The New York Underground Film Festival (RIP 1993 – 2008) was reborn last year as Migrating Forms, an experimental film fest that takes place in May at Anthology Film Archives in New York.
For all you experimental filmmakers, their deadline for 2010 entries is swiftly approaching on Feb 15, with an extended deadline of March 15 if you’re still working on your (weird) masterpiece.
I attended the fest last year and the caliber of work was really impressive…good luck!
FilmShop has partnered with Cinema-Philia, a winter film screening series in Bushwick, to produce original shorts and curate the films. The series is run by Kweighbaye Kotee, co-founder of the Bushwick Film Festival. The screening series is every Tuesday night throughout the winter at Nut Roaster Studios. There’s free pizza & popcorn, cheap drinks, and good flicks. The night begins with a selection of local short films and concludes with an obscure classic film. Fellow Filmshopper Adam Waltner curates the feature films.
We are producing one original short for the series every month. Filmshop members brainstorm with the screening audience conducting a call and response “Who’s Line Is It Anyway” method of determining the location, genre, and characters for the short.
We produced our first film this month, Chloe’s Postman, and screened it at the series on Tuesday. From the brainstorming session, we came up with a film noir piece that involves a conversation in an elevator between a mailman and a prostitute. The film was written and directed by Ck Swett, co-directed by Lara Sfire and Ben Donnellon, shot by Lara Sfire, and edited by Chris King. Be sure to check it out on the films section of our website.
The film played well, and the audience was eager to brainstorm for the next piece. After suggestions went back and forth, we concluded that our next film would be a musical in a church. The characters are Satan & an environmentalist, and the tag line is recycle, reduce, & repent. Filmshopper Sean Yeaton is slated to write this next film, and we’ll be screening at the film series in late February.
The deadline to submit your short to the 10th Annual Media That Matters Festival is Jan 22 – and I wholeheartedly suggest anyone with a short film with a big message submit. Media That Matters is a really great, progressive event put on by one of our favorite nonprofit partners, Arts Engine, featuring short films (12 minutes or less) about social issues. This year all issues will be considered, with a focus on Media Literacy, Human Rights, LGBTQ & Sexual Identity, Youth Activism and International issues.
Hundreds of thousands of people including educators, activists and nonprofits will watch and use the films – it’s a great way to have your voice heard. More info here. Hope to see you there!
This past week, The FilmShop was lucky enough to have Wendy Levy talk to our group. Wendy is the Director of Creative Programming at the Bay Area Video Coalition based in San Francisco, and she also runs the Producer’s Institute which helps social media projects galvanize their audience to action using digital technologies. Her enthusiasm for filmmaking is palpable, and she catalyzed a fascinating discussion throughout the evening.
One topic that was discussed, was how a filmmaker can maintain the artistic integrity of their film, and still have the audience walk away with a cohesive message. Is this even possible? Often, the mark of a great film, is in the ambiguity the audience is left with regarding the morality of the topic being covered. If we are too “on message” we run the risk of making a feature-length infomercials for a given social cause.
Next, Wendy talked about the 2010 Producer’s Institute for New Media Technologies, which Wendy is running. She showed clips of the different 2009 teams’ experiences, that you can watch here, including the American Meat team, which included FilmShop Brooklyn’s Graham Meriwether. You can check out a trailer for this solutions-oriented macroscopic documentary on the US meat industry. The Producer’s Institute essentially focuses on integrating new media technology (video games, websites, iPhone apps, e-stores) with macroscopic social documentary projects. They fly in experts from all over the world to incubate ideas with the 8 teams accepted. A truly phenomenal experience.
The night concluded with drinks and appetizers at The Lodge, and promises for many FilmShoppers to apply to this year’s Producer’s Institute. Thanks so much, Wendy, for an unforgettable evening.
On July 17th, 2009, the Music Hall of Williamsburg hosted our end of season party titled THE END. A tradition in its 3rd year, each member of the collective made 2 minute films which screened for an audience over 400 strong. Varied in style and genre, the shorts presented a wide response to the theme of finality. More than just a film screening, the event included an apocalyptic performance by the Midnight Masses. Afterwards DJ Barney Iller kept bodies grooving until late in the night.
Ben Donnellon, one of the collective’s leaders, reflected on the night. “It’s amazing to see our end of season parties grow. In 2007, we threw our first party at a small art gallery in Bushwick to raise funds for our weekly meeting space. Attendance to our semi-annual screenings have since quadrupled and we are thrilled to see all the great press coverage.”
Many of the Brooklyn based music and nightlife blogs listed the event with special write-ups appearing in TimeOut New York, Tribeca Film Festival blog, and The Daily News. A number of the films were picked by curators to screen at other New York screening events.
Stay tuned for another artfully themed bash of films and music at the conclusion of our next season in February 2010.
