All these wonderful things

The True/False Is Out There

Sunday night in Columbia, Missouri: After seeing a film about Ozark Mountain hillbilly music inside a sold out 1200-seat theater - and before hanging out at a party inside a historic soda bottling plant (and soon to be art house/bakery/videostore empire) - I sat at a table inside a small Mexican restaurant and talked with four excellent people about how we could change the world. Or at least our little corner.

What to do now that companies like Wellspring are being swallowed up? Should we do our own distribution? How do we harness the power of what is new and come up with what is possible?

All the conversations that we’ve been having here (as well as here and here and here) came to life. Self-distribution. Co-op distribution. DIY marketing and publicity. Tearing down the old and no longer relevant paradigms and asserting our own collective ability to get our films out there.

All of it seeming very very possible after a weekend at the True/False Film Festival.

True/False Day 3

Quick note as my True/False experience comes to a close and I prepare to head back to Los Angeles. Saw 2 1/2 films today - Marshall Curry's Oscar nominated Street Fight, Rich Minnich's Homemade Hillbilly Jam, and portions of the Beastie Boys concert film Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That. Also had a great time at our panel on music documentaries. Will blog in depth and post photos when I get home.

But wow. Really proud of my old stomping grounds and particularly of David and Paul and everyone who helped make the festival so amazing and welcoming. Honored to be a part of it.

True/False Days 1/2

Day 2 comes to a close in Columbia, Missouri at the constantly surprising True/False Film Festival.

I flew into St. Louis yesterday afternoon and muddled through the horrific St. Louis suburban traffic (I know people say that traffic in LA is terrible, but I have always thought that the St. Louis traffic was the worst ever - and I grew up there - you just sit and sit and sit and then suddenly an hour later you are moving, with no sign or evidence of the thing that caused you to stop in the first place). Arrived in Columbia early yesterday evening, in time to have dinner with a pair of old friends and attend the opening night party - held in a converted bakery.

When I came back to Columbia in 2003 to screen Gigantic at the Ragtag Cinemacafe, I wondered if Columbia would have lost some of it's luster. I had such fond feelings for the place (having gone to school here) and I didn't want to be disappointed. But I was so blown away by what was happening at the Ragtag - here was a storefront that had been filled with old sofas (wine, beer and hummus sold up front) where they screened basically every major art film - stuff that never makes it to St. Louis or Kansas City, much less Columbia. It was warm and welcoming and I really fell in love with what the Ragtag kids (they aren't really kids, except in spirit, except in that "let's put on a show" way).

The Great Christopher Glenn Retires

All these wonderful things wants to note the retirement of the journalist Christopher Glenn from CBS News.

Glenn spent the last 35 years at CBS, primarily known for his anchoring of the CBS Radio programs World News Round-Up and The World Tonight. For the past ten years, he has produced, written and narrated the CBS Radio broadcast What's in the News.

But, for me, Christopher Glenn will be best remembered for the Saturday morning news-for-kids show In The News, which aired on CBS television from 1971-1986. Notable both because the program covered news from around the globe and because Glenn never talked down to his pre-teen audience, In The News was one of the things that got me interested in journalism and in telling true stories.

For the two decades since, it's been great to turn on the radio and hear that same voice (if you're wondering which voice I'm talking about, you can click here and here) with the news from around the world and around the country. Not only did Christopher Glenn have, in my opinion, the best voice on news radio, he also was one of the best writers. Clear, concise, intelligent.

"I've been doing it, in the business, at least, for about 50 years, 35 here. Done it all, seen a lot, had a very good time, very few disappointments, very few bad days if you want to put it that way, and I'm sorry to go, but it's time now."

Julio & Tenoch, Together Again, Touring Docs

Via Anthony Kaufman's blog, the LA Times reports that Y Tu Mama Tambien co-stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna are organizing a traveling documentary film festival that will play in 15 Mexican cities and help fund more nonfiction work in Mexico.

The tour, titled "Ambulante" will screen 19 films, 12 of which were made by Mexican filmmakers.  According to the Times:

     Some of the films that will be shown in "Ambulante" were
     made several years ago, a sign of the relative paucity of
     Mexican documentary making. Among the Mexican titles
     in the festival are "Toro Negro" by Carlos Armella and
     Pedro González-Rubio, "Trópico de Cáncer" by Eugenio
     Polgovsky, "Niños de la Calle" by Eva Aridjis and "La
     Sierra" by Margarita Martinez and Scott Dalton. Several
     of these films deal unflinchingly with the hardships and
     inequities of contemporary Mexican life. Polgovsky's
     53-minute film looks at families who live in the desert
     regions of San Luis Potosí and survive by hunting and
     selling live and dead animals. "Niños de la Calle" offers
     a disturbing, intimate look at Mexico City's street
     children, many of them drug addicts, who face daily p
     erils in one of the world's most dangerous capitals.

Poland Blogs on the Short Docs

MCN's David Poland turns his eye to the short documentary nominees with two posts - one, a bit of praise for The Mushroom Club, stories from survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the other, news that producers Walter Parkes and Laurie McDonald have acquired the narrative feature rights to The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club.

On the latter, it's noted that Kevin Carter "had several suitors as the role of Carter has the potential to attract a big male star."

Meanwhile, both of these films, as well as the other two Oscar nominated short docs - God Sleeps in Rwanda and A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin - will be screening at this weekend's True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri. True/False kicks off tomorrow evening, with the action really starting on Friday. I will be there this weekend to host a panel on music docs this Sunday at noon.

No, No, A Thousand Times No

Via Cinematical, Variety reports that a narrative feature is in the works adapting the story of two of the greatest documentary characters of all time - "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale and her mother Edith.

Captured exquisitely in the Maysles Brothers' classic 1976 film Grey Gardens, the Bouvier Beales have stayed in the public's consciousness for the past thirty years, but now they seem to be reaching new heights (Big Edie died in 1977, Little Edie passed on four years ago.)

Unknown White Male Marks the End of Wellspring

Indiewire's Eugene Hernandez reports this morning that controversial doc Unknown White Male will mark the final theatrical release for distributor Wellspring, all as part of Wellspring's coming intermingling with The Weinstein Company. All planned Wellspring releases will be distributed by The Weinstein Co., with Wellspring moving to Santa Monica and becoming a home entertainment/DVD distributor.

While the controversy over Unknown White Male's nonfiction status (which we wrote about last week) is not the cause of the decision to close up shop (the deal had apparently been in the works for some time), it is interesting that Wellspring's theatrical arm may have their most high profile (and potentially most successful) film about to open as news hits.

Among those out of a job with the new move is Wellspring head of acquisitions Marie Therese Guirgis, who was among those defending Unknown White Male this week.

More striking for independent filmmakers is that yet another small distribution company, one that took on great films like Tarnation and The Beat That My Heart Skipped, is no more, swallowed whole by a company that will likely focus on films that star the woman from Desparate Housewives and the former 007.

Known White Male? Truth or Truthiness?

DGA-nominated and Academy Shortlisted Doc Unknown White Male, which came under suspicion when it debuted at Sundance last year (but was later picked up by Wellspring and Court TV), is again being put through the microscope, according to an article in today's Variety. In question, whether the amnesia-stricken subject is nothing but an elaborate hoax.

From today's article by Ian Mohr:

     In the current age of the arty hoax -- following the lit
     scandals of J.T. LeRoy and James Frey -- the latest
'     project to come under scrutiny is the upcoming amnesia
     docu "Unknown White Male," which was up for a DGA
     award and short-listed for an Oscar nom.

     The brouhaha could bring far more media attention to
     the pic than an indie docu might otherwise get -- with
     "Good Morning America" and Diane Sawyer interviews,
     as well as a New Yorker piece in the works.

The 2005 Edendale Shortlist Nominees

Just when you thought we couldn't possibly have another Best of 2005 list, here comes our own 3rd Annual Edendale Shortlist. Is this for real? Well, yes, in a way. I poll a bunch of people that I know and love - primarily filmmakers, musicians, actors - and ask them to submit a list of their five favorite films and albums of the past year. This year, the voters numbered more than 40 and they came up with a truly great list of films and records.

The Shortlist Nominees for Film are:

Brokeback Mountain
Capote
The Constant Gardener
Good Night, and Good Luck
Grizzly Man
The Squid and the Whale