Important links with more information about social change cinema:
Newsreel ::: Witness
Film has been shifting people's mindset for years. By shining a light on areas of society that are undiscovered, unacknowledged, or in some cases unequal. Social change is a tricky thing that requires education and information. Both of which seem less effective unless they work together. Film however has an advantage in that it can tell a story that shows a transformation through sight and sound - a powerful combination.
Indieville's Social Change Cinema section is launching to provide an overview of this growing. We will publish original articles and highlight other writings that explore social change through the use of cinema. Enjoy.
Edition #1: Sundance Focus
Adam Werbach from the Huffington Report...
Robert Redford's annual celebration of independent film launched last night with a screening of Nicole Holofcener's Friends With Money, a story of the lives of liberal women on the West Side of Los Angeles. Featuring Jennifer Aniston, Joan Cusack, Frances McDormand, and Catherine Keener, the film was a good metaphor for the strange combination that Sundance provides of Los Angeles and New York culture in the Park City, Utah snow.
Soon after I arrived I found myself walking in front of a Hummer with New York Publicist Lizzie Grubmann inside. Grubmann, famed for cursing out a valet and then backing her SUV into a crowd, was not exactly what we came to Sundance to see. But if you can push through the glitz and fur, Sundance promises to have one of the best slates of new films in years.
Documentaries getting a lot of buzz this year include The Ground Truth: After the Killing Fields, Patricia Foulkrod's film chronicling the post-traumatic stress syndrome of soldiers returning from Iraq. Also on the subject of Iraq, James Longley's Iraq in Fragments, is one of the first Iraq films to feature Kurdish protagonists. Lauren Greenfield's Thin is the story of eating disorders in America. With the recent coverage of Lindsay Lohan's problems with food, it's far past time to have an artful documentary treatment of this issue.
This morning's shorts programs included Tiffany Shlain's The Tribe, an audience favorite (Disclosure: the author has a small cameo in the film). The Tribe tells the story of Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, and uses it as a metaphor of how Jews, and all tribes, deal with their outsider status. The hilarious Robin's Big Date tells the story of how Batman tries to steal Robin's potential girlfriend. And Ha Ha Ha America, which received mixed reviews from the audience, is told from the sarcastic viewpoint of the Chinese and thanks America for following their hillbilly President as he makes China an economic powerhouse.
Ted Sarandos, the head of Acquisitions at Netflix, has been continuing to pick up the most diverse slate of films in the industry. The 4 million members of Netflix are in for some treats in the coming year. At the same time, filmmakers are buzzing about the new move towards simultaneous theatrical and DVD distribution through companies like Mark Cuban's 2929 pictures, who recently released Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, a favorite at last year's Sundance festival.
More reports are coming soon. Let me know if there are any films you want reviewed.
The snow is starting to Fall in Park City, and early favorites are beginning to emerge among the films that have screened to date. Somebodies, the coming of age story of a young black man in Athens, Georgia is threatening to become the breakthrough film of the festival. The film, written, directed and starring Georgia-native Hadjii has the social message of Do the Right Thing in the midst of a side-splitting comedy. The film is a low-budget triumph, and undoubtedly will be screening across the country soon.
Another film getting a lot of attention is Jew-Boy. Jew Boy is the story of the son of a rabbi who falls apart once his father dies. The film is programmed with a short called Be Quiet that takes the viewer along with a Palestinian father and his son as they pass through Israeli checkpoints on the way to their day. It's impossible to watch the film without a pit in your stomach.
Thanks for the comments on yesterday's post; I'll try to cover the films you've asked about. The film that chronicles Vice President Al Gore's global warming speech and tour, An Inconvenient Truth, premieres later in Sundance. The presentation, if you've had the chance to see it live, is one of the best distillations of the reasons for action on climate change. Jeff Skoll's Participant Productions financed the film and will be actively promoting it in the year to come. Huffington Post regular constributor Laurie David executive produced the film.
I was pleased to see a comment about Ha Ha Ha America, because the film deserves conversation. I'll fill out the description a bit and I encourage you to watch it yourself. The short film by a creative writing graduate student has a stereotypical Chinese voice addressing the "Wendy's-Eating" American public and thanking Americans for their help in making the emerging global economic superpower. While artfully done, there were mixed audience reactions to the sarcastic Chinese voice. Your comments are welcome. You can view the short here.
Another short that you may enjoy is Josh and Max. Here's a link to watch this seven minute short.
One of the big stories in this year's Sundance is the continued growth of the music documentary. The Glastonbury documentary premieres follows the growth, since the 1970's, of one of the most important music festivals in the world. Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, is produced by the band itself, which gives a rare inside look at one of the most important bands of the 1980's.
Finally, there is rising anticipation for American Blackout, the GNN Film helmed by Ian Inaba that chronicles Cynthia McKinney's 2004 experiences as a way of telling the story of America's dysfunctional voting system. Stay tuned for the review after the premiere.
I'll be posting more updates at www.ironweedfilms.com as well.
The marathon continues.
We're now in the third full day of Sundance, and you can tell that the hangovers from late night parties are beginning to affect the audiences. So much of Sundance is about the thrill of the chase; the chance to screen a movie that will be a film that everyone will eventually be talking about.
Or alternatively, it's an opportunity to see quality films on the big screen that will never screen theatrically again. Either way, the audience wants so badly to love the films that this euphoria sometimes overcomes their normal tastes and preferences. Film buyers in particular suffer from this malady, frequently returning with overpriced art-films that have buzz at Sundance. Perhaps the crankiness from hangovers and lack of sleep will bring people back to earth.
For the film aficionados out there, Gus Van Sant was on hand yesterday to screen a newly revised print of his first feature film Mala Noche. Mala Noche, the wandering tale of a skid row liquor store clerk who falls in love with a Mexican kid, was digitized in high definition and broadcast from a laptop simultaneously to NYU and UCLA. It's fitting that one of the most important independent films of all time would be a pathbreaker in digitally projected and transported films. One of the greatest barriers for independent filmmakers is the cost of making film prints to show at theatres -- frequently north of $25,000 per print.
Last night's late night film, Special, starring Michael Rappaport, was one of the more clever and well-acted films screened to date at the festival. Rappaport, a parking enforcement officer, wants to feel like he's special, so he enrolls in clinical trials for a new drug called "Special", which is intended to remove self-doubt. Rappaport begins to experience special powers that resemble the powers from his comic book heroes and assumes a costume and personae to match his new-found powers. The low-budget special effects and stunts are believable and the world the filmmakers create draws the viewer in for the entire film.
The documentary film Clearcut, about the struggles in a small timber town in Oregon was one of a slate of strong films that rely on a deep sense of place. The narrative film Steel City is a gritty film set in the industrial Midwest where a car accident sets in motion a series of choices for a divided family. What would you do if your son killed someone accidentally? Would you take the rap?
The documentary Five Days is getting a lot of attention as well. It's the story of the Israeli pullout from Gaza Strip, from the soldiers and settlers perspective, edited together from footage from seven individual camera crews.
And, just to give you a little of the feel of this place, the must-have accessory for Sundance is the new blackberry. Movie attendees are being scolded before each film to ensure that they don't text-message during the films. Nevertheless, you can still see little white glowing orbs throughout the theatre during each film.
More updates coming soon. I just finished an interview with John Waters that I'll be transcribing as soon as possible.
CORRECTION: There was an error in yesterday's posting misdescribing Wristcutters (a narrative film about teen suicide). Thanks for catching it.
Panel: Movies can work for social change
By Anne Thompson (Hollywood Reporter)
PARK CITY -- It is possible to make movies that will change the world, participants in a Saturday panel titled "Brave New World: Entertainment and Social Change" all agreed. Moderator Pat Mitchell, president and CEO of PBS, led the discussion of new technologies' impact on the dynamic between content and audience. Panelists included Robert Redford; MPAA chairman Dan Glickman; Jeff Skoll, founder and CEO of Participant Prods.; indie producer Bingham Ray; and producer Jake Eberts.
Several panelists said that 2005's 8% downturn in boxoffice admissions could have a positive impact on content in the long run, forcing studios to abandon formulas to take more chances on smaller films. Ray called politically motivated entertainment such as Skoll's "North Country," "Syriana" and "Good Night, and Good Luck," as well as Focus Features' "Brokeback Mountain," a "resurgence of films saying things to people that matter. Rarely have so many films had so much impact."
Redford, who has made a career out of politically conscious moviemaking, from "All the President's Men" to about 40 documentaries, said that finding the right narrow niche for small films is the future. When he couldn't get Tony Hillerman novels about Native Americans made as movies, he gave them to Mitchell, who made them into telefilms at PBS. "I am a cynical optimist," Redford said. "Big opening weekends are like cotton candy. The films you will remember over time are the films that stick in the consciousness of the audience in a good way."
"I am a tough-minded optimist, or realist," said Skoll, who described how he always wanted to make a difference with movies but had to make his fortune by co-founding eBay before he could realize his dream. "It's hard work, getting people involved in movies that affect lives," he said. "It is not easy to turn someone from a consumer of entertainment into someone involved."
Glickman told Redford that seeing "The Candidate" inspired him to run for Congress in Kansas; he eventually became Secretary of Agriculture. "I went from running the reddest state department to working with the bluest industry," he said. "We are the symbol for the rest of the world of what America is about."
Eberts has long insisted on only making movies that he cares about, from "Gandhi" to "Chariots of Fire." "Don't waste anything that you can't swear on your grandfather's Bible that you have to see made," he said.
