On Tuesday, Americans go to the voting booth to determine what kind of country they want theirs to be. Months of the most polarized, and polarizing, presidential campaign in recent memory have left many of us with battle fatigue and gnawing pangs of cynicism and nausea. To quote Thomas McGuane, in the opening line of his 1973 novel “92 in the Shade”: “Nobody knows, from sea to shining sea, why we are having all this trouble with our republic.”
Our filmmakers might have a clue. And a little distance brings perspective. The American Film Festival just celebrated its seventh annual survey of new (and mostly) independent cinema made in the U.S.A., as assembled for and viewed by eager European audiences in Wroclaw, Poland. Though not without some escapist and experimental tangents, the selections couldn’t help but offer a provocative composite of work that serves as a kind of state of the union address.
Our filmmakers might have a clue. And a little distance brings perspective. The American Film Festival just celebrated its seventh annual survey of new (and mostly) independent cinema made in the U.S.A., as assembled for and viewed by eager European audiences in Wroclaw, Poland. Though not without some escapist and experimental tangents, the selections couldn’t help but offer a provocative composite of work that serves as a kind of state of the union address.
- 11/7/2016
- by Steve Dollar
- Indiewire
There really are only so many different stories. The trick is to tell one that feels new in more than just the details. Consider the following setup — a criminal trying to go straight is pulled back into the world of violence he so desperately tried to leave behind. We’ve seen it a hundred times before from Les Miserables to Swordfish, but what makes the best examples stand out are the characters and the world around which the story unfolds. Writer/director Daniel Grove‘s feature debut, The Loner, is set in modern day Los Angeles, but it’s an L.A. that feels new and fresh with nearly every frame. Behrouz (Reza Sixo Safai) was a child soldier in Iran during his country’s war with Iraq in the 1980’s, but after escaping the slaughter at the front lines he made his way west to the land of opportunity. What...
- 4/17/2016
- by Rob Hunter
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
While I enjoyed The Loner, I’ll admit that it doesn’t initially have its bearings straight. Writer/Director Daniel Grove opens on an Iranian child being beckoned into martyrdom, but then a tonal shift to 1980s Los Angeles brings about neon-drenched noir settings that some may struggle to interpret. We try to make connections, yet the puzzle is still unclear in its early stages.
Fortunately, as clarity explains itself, a neo-noir-ish, stranger-with-no-name kind of gangster film plays out, exploring an Iranian/Russian underground region of La that few have witnessed (if it even exists?). Patience is certainly a virtue, but you’ll be paid off in time – just don’t jump to any jumbled conclusions too quickly.
Reza Sixo Safai stars as Behrouz, a former Iranian gangster who finds himself being sucked back into a sleazy underworld crime syndicate. His old boss, Cirrus (Parviz Sayyad), accuses him of stealing merchandise,...
Fortunately, as clarity explains itself, a neo-noir-ish, stranger-with-no-name kind of gangster film plays out, exploring an Iranian/Russian underground region of La that few have witnessed (if it even exists?). Patience is certainly a virtue, but you’ll be paid off in time – just don’t jump to any jumbled conclusions too quickly.
Reza Sixo Safai stars as Behrouz, a former Iranian gangster who finds himself being sucked back into a sleazy underworld crime syndicate. His old boss, Cirrus (Parviz Sayyad), accuses him of stealing merchandise,...
- 4/16/2016
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
Warning: The clip is slightly Nsfw. The feature debut of Daniel Grove, The Loner follows a reformed mobster, Behrouz, who lives haunted by memories of being a child soldier in Iran in the 1980s. Now pursuing the American Dream in Los Angeles, he finds it increasingly difficult to stay away from a life of crime he left behind. In this exclusive clip from the film, which has its world premiere today at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, we see a drugged out, hazy moment of…...
- 4/15/2016
- Deadline
Top brass at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival presented by At&T have announced selections in the Us Narrative, International Narrative and Documentary Competition strands.
The films comprise 55 out of 110 features that will play during the 15th edition of the New York festival from April 13-24. The festival will present features films in the Spotlight, Midnight, and Special Sections on March 8.
Also included in Wednesday’s announcement are the out-of-competition Viewpoints titles.
The world premiere of Bill Ross and Turner Ross’ Contemporary Color will open the World Documentary competition on April 14, while the world premiere of Kicks by Justin Tipping will open the Us Narrative competition.
The world premiere of Madly directed by Gael García Bernal, Mia Wasikowska, Sebastian Silva, Anurag Kashyap, Sion Sono, and Natasha Khan will open the International Narrative Competition. Viewpoints will open with the world premiere of Nerdland directed by Chris Prynoski.
One third of the festival’s feature films are directed by women...
The films comprise 55 out of 110 features that will play during the 15th edition of the New York festival from April 13-24. The festival will present features films in the Spotlight, Midnight, and Special Sections on March 8.
Also included in Wednesday’s announcement are the out-of-competition Viewpoints titles.
The world premiere of Bill Ross and Turner Ross’ Contemporary Color will open the World Documentary competition on April 14, while the world premiere of Kicks by Justin Tipping will open the Us Narrative competition.
The world premiere of Madly directed by Gael García Bernal, Mia Wasikowska, Sebastian Silva, Anurag Kashyap, Sion Sono, and Natasha Khan will open the International Narrative Competition. Viewpoints will open with the world premiere of Nerdland directed by Chris Prynoski.
One third of the festival’s feature films are directed by women...
- 3/2/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The 5th edition of the Us in Progress co-production forum was held on October 22-23, 2015, during the 6 th American Film Festival in Wrocław. Director Shaz Bennett and producers Melanie Miller and Diane Becker acquired the most awards and therefore emerged as Us in Progress winners for "Alaska is a Drag".
Us in Progress is an industry event that aims to strengthen the trans-Atlantic film industry collaborations and partnerships and help European film professionals establish working relationships with new emerging American filmmakers. The event is a bi-annual program conducted at the Champs-Elysées Film Festival in Paris during the summer before kicking-off in Wroclaw at Aff during the fall.
At the 6th American Film Festival, six films in various stages of post-production have conducted private screenings for film industry professionals, including Laurent Danielou (Loco Films), Mathieu Delaunay (Memento Films), Oda Schaeffer (k5), Silje Grimsdal (Trust Nordisk), and festival programmers from Edinburgh, Locarno, Tribeca, and a jury composed of yours truly, Sydney Levine, and Polish post-producers, to compete for post-production and promotional packages. In addition to the filmmaking duo, Shaz Bennett and Melanie Miller, two films have earned significant post-production awards - "Actor Martinez" by Nathan Silver and Mike Ott and "The Loner" by Daniel Y-Li Grove.
Here is a detailed listing of the awards:
"Alaska is a Drag" by Shaz Bennett, produced by Melanie Millerwill received:
post-production services up to the value of €10.000 (e.g. color grading or conforming, master Dcp, master Hdcam Sr, master Blu-ray, master DVD) from Chimney Poland, based in Warsaw; part of Chimney Groupa score composed by Maciej Zielinski from Soundflower Studiofinal mix 5.1 sound post-production to the value of $20.000 Euro (including rental of sound mixing studio with Thx and Dolby Premier certificates) from Toya Studios an offer to acquire Polish TV rights from Ale Kino+Several years ago, the filmmakers also received a couple of grants to develop the script from Clever in San Francisco (Cheryl Dunye’s company) and Naked Angels.
The script was developed through several programs at Sundance, Film Independent and Fox as well as the AFI Directing Workshop for Women.
"The Loner" by Daniel Grove and produced by Reza Sixo Safai received:
digital post-production services up to the value of €10.000 (excluding 35mm processing/scan; including conforming, color grading, grain/noise management, finishing, mastering, simple VFX, Dcp and other file based master from Fixafilm based in Warsaw and free registration to Producers' Network at Cannes 2016. "Actor Martinez" (working title) by Mike Ott and Nathan Silver (produced by Britta Erickson) received a second acquisition offer by Ale Kino+
Selected projects participating in last year's Us in Progress Wrocław or 2015 Us in Progress Paris were included in the Aff program: "Take Me to the River," dir. Matt Sobel (Polish premiere); "Stinking Heaven" (dir. Nathan Silver); "Ma" (dir. Celia Rowlson-Hall) and Reza Safai and Daniel Y Grove-produced "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" returned to the Aff to let the audiences benefit from the creators' attendance.
For the missing color correction, sound mix, VFX, and other deliverables for Bennett's and Miller's "Alaska is a Drag", the Us in Progress prize adds significant value in the finishing stage of post-production. The organizers and programmers of Us in Progress, Ula Śniegowska (artistic director of Aff), Adeline Monzier and Marie Zeniter (Black Rabbit Film), and Chantal Lian (Champs-Elysées Film Festival), look forward to following all the participating unfinished projects, and the future work and collaborations of all Us in Progress filmmakers.
More about Us in Progress and American Film Festival on www.americanfilmfestival.pl.
Us in Progress is an industry event that aims to strengthen the trans-Atlantic film industry collaborations and partnerships and help European film professionals establish working relationships with new emerging American filmmakers. The event is a bi-annual program conducted at the Champs-Elysées Film Festival in Paris during the summer before kicking-off in Wroclaw at Aff during the fall.
At the 6th American Film Festival, six films in various stages of post-production have conducted private screenings for film industry professionals, including Laurent Danielou (Loco Films), Mathieu Delaunay (Memento Films), Oda Schaeffer (k5), Silje Grimsdal (Trust Nordisk), and festival programmers from Edinburgh, Locarno, Tribeca, and a jury composed of yours truly, Sydney Levine, and Polish post-producers, to compete for post-production and promotional packages. In addition to the filmmaking duo, Shaz Bennett and Melanie Miller, two films have earned significant post-production awards - "Actor Martinez" by Nathan Silver and Mike Ott and "The Loner" by Daniel Y-Li Grove.
Here is a detailed listing of the awards:
"Alaska is a Drag" by Shaz Bennett, produced by Melanie Millerwill received:
post-production services up to the value of €10.000 (e.g. color grading or conforming, master Dcp, master Hdcam Sr, master Blu-ray, master DVD) from Chimney Poland, based in Warsaw; part of Chimney Groupa score composed by Maciej Zielinski from Soundflower Studiofinal mix 5.1 sound post-production to the value of $20.000 Euro (including rental of sound mixing studio with Thx and Dolby Premier certificates) from Toya Studios an offer to acquire Polish TV rights from Ale Kino+Several years ago, the filmmakers also received a couple of grants to develop the script from Clever in San Francisco (Cheryl Dunye’s company) and Naked Angels.
The script was developed through several programs at Sundance, Film Independent and Fox as well as the AFI Directing Workshop for Women.
"The Loner" by Daniel Grove and produced by Reza Sixo Safai received:
digital post-production services up to the value of €10.000 (excluding 35mm processing/scan; including conforming, color grading, grain/noise management, finishing, mastering, simple VFX, Dcp and other file based master from Fixafilm based in Warsaw and free registration to Producers' Network at Cannes 2016. "Actor Martinez" (working title) by Mike Ott and Nathan Silver (produced by Britta Erickson) received a second acquisition offer by Ale Kino+
Selected projects participating in last year's Us in Progress Wrocław or 2015 Us in Progress Paris were included in the Aff program: "Take Me to the River," dir. Matt Sobel (Polish premiere); "Stinking Heaven" (dir. Nathan Silver); "Ma" (dir. Celia Rowlson-Hall) and Reza Safai and Daniel Y Grove-produced "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" returned to the Aff to let the audiences benefit from the creators' attendance.
For the missing color correction, sound mix, VFX, and other deliverables for Bennett's and Miller's "Alaska is a Drag", the Us in Progress prize adds significant value in the finishing stage of post-production. The organizers and programmers of Us in Progress, Ula Śniegowska (artistic director of Aff), Adeline Monzier and Marie Zeniter (Black Rabbit Film), and Chantal Lian (Champs-Elysées Film Festival), look forward to following all the participating unfinished projects, and the future work and collaborations of all Us in Progress filmmakers.
More about Us in Progress and American Film Festival on www.americanfilmfestival.pl.
- 11/6/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Alaska Is A Drag director Shaz Bennett and producer Melanie Miller were the big winners at Us in Progress at the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland.
The fifth edition of Us in Progress, an industry event that showcases in-progress Us films to European film professionals, screened six films in various stages of post-production.
Alaska Is A Drag now receives post-production services worth €10.000 at Chimney Poland in Warsaw; a sound mix from Toya Studios; a score compsed by Soundflower Studio; and a TV rights deal with Ale Kino+.
The film is about an aspiring superstar, Leo (Martin L. Washington Jr.) and his twin sister Tristen (Maya Washington), who are stuck working in a fish cannery in Alaska.
Attendees at Us in Progress included Laurent Danielou (Loco Films), Mathieu Delaunay (Memento), Oda Schaeffer (K5), Silje Grimsdal (TrustNordisk), and festival programmers from Edinburgh, Locarno and Tribeca.
A jury composed of Sydney Levine and Polish post-producer awarded packages to [link...
The fifth edition of Us in Progress, an industry event that showcases in-progress Us films to European film professionals, screened six films in various stages of post-production.
Alaska Is A Drag now receives post-production services worth €10.000 at Chimney Poland in Warsaw; a sound mix from Toya Studios; a score compsed by Soundflower Studio; and a TV rights deal with Ale Kino+.
The film is about an aspiring superstar, Leo (Martin L. Washington Jr.) and his twin sister Tristen (Maya Washington), who are stuck working in a fish cannery in Alaska.
Attendees at Us in Progress included Laurent Danielou (Loco Films), Mathieu Delaunay (Memento), Oda Schaeffer (K5), Silje Grimsdal (TrustNordisk), and festival programmers from Edinburgh, Locarno and Tribeca.
A jury composed of Sydney Levine and Polish post-producer awarded packages to [link...
- 11/5/2015
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
The American Film Festival is building families. The 6th edition (October 20-25, 2015) of the Wroclaw, Poland film fest was better than any of the previous four I have attended as a jury member for the Us in Progress section. Networking with the USiP filmmakers, past participants Matt Sobel (“Take Me to the River”),Leah Meyerhoff (“I Believe in Unicorns”),Reza Sixo Safai (“A Girl Walks Home at Night Alone”) and whose present project “ The Loner” (he produced and stars in it, Daniel Grove directed) won at USiP, etc. mingled with Indie Star Awardees David Gordon Green and Hal Hartley and other filmmakers like Jenner Furst ("Welcome to Leith") invited to present their films and to eat and party together over five days and four nights which lasted until the wee hours of the morning.
African American Women's classics also showed for the first time ever to appreciative Polish audiences. Though luckily for them, but a sad miss for the audiences, every one of the filmmakers was too busy with other work to attend. The selected films brought rarely before scenes of life in America to a new public.
You can be sure Ava DuVernay was invited, and you can be equally certain that she was very busy with multiple projects.
When I was in Trinidad, I heard from the film's distributor, Michelle Materre, a well known lecturer and film curator whose film series and discussion group, Creatively Speaking, takes place at the N.Y. Film Society’s Lincoln Center and in L.A. that Julie Dash was busy working on a TV series or a doc. I hope one of you reading this will email me a more news of her, because since her film “Daughters of the Dust” premiered at Sundance in 1991, her fan base has grown and eagerly awaits more stories from her. For those who missed her instant classic at Sundance, "Daughters of the Dust" presents a transgenerational saga set on the fictitious island of Ibo's Landing in 1902 about a young woman's quest for identity. Guichees, or Gullahs, aka the Georgia Sea Islanders are U.S.'s most African community still living today off the Georgia and South Carolina coast. The film was presented to the audience as a radical feminist manifesto and landmark of independent American cinema.
Other films included in the series, curated by Ula Sniegowsk and a young film academic Ewa Drygalska, included Katherine Collins' (who tragically died of cancer at age 46) 1982 film "Losing Ground", Tanya Hamilton's "Night Catches Us", the popular and fabulous " The Secret Life of Bees" another Sundance premiering film, by Gina Prince-Blythewood (2008), Dee Rees' 2012 Sundance film "Pariah" and her recent HBO (who incidentally is an important sponsor of the festival with a showcase of its own films) fictional doc "Bessie" starring the one and only Queen Latifah, and Ava DuVernay's "Middle of Nowhere" and "Selma".
While we're on the subject of African American movies, the Spike Lee mentored new talent Michael Larnell, was here with my favorite "Next" generation film " Cronies".
Us in Progress had two out of six selected films about African Americans, the Four Award winning "Alaska Is a Drag" directed by former L.A. and Sundance Festival worker, debuting director Shaz Bennett, produced by Melanie Miller and Diane Becker; and "The Alchemist Cookbook" written and directed by Joel Potrykus. Other films included "Dope", documentarians' Albert Maysles' " In Transit", Nick Broomfield's "Tales of the Grim Sleeper" and Frederick Wiseman's "In Jackson Heights", Mark Silver's "3 ½ Minutes, Ten Bullets", sleeper hit "Tangerine" by Sean Baker, "Field Niggas" a nocturnal portrait of Harlem by Khalik Allah, David Gordon Green's “George Washington", and last, but by no means least, Clint Eastwood's "Bird" as part of his extensive retrospective.
This festival is held in the largest Arthouse multiplex in Europe, built and owned (as is the festival itself, along with New Horizons Film Festival in July and several others) by arthouse film distributor and entrepreneur Roman Gutek.
Fabulous. Written by Sydney Levine in her hotel room at The Monopole where an opera rehearsal wafts through the morning air of a sunny, dry 50*F metropolis mixing with the sound of the streetcar. This has been a fabulous experience topped off by a fabulous tour of the city and today a visit to Europe's most fabulous zoo and aquarium.
African American Women's classics also showed for the first time ever to appreciative Polish audiences. Though luckily for them, but a sad miss for the audiences, every one of the filmmakers was too busy with other work to attend. The selected films brought rarely before scenes of life in America to a new public.
You can be sure Ava DuVernay was invited, and you can be equally certain that she was very busy with multiple projects.
When I was in Trinidad, I heard from the film's distributor, Michelle Materre, a well known lecturer and film curator whose film series and discussion group, Creatively Speaking, takes place at the N.Y. Film Society’s Lincoln Center and in L.A. that Julie Dash was busy working on a TV series or a doc. I hope one of you reading this will email me a more news of her, because since her film “Daughters of the Dust” premiered at Sundance in 1991, her fan base has grown and eagerly awaits more stories from her. For those who missed her instant classic at Sundance, "Daughters of the Dust" presents a transgenerational saga set on the fictitious island of Ibo's Landing in 1902 about a young woman's quest for identity. Guichees, or Gullahs, aka the Georgia Sea Islanders are U.S.'s most African community still living today off the Georgia and South Carolina coast. The film was presented to the audience as a radical feminist manifesto and landmark of independent American cinema.
Other films included in the series, curated by Ula Sniegowsk and a young film academic Ewa Drygalska, included Katherine Collins' (who tragically died of cancer at age 46) 1982 film "Losing Ground", Tanya Hamilton's "Night Catches Us", the popular and fabulous " The Secret Life of Bees" another Sundance premiering film, by Gina Prince-Blythewood (2008), Dee Rees' 2012 Sundance film "Pariah" and her recent HBO (who incidentally is an important sponsor of the festival with a showcase of its own films) fictional doc "Bessie" starring the one and only Queen Latifah, and Ava DuVernay's "Middle of Nowhere" and "Selma".
While we're on the subject of African American movies, the Spike Lee mentored new talent Michael Larnell, was here with my favorite "Next" generation film " Cronies".
Us in Progress had two out of six selected films about African Americans, the Four Award winning "Alaska Is a Drag" directed by former L.A. and Sundance Festival worker, debuting director Shaz Bennett, produced by Melanie Miller and Diane Becker; and "The Alchemist Cookbook" written and directed by Joel Potrykus. Other films included "Dope", documentarians' Albert Maysles' " In Transit", Nick Broomfield's "Tales of the Grim Sleeper" and Frederick Wiseman's "In Jackson Heights", Mark Silver's "3 ½ Minutes, Ten Bullets", sleeper hit "Tangerine" by Sean Baker, "Field Niggas" a nocturnal portrait of Harlem by Khalik Allah, David Gordon Green's “George Washington", and last, but by no means least, Clint Eastwood's "Bird" as part of his extensive retrospective.
This festival is held in the largest Arthouse multiplex in Europe, built and owned (as is the festival itself, along with New Horizons Film Festival in July and several others) by arthouse film distributor and entrepreneur Roman Gutek.
Fabulous. Written by Sydney Levine in her hotel room at The Monopole where an opera rehearsal wafts through the morning air of a sunny, dry 50*F metropolis mixing with the sound of the streetcar. This has been a fabulous experience topped off by a fabulous tour of the city and today a visit to Europe's most fabulous zoo and aquarium.
- 10/28/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Round-up of news from the sixth American Film Festival and Us in Progress showcase.
Shaz Bennett’s Alaska Is A Drag was the big winner at the fifth edition of the Us In Progress showcase during Wroclaw’s sixth American Film Festival (Oct 20-25).
The strand’s jury awarded post-production services worth up to $40,000 to the project. This will include colour correction from Chimney Poland, a score composed by Maciej Zielinski from Soundflower Studios, and a final sound mix from Toya Studios, as well as an offer to acquire TV rights from Ale Kino+.
The film, which is writer-director Bennett’s feature version of her 2012 short of the same name, was produced by her 4248 Productions with Melanie Miller’s Fishbowl Films.
The cast of the $700,000 project includes Matt Dallas, Jason Scott Lee, Margaret Cho, newcomer Martin L. Washington Jr. and Christopher O’Shea.
Daniel Grove, an executive producer on acclaimed horror A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,picked...
Shaz Bennett’s Alaska Is A Drag was the big winner at the fifth edition of the Us In Progress showcase during Wroclaw’s sixth American Film Festival (Oct 20-25).
The strand’s jury awarded post-production services worth up to $40,000 to the project. This will include colour correction from Chimney Poland, a score composed by Maciej Zielinski from Soundflower Studios, and a final sound mix from Toya Studios, as well as an offer to acquire TV rights from Ale Kino+.
The film, which is writer-director Bennett’s feature version of her 2012 short of the same name, was produced by her 4248 Productions with Melanie Miller’s Fishbowl Films.
The cast of the $700,000 project includes Matt Dallas, Jason Scott Lee, Margaret Cho, newcomer Martin L. Washington Jr. and Christopher O’Shea.
Daniel Grove, an executive producer on acclaimed horror A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,picked...
- 10/26/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
The fifth edition of the Us in Progress co-production forum will be held on October 22-23rd, 2015, as a part of the 6th American Film Festival in Wrocław (October 20-25th).
Us in Progress aims to facilitate professional networking among European film professionals and emerging independent filmmakers from the United States. A biannual event, Us in Progress is also held in June during the Champs-Elysees Film Festival in Paris.
Invite-only screenings will feature six projects selected from fifty American independent feature-length submissions, all in final editing stages. Congratulations to the 2015 Us in Progress Wrocław participants:
"Actor Martinez" by Mike Ott & Nathan Silver "Alaska is a Drag" by Shaz Bennett "Americana" by Zachary Shedd "It Had to Be You" by Sasha Gordon "The Alchemist Cookbook" by Joel Potrykus "The Loner" by Daniel Grove Invited to Wroclaw, the filmmakers and/or their producers will present the projects to top European buyers and festival programmers (Locarno, Edinburgh, Versatile, Memento and Trust Nordisk among others) and attend one-to-one meetings and network.
The 2015 Us in Progress Wrocław partners provide in-kind awards of post-production service packages of combined value amounting to $40,000. Partners from the leading Polish sound and image studios include:
-Soundflower Studio and Maciej Zieliński
-Chimney Poland
-Fixafilms
-Toya Studios .
Prizes are also being offered by Producers' Network at Cannes and Ale kino+ (TV rights acquisition offer).
In 2014, the top prize was awarded to the producers/directors of "Homefront" (by Tyler Walker and Fidel Ruiz-Healy). They recently color-graded in Warsaw's Chimney.
Selections from last year's slate "God Bless the Child" and "Take Me to the River" had World Premieres at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival and the 2015 Sundance Film festivals, respectively. Both films will screen this year in the Spectrum competition at the American Film Festival.
To learn more or contact Us in Progress please email: aff[At]snh.org.pl...
Us in Progress aims to facilitate professional networking among European film professionals and emerging independent filmmakers from the United States. A biannual event, Us in Progress is also held in June during the Champs-Elysees Film Festival in Paris.
Invite-only screenings will feature six projects selected from fifty American independent feature-length submissions, all in final editing stages. Congratulations to the 2015 Us in Progress Wrocław participants:
"Actor Martinez" by Mike Ott & Nathan Silver "Alaska is a Drag" by Shaz Bennett "Americana" by Zachary Shedd "It Had to Be You" by Sasha Gordon "The Alchemist Cookbook" by Joel Potrykus "The Loner" by Daniel Grove Invited to Wroclaw, the filmmakers and/or their producers will present the projects to top European buyers and festival programmers (Locarno, Edinburgh, Versatile, Memento and Trust Nordisk among others) and attend one-to-one meetings and network.
The 2015 Us in Progress Wrocław partners provide in-kind awards of post-production service packages of combined value amounting to $40,000. Partners from the leading Polish sound and image studios include:
-Soundflower Studio and Maciej Zieliński
-Chimney Poland
-Fixafilms
-Toya Studios .
Prizes are also being offered by Producers' Network at Cannes and Ale kino+ (TV rights acquisition offer).
In 2014, the top prize was awarded to the producers/directors of "Homefront" (by Tyler Walker and Fidel Ruiz-Healy). They recently color-graded in Warsaw's Chimney.
Selections from last year's slate "God Bless the Child" and "Take Me to the River" had World Premieres at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival and the 2015 Sundance Film festivals, respectively. Both films will screen this year in the Spectrum competition at the American Film Festival.
To learn more or contact Us in Progress please email: aff[At]snh.org.pl...
- 10/1/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
With the American Film Festival in Wrocław comes the Us in Progress co-production forum initiative. It also means that micro gems might trickle down from Europe in the unfinished form into Sundance and/or SXSW in early 2016. On the plate for October 22nd and 23rd, the six projects selected for the 2015 Us in Progress Wrocław include:
Actor Martinez by Mike Ott and Nathan Silver
Up until now, the project that teams Littlerock, Pearblossom Hwy and Lake Los Angeles helmer with Exit Elena, Soft in the head, Uncertain Terms and Stinking Heaven had no title. This
stars Bobby Black, Connor Long and Lindsay Burdge.
Alaska is a Drag by Shaz Bennett
Based on her 2012 short, if Rocky and Hedwig had a love child – that would best describe our hero Leo — an aspiring superstar – if he can just get out of Alaska. Everyone who works in a fish cannery – slicing fish for...
Actor Martinez by Mike Ott and Nathan Silver
Up until now, the project that teams Littlerock, Pearblossom Hwy and Lake Los Angeles helmer with Exit Elena, Soft in the head, Uncertain Terms and Stinking Heaven had no title. This
stars Bobby Black, Connor Long and Lindsay Burdge.
Alaska is a Drag by Shaz Bennett
Based on her 2012 short, if Rocky and Hedwig had a love child – that would best describe our hero Leo — an aspiring superstar – if he can just get out of Alaska. Everyone who works in a fish cannery – slicing fish for...
- 9/23/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
By Terence Johnson
Managing Editor
A stylish and soulful film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a film of bad men, dangerous women, love and beautiful images. More than just a vampire film, Ana Lily Amirpour crafts an eerie, moody tone poem that’s a fantastic film to watch.
Bad City an industrial town, filled by all matter of folks from the scrupulous to the shady. Arash (Arash Marandi), one such citizen, longs to just get in his nice car and go. Working as a landscaper and living with his junkie father is proving more difficult, when his father runs afoul of a local drug dealer. A local prostitute (Mozhan Marnò) has just turned 30 and wants to escape as well. They all long for better lives, but are unable to move from their station. This relatively tranquil, yet unfulfilling existence, is slowly shattered as a vampire (Sheila Vand) begins stalking the streets,...
Managing Editor
A stylish and soulful film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a film of bad men, dangerous women, love and beautiful images. More than just a vampire film, Ana Lily Amirpour crafts an eerie, moody tone poem that’s a fantastic film to watch.
Bad City an industrial town, filled by all matter of folks from the scrupulous to the shady. Arash (Arash Marandi), one such citizen, longs to just get in his nice car and go. Working as a landscaper and living with his junkie father is proving more difficult, when his father runs afoul of a local drug dealer. A local prostitute (Mozhan Marnò) has just turned 30 and wants to escape as well. They all long for better lives, but are unable to move from their station. This relatively tranquil, yet unfulfilling existence, is slowly shattered as a vampire (Sheila Vand) begins stalking the streets,...
- 1/24/2014
- by Terence Johnson
- Scott Feinberg
Following on from the Bay Area Boom article about the San Francisco Film Society’s Filmmaker360 program, we are profiling the 13 finalists for the Sffs’s Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking grant. The winners of this award will be announced on December 8. Daniel Grove And Reza Sixo Safai, A Better Place Than This Synopsis: A happy-go-lucky prison guard, Para Dastur has a charismatic demeanor that hides a very grim truth: he is Singapore Changi Prison’s resident hangman. Not just an anonymous executioner, Dastur takes it upon himself to console the condemned and help them come to terms with fate, shepherding them until he utters the final …...
- 11/30/2012
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
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