SAGIndie

The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival, starting June 17th and running until the 27th, will be happening downtown this year and, as a sponsor, we couldn’t be more excited!

As you can see from the map above, everything will be pretty much taking place at L.A. LIVE (right near the Staples Center), and also at venues only blocks away. If you’re in Southern California, we highly recommend you try and attend.

Check out the great line-up: http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2010/filmguide/
And more info on the venues: http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/2010/venues/ 

On June 6, 2010 Actor, writer, and film director Steve Buscemi will talk with Emmy Award-winning journalist and Co-Host of WNYC Radio and PRI’s The Takeaway, John Hockenberry, about creating unforgettable characters that ultimately drive a film’s narrative and impact. The afternoon will feature film clips from the actor’s career as well as brunch at an award-winning Brooklyn eatery.

It is our pleasure to extend an advance invitation to SAG and SAGIndie members. The event will be publicly announced this Friday May 14th, so please take advantage of this opportunity to secure seats to this intimate event.

Actor as Auteur Brunch To Benefit ISSUE Project Room
Presented in Collaboration With SAGIndie
Sunday, June 6, 12pm – 2pm
$125 Per Person ($95 tax-deductible, three-course brunch is included.)

SEATING IS LIMITED. BUY TICKETS
For more information please call 718-330-0313.

There are numerous iconic characters in film history, from The Little Tramp to Charles Foster Kane to Colonel Kurtz to Travis Bickle, all of them well drawn and directed. However, had Chaplin, Welles, Brando or DeNiro not played these roles would the film had the same powerful impact on our culture? Can a case be made for actor as auteur?

It is difficult to imagine Buscemi’s roles and their indelible effect on each film without his personal, stylized approach in bringing them to life. They emit essential energies striking a balance between deeply held neuroses and outward bombast. From lead roles in films like Fargo, Resevoir Dogs, Living in Oblivion, Trees Lounge, and Ghost World to supporting roles and cameos in films such as The Big Lebowski, and Barton Fink, his presence breathes life into every corner of a film. “Buscemi is a quiet tyrant of artistic fury who threatens to overrun every frame he’s in with the inner desperation he projects even in his most subtle performances,” says Hockenberry.

SAGIndie is a gentle and loving union between the hard working thespians of the world and the passionate filmmakers who buck the system. Since its formation in 1997, SAGIndie has been traveling to film festivals, trade shows and conventions spreading the word: Just because your film isn’t produced by a studio doesn’t mean you can’t use professional talent. www.SAGIndie.org

ISSUE Project Room, a registered 501(c)(3) organization, was established in 2003 by visionary artist Suzanne Fiol, and is a vibrant nexus for cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary arts in Brooklyn. ISSUE supports emerging and established experimental artists through more than 200 programs each year including music concerts, literary readings, films, videos, dance, visual and sound art, new media, critical theory lectures and discussions, site-specific work, commissions, educational workshops, master classes, and genre-defying interdisciplinary performances that challenge and expand conventional practices in art.  Support for ISSUE has been provided by CHORA, a project of the Metabolic Studio, a direct charitable activity of the Annenberg Foundation led by Artist and Foundation Director Lauren Bon. CHORA aims to support the intangibles that precede creativity. www.ISSUEProjectRoom.org 

Tribeca Films is having a NY theatrical run of all of their titles May 5th–18th at Tribeca Cinemas. As a member, you can purchase tickets at a 20% discount by using the code below.

Tickets can be purchased HERE.

As always, SXSW was a success for SAGIndie. There’s something about being in Austin during March that makes for a very rewarding experience, both personally and professionally. The excitement and genuine love for film is so rampant that you never want it to end. This festival is quickly becoming one of my favorites and I highly suggest attending.

Besides seeing a couple amazing films (KICK-ASS and MICMACS), we were an exhibitor during the three-day trade show portion and had the chance to chat with a number of interesting filmmakers and actors. SAGIndie National Director, Darrien Gipson, took part in a “Meet the Guilds” panel that was very well attended and we finished out the week by co-hosting an amazing party with the WGA.

See below for some fun photos from the trip.

One of the best festival t-shirts I’ve seen. I definitely picked one up.

Registration was MUCH easier in 2010. Every year SXSW gets better at running their show.

Our busy booth. Co-ran with our great friends at SAG New Media.

This guy was our first GOWALLA challenge winner. He took home a bunch of goodies.

Blip.tv hosted an amazing party for filmmakers and new media professionals.

Cheeseburger flavored Doritos. Best or worst idea ever?

The Music Festival crowd begins to take over 6th Street.

1.) To be 100 percent surrounded by mountains. Yes, I’ve been to Colorado and rode up to the top of Pike’s Peak, but I’ve never stood in a town and been able to turn 180 degrees and see nothing but a jagged barrier landscape, makes you feel like you’ve been dropped in a teacup where the sides of the cup are gigantic mountains.

2.) Such rustic lodging. There were deer antlers on my wall, ‘nuff said.

3.) To regret forgetting a hat. I know how that sounds but I had gloves, multiple scarves, two winter coats and snow boots; yet, because it snowed nearly every day a hat became paramount. Good thing we had hundreds of awesome SAGIndie hats and I eventually got my hands on one.

4.) To see Robert Duvall in person! Probably the actor I was most moved to see. He came up on stage along with his co-stars Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black after the screening of their film Get Low. He didn’t have too much to say but he did speak fondly of the mule they used in the film.

5.) To meet Amber Benson and Adam Busch. They attended SAGIndie’s Filmmaker’s Lunch and they were representing their Slamdance competition films Cummings Farm and Drones. Yes, I know each of them as an ex-Buffy season 6 cast member and that season’s wannabe supervillian, respectively.

6.) To learn so much about Right to Work states. Utah is one of them, which made for an interesting discussion during our SAGIndie Panel, which included our National Director Darrien Gipson, SAG’s Diversity National Director Rebecca Yee, as well as the New Media National Director Mark Friedlander and National Director of Digital Marketing Steve Graham.

7.) To see John Carroll Lynch at our SAGIndie Actor’s Brunch and have him not talk in a Minnesotan accent.

8.) To have a film that I knew little about end up being my Sundance favorite: Hesher. Obscene and unapologetic, it had some authentic, heartfelt moments.

9.) To be one of the audience members who asked a question during a post-screening Q & A. After I saw Splice, I had to ask director Vincenzo Natali a question: did he mean for his sci-fi horror flick to be so darn funny? Splice had the most audience participation of any film I saw, it scared us, made us grimace, gawf, squirm and most importantly, laugh. His answer: horror and comedy make good bedfellows so yes, absolutely, I was expecting laughs. I was happy to hear this because if you can laugh at the characters and the story a little then this movie has got to be my second favorite.

10.) To have a week in Utah go by so fast.

I’m blogging at Will’s insistence. Clearly, he finds himself unfettered by the concerns with which I am weighed down; matters pecuniary, what on earth is a “super bowl”, was that a real giraffe &c. But I don’t want him to stop loaning me quarters for the meter, SO:

Describing Sundance is like describing space travel, you guys. You can read first hand accounts all you want, and they’re all the same, but it doesn’t do justice to actually going. In light of this, allow me to present you with a highlight reel of Sundance, as described via the easiest way for me to communicate: a Sundance mix!

Beach House – Norway
Will and I saw them play to a curiously half empty (half full?) Star Bar for the Washington Filmworks/Sub Pop party. This song bends in and out of tune, making me light-headed, like when a plane drops suddenly and you drop through a dizzy spell with it. This also happens when you drink a lot, which everyone does in Park City (and I continue to do!) But maybe I should include “Zebra” with this because it’s the one everyone likes more anyway.

Andrew Bird – The Giant of Illinois*
You listen to stuff like this a lot when you’re a girl that likes to listen to weather-appropriate mixes. So clearly, if I’m going to be seasonally relevant, when it’s snowing, I am going to listen to songs that sound like snow. (Does this make sense? Whatever, just go with it.) Are you listening to this? I mean, really listening? The song is really, really beautiful and kind of makes you want to take the whole Park City skyline and all that snow home with you. Try it for yourself! (Next year.) *It should be noted that this song – in my opinion superior to the original by The Handsome Family – is about a real person, Robert Wadlow, who really did die from a blister. However, it wasn’t in the winter, as the song suggests, he actually died in the summertime.

Richard Marx – Right Here Waiting
The ASCAP Music Café plucked Richard out of the “whatever happened to ____?” obscurity to perform not once, but twice (!!) at Sundance on Main St this year. Make a Wish Foundation wish fulfillment? ASCAP is under no legal obligation to confirm or deny, but really, what the hell? (PS Darrien Michele Gipson knows every word to this song and don’t even let her tell you that she doesn’t.)

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Buriedfed
Did I exhaust the case for listening to wintry and cold sounding songs when it’s wintry and cold out with the Andrew Bird entry? Did I mention that Park City is really, really cold? And that it snowed the entire time? And that I live in Los Angeles, with it’s temperate climate, and inexplicably and obnoxiously act like that gives me license to talk about the cold like I invented it? Oh well!

Penny & the Quarters – You and Me
This song was neatly slipped in the middle of a load of Grizzly Bear in Blue Valentine. Will kept poking my arm every time a new song started, like I don’t own the album and recognize the songs. Moving on! I first discovered this song when parsing through old soul compilations looking a couple years ago, and was immediately struck by a desire to find it a home in a soundtrack. Clearly, Joe Rudge beat me to it. I should probably be happy that such a charming song is getting out there for people to hear, but I’m not. This is your warning, Rudge. Stop snatching my obscure songs!

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes – Home
Just something to listen to when you’re far away from wherever you come from, which I am a bit, with all the film festivals SAGIndie travels to. If you see me wandering around, listening to my iPod between screenings, you can probably bet your friend $10 that this is the song I’m listening to. Even if it’s not, I’ll play along. It’s the least I can do for someone who would read my blog all the way to the end.

The thing is, as beautiful as snowflakes can be, once you’ve seen like a MILLION of them, that specialness goes out the window and you’re just left with cold balls of sludge falling from the sky.  Movies as Sundance can sometimes feel like a million pieces of sludge coming at you.

Maybe sludge is too harsh a word.  Eh, maybe not.  The point is, I saw a lot of movies this Sundance – more than I’ve seen collectively in many years, and none of them felt “special” to me.  To be fair, I didn’t see some of the favorites, like CYRUS, which I heard was really great.  But I did see many that came to the festival with big buzz, and I was left feeling underwhelmed.  Many were perfectly well done (THE RUNAWAYS; THE COMPANY MEN), but none gave me that “this is going to be big” feeling.  There have been times when I’ve sat in a movie at Sundance and actually felt like I was seeing something that was either 1) just plain great, 2) marked the beginning of a great career, or 3) would be talked about for a long time to come.  There have been movies that I just thoroughly enjoyed the fact that “I was there” – bearing witness to a moment so special in a filmmaker’s life that you enjoy it almost as much as the filmmaker.  Sundance is the dream – but sometimes, you wake up, unable to remember what the dream was about and with an awful case of cottonmouth.  Of course, that might have been due to my choice in hydration.

So here is my list of films that I saw at Sundance that gave me “that” feeling.  They aren’t all the BIG ones to come out of the festival, and they certainly are not all “high brow” efforts.  But in all of them, I came out either having enjoyed myself thoroughly, or feeling like the filmmaker/actor was going to be someone to watch in the future.  In no particular order:

1)    Whale Rider
2)    Half Nelson
3)    Four Weddings and a Funeral
4)    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
5)    Bend It Like Beckham
6)    Muriel’s Wedding
7)    Hustle & Flow (single best premiere screening ever!  The director and cast sang Proud Mary!)
8)    Little Miss Sunshine
9)    Seducing Dr. Lewis
10)  The Station Agent

Again, I’m not saying that these are the best movies to come out of Sundance or anywhere.  I just remember walking out and being totally charmed, loving the performances, and just feeling happy about seeing the movie.  There were others that I’ve loved from Sundance, I just didn’t see them AT Sundance.  Movies like MEMENTO, THE USUAL SUSPECTS; SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE all were memorable to me, but I had to catch them at other festivals or (gasp!) in an actual PAYING venue.

There were a couple of films, to be fair, that captured my attention this year.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt in HESHER was certainly notable, as was Dakota Fanning in THE RUNAWAYS.  But the film that left me the most intrigued, the one I couldn’t forget, was SPLICE with Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley.  I saw it at a midnight showing, certain that I’d fall asleep, and when it ended 2 hours later, I was awake and just…..enthralled.  I can’t tell you what I liked because it might ruin the surprise of it, but I really enjoyed that movie.

And come to think of it, while we were standing in line, in the snow, waiting to see some movie or another, I WAS amazed every time a singularly perfect, “looks like you cut it out of construction paper”, stellar shaped snowflake landed on me.  When it happens, you learn to ignore the sludge and just concentrate on the miracle before you.

Happy Friday!

Just wanted to let you know that the SAG Foundation in New York has launched SF2 (SAG Foundation Short Film). SF2 is a new showcase where filmmakers can screen their shorts and inspire SAG members to create their own projects produced under a SAG contract.

For more details click HERE or contact the Foundation’s NY Program Director, Franz Reynold at
freynold@sagfoundation.org.

Best wishes,

SAGIndie

Spend the weekend with an unprecedented gathering of over 100 A-List Producers at the PRODUCED BY CONFERENCE, hosted by the Producers Guild. SAG Members and friends of SAGIndie can take advantage of a discounted industry professional rate by choosing package “C” when registering.

Visit the Produced By Conference website or check out the one-sheet below for more details.

All the best,

SAGIndie

The answer is: ABSOLUTELY.

We get this question, or questions like it, on a regular basis from ambitious new media producers looking to create the next “THE GUILD“.

The good news, we tell them, is that “YES”, there is a contract that covers New Media productions (content made for the Internet and/or mobile phones). The bad news, we continue, is that the New Media Contract doesn’t currently fall under the Low Budget Film Contracts that SAGIndie promotes. Thus, we must defer you to the New Media Department at the Screen Actors Guild for questions and concerns.

For more info, visit the New Media Contracts page at sag.org.

All the best,

SAGIndie