a few times in your lifetime then you must be Amish. Or Helen Keller. Because you have. Richard Gale’s THE HORRIBLY SLOW MURDERER WITH THE EXTREMELY INEFFICIENT WEAPON is a funny “preview” of a promised horror epic where a man faces the prospects of his demise at the hands of a relentless assailant armed with a lethal (well, maybe eventually…) spoon. It’s clever, it’s fun, and it delivers the promise of that title.

Will the typical movie trailer format ever not lend itself to being mocked?
Probably not.  The movie trailer is an awesome format for short parodies… and to me, so many horror films and thrillers are filled with the potential to be ridiculous– it’s fun territory to explore.

How many debates did you have with yourself along the lines of “too much spoon, not enough spoon”?
Great question– one of the biggest challenges of this film was that the humor comes from the monotony of the killer, but how do you make monotony entertaining, without it becoming truly monotonous and annoying?  It was decided in the editing.  I wanted to push the joke as far as humanly possible, and the hopefully the many location changes kept things interesting.

You took 22 days to shoot the short film because of all the locations required. Why not just shoot the 9 hour feature film that’s promised by the “trailer”? Or….did you?
We actually shot so much footage(for every second of screen time of the victim being hit by a spoon, there’s five to ten minutes of unused spoon-attack footage) I realized I can actually create a 90-minute “excerpt” from the 9-hour feature.  I plan to put it on the DVD for THE HORRIBLY SLOW MURDERER WITH THE EXTREMELY INEFFICIENT WEAPON, which will come out later this year.  But the 9-hour version?  Trust me, you really wouldn’t want to see that.  Even those who sat through all of Warhol’s Empire (6 hours of a single shot of the Empire State Bldg) couldn’t take it.

Brian Rohan, who plays the ‘Horribly Slow Murderer’ works as ‘Norman Bates’ on the Universal Studios Tour. Did you have to stop the tram in order to cast him?
No, but every time I call my friend Brian during the day when he’s at work, he’s at the Bates Motel.  After a few minutes of talking he says to me, “hold on, I hear a tram coming, just a sec,” and puts the phone down.  After a minute, I can hear forty people screaming in terror in the distance, and a moment later, he returns to the phone and says “sorry about that.”  He has the coolest day job ever.

The “trailer” claims the film contains 20,000 spoonfuls of terror. Would counting each spoonful of terror bring with it it’s own special brand of horror?
I don’t believe anyone has yet attempted to count every spoon hit in the film, but I know I will not attempt it.  Someone suggested making a drinking game around the spoon hits in the film, but that would be truly dangerous.  People would get alcohol poisioning before it was over.  Fear the spoon.

What will happen in the feature-length sequel to THE HORRIBLY SLOW MURDERER WITH THE EXTREMELY INEFFICIENT WEAPON?
The Spoonkiller will take on Freddy, Jason, Leatherface and Pinhead from HELLRAISER, and beat them all into submission with his unstoppable relentlessness, coupled with his relentless unstoppability.

By the way, for info on the Horribly Slow Murderer and updates on the upcoming Special Edition DVD, visit www.richard-gale.com <http://www.richard-gale.com>

Tze Chun’s CHILDREN OF INVENTION is a timely film. The story of a Chinese immigrant mother desperately trying to make enough money to support her two kids with little to no help and a wandering eye toward one dubious entrepreneurial opportunity after another is familiar. Too familiar. And that’s why it will last and still resonate long after our country rights itself toward the next period of prosperity. Because that elusive dream of instant wealth and relief from the struggle and embarrassment of not being able to pay rent or properly feed your kids will always be here – for someone. And the fear of that happening to all of us and the curiosity of how we would respond to that bleak situation – remains with everyone. But the magic of the film is that Chun illustrates the other hopeful side effect of that struggle in the persons of the mother’s young son and daughter – and that is the spirit of innovation to survive.

1          There is a strong autobiographical inspiration behind this film. Why was it so important for you to make this film?
It’s always hard to say why a certain script will inspire you while you’ll lose interest in another.  I will say that as we were making the film, the cast (Cindy, Michael, and Crystal) continued to inspire me and kept the material fresh.

When I wrote the film, I was writing a personal story about the world I grew up in – a subculture of Americans trying to get-rich-quick in order to get themselves out of a financial hole. I didn’t foresee the current crisis. But with the economy tanking now and foreclosures going through the roof, it seems like everyone’s living through some version of what the Chengs go through in the film.

I hope this film can be a reminder that we’ve had bad times before, individually and as a country, but we’ve always made it out fine.

2            At this point in your life, are you comfortable with people who exhibit that get-rich-quick mentality or does your experiences growing up make you recoil from that?
The only thing that disturbs me is the get-rich-quick mentality without regard for hurting or exploiting others. But there are tons of harmless and brilliant get-rich-quick schemes that I’m very envious that I didn’t come up with — the Million Dollar Homepage, for example.

3            What is the best thing about having your film at AFI DALLAS?
Being eligible for the 25k prize! Also, hanging out with (programmers) James Faust and Sarah Harris.

4            Be honest here – Did you invest any money with Bernie Madoff?
Independent filmmakers generally have little to no money to invest in anything other than their own films, so luckily, no.

5            What should a director do that they never think of until it’s too late?
Wear layers when you go on set.  Directing a movie is stressful, and your body temperature fluctuates a lot!

6            What’s the most underappreciated job on the set?
Hmm… The most underappreciated job on set has got to be the first Assistant Director, who keeps the crew on schedule. People always complain that the first AD isn’t giving their department enough time to get everything perfect before the shot is taken, but no one thanks them when they get to go home on time.

7             What kind of responsibility comes with being one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film last year?
The main responsibility that came with that article was having to buy a dozen copies of the magazine and mailing them to various aunts and uncles in Asia.

8             Do you still have one of those spinning spaghetti fork inventions the kids make in the film? And if so have you ever used it?
Haha, they kept on breaking on set.  We went through a bunch of them. They work well for ramen, but spaghetti will break it in two.

9            What was the last film that made you cry? Laugh out loud?
Last film that made me cry was Spike Lee’s WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE. I hardly ever cry at narrative films, but I will cry at almost any documentary about any serious subject.  Also at E.T.  The last film that made me laugh out loud was H.P. Mendoza’s FRUIT FLY, which I just saw at the San Francisco Int’l Asian American Film Festival.

10    Popcorn or candy?
As I get older, I can’t bring myself to eat anything in the theater… I just don’t need those calories.

DVD EXTRA

You and Anna Boden seem to keep trading off on each other’s skills: She edited WINDOWBREAKER so you painted the poster for HALF NELSON. Now she has edited CHILDREN OF INVENTION. So, what do you owe her now?
God, I think I may be all out of skills to trade. We edited the movie at Anna’s apartment, so I also owe Ryan Fleck for kicking him out of his own place for an entire month. Maybe I’ll clean their bathroom or something.