Go behind the scenes on the Crystal Pix blog.

Winter's Bone Still

Winner of the U.S. Dramatic Competition’s Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Winter’s Bone is an undeniably compelling and decidedly offbeat amalgam of several traditional genres: the mystery-thriller, the southern gothic, and the western. In an isolated Missouri county
devastated by poverty and methamphetamine, teenaged Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) is a dropout and caretaker for her younger siblings and catatonic mother. Ree’s family faces foreclosure when the father who long-ago abandoned them skips bail on drug charges. Determined to keep her immediate family together, Ree heroically sets out to find out what happened to her father by confronting a terrifying and violent community that is not interested in discussing its dark side. With a vivid, detailed, and authentic sense of place, director Granik, along with her co-writer and co-producer Anne Rosellini, have created a unique American masterwork, and a worthy follow-up to their debut feature, Down to the Bone. Lawrence, as Ree, provides a star-making performance that is matched by a powerful turn from John Hawkes (Deadwood, Me and You and Everyone We Know) as Ree’s shadowy uncle, Teardrop.

Co-writer/Co-producer Anne Rosellini will be in attendance.

Welcome Still

A powerful drama with enormous contemporary relevance, Welcome follows Simon (the ruggedly handsome Vincent Lindon), a middle-aged swim instructor and former Olympic gold medalist living in Calais who reluctantly befriends Bilal (Firat Ayverdi), a Kurdish refugee and illegal alien. Hoping to swim the English Channel and be reunited with his true love in London, Bilal takes lessons from Simon, who is himself trying to patch up his own troubled marriage while facing increasing pressure from immigration authorities for sheltering Bilal. Moving and filled with engaging performances, director Lioret, who formerly served as a sound technician for Robert Altman, focuses on the frustrating and often humiliating experiences of immigrants, who travel enormous distances hoping to find work in wealthier countries, only to experience setbacks at the very end of their backbreaking voyages.

We Can Shine

In his search to understand his own disability, Asperger’s Syndrome, 21 year-old Rochester filmmaker Adrian Esposito explores what it would have been like for him, had he been born in 1944. The documentary interlaces the agonizing footage reporter Geraldo Rivera captured in 1972 at Willowbrook State School with contemporary interviews with survivors and self-advocates. It culminates with sequences of the achievements of modern-day people with developmental disabilities.

Prior to the film there will be a musical performance by local singer/songwriter Connie Deming, who is often inspired by her own son, who is diagnosed with autism.

Director Adrian Esposito will be in attendance.

Waste Land Still

Sure, art has the power to transform the human spirit, but in this vivid and inspiring documentary, it also creates dignity. Top-selling contemporary artist, Vik Muniz, who in fact has two works within George Eastman House’s permanent collection, fashions a new project in Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest landfill, just outside Rio de Janeiro. By photographing the radiant catadores, the pickers of the recyclable materials, and then collaborating with them on the finished work, Muniz shows us that perhaps the most important thing to recycle is oneself. Director Lucy Walker (Devil’s Playground, Blindsight) focuses her keen eyes on the essence of humanity and sculpts a heart-opening film that you won’t soon forget.

Wake In Fright

One of the most unforgettably intense movies ever made, Canadian director Ted Kotcheff’s journey into the Australian outback’s heart of darkness has returned to the screen after nearly forty years in a new 35mm restoration. John Grant (Gary Bond), a young school teacher in a remote outpost, travels to Sydney for his summer holidays, but enroute, he gets waylaid in a rough mining town. “Befriended” by the locals, including a debauched doctor (the mesmerizing Donald Pleasence), John embarks on an extended lost weekend of gambling, kangaroo hunting, and lots of drinking. A sometimes savage tale of self-destruction, Wake in Fright, which was titled Outback for its U.S. release, was recently re-released to great success and critical acclaim in Australia, and has been making its way around the North American film festival circuit, finding renewed enthusiasm from audiences and critics like Roger Ebert, who proclaimed that “It’s not dated. It is powerful, genuinely shocking, and rather amazing.”

Director Kotcheff, whose later films included “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz”, “North Dallas Forty”,
and “First Blood” will be with us in person to talk about the movie that certified him as a significant filmmaker.

Secret of the Kells

As animation redefines itself with computer graphics and 3-D, The Secret of Kells creates appeal the old-fashioned way, through the originality of its storytelling and the impact of its stunning design.

How original? Kells is about a resourceful 12-year-old Irish boy in the Dark Ages, whose courage enables monks to complete the legendary Book of Kells, as marauding Vikings threaten the abbey. The real-life Kells is considered the most beautiful of all medieval illuminated texts. Clearly inspired by their subject, Irish filmmakers Tomm Moore, and Nora Twomey, and art director Ross Stewart employ highly stylized graphics to bring the Book to life.

Preceded by PACHELBEL KANON (Walter Santucci, US 2010, 4 min.)

St. Nick still

The mysterious world of childhood is given hauntingly poetic treatment in this low-budget feature from writer and director David Lowery. For no apparent reason, a young boy (Tucker Sears) and his younger sister (Savanna Sears) have run away from their parents to take up shelter in an abandoned country house. Seemingly oblivious to the potential dangers in their new surroundings as winter sets in, the kids rely on each other for survival and manage to find happiness for a brief while. Eschewing exposition and explanations, Lowery’s St. Nick places viewers into the middle of this situation and allows us to experience the wonder of discovery along with its two protagonists. Lowery, who also served as cinematographer of Lovers of Hate, favors a spare visual style that finds an enigmatic beauty in everyday objects and surroundings. Director David Lowery will be in attendance.

The S from Hell

Genre-bending, hysterically funny, and traveling down dusty avenues of pop culture, the short films of Rodney Ascher are some of the strangest works of pure genius you’ll ever see.

A much-discussed hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, The S From Hell is a documentary/horror film with re-enactments, animation, and found footage. It examines the real phenomenon of the dread-and-terror inspiring logo for Screen Gems, which appeared at the end of Flintstones reruns and other shows. Ascher’s other brilliant short works tackle a number of unlikely topics and obsessions, such as religious pamphlets, memorabilia collectors, VHS cassettes, Gene Simmons of KISS, pets, and the artistic inner life of the “creeps” from Death Wish 3.

Rodney Ascher will appear in person as your guide through this fun-filled and action-packed program.

A breathtaking still from The Red Shoes

Hans Christian Andersen’s tale is just the starting point for this imaginative and moving classic—a landmark in the histories of both dance and cinema.

An ambitious and obsessive dancer (the luminous Moira Shearer) falls under the spell of a tyrannical impresario (Anton Walbrook) and soon must choose between ballet and life.

Jack Cardiff’s rich color cinematography, has been meticulously and lovingly restored in a brand-new 35mm print by UCLA Film & Television Archive, in Association with the BFI, The Film Foundation, ITV Studios, Global Entertainment Ltd., and Janus Films.

“The Red Shoes” will be presented by Thelma Schoonmaker, Oscar-winning editor and widow of the film’s co-creator, Michael Powell. She will also receive the festival’s Susan B. Anthony “Failure is Impossible” award and deliver a short presentation on “The Red Shoes’” restoration.

The screening of “The Red Shoes” is presented in collaboration with Rochester City Ballet’s Legends of Dance (May 14-16) and Nazareth College Arts Center Dance Festival (July 10-17).

Still from the Oath

Oscar®-nominated documentary director Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country and Flag Wars) skillfully weaves the complex and gripping stories of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdam, Osama bin Laden’s former driver. Filmed in Yemen over a two-year period, Jandal spends his days driving a taxi, while his brother-in-law Hamdam awaits military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay. With unprecedented access to subjects and intelligence documents, the film unfolds dramatically, with twists and turns in plot and character, all the while giving the audience new insight on the inner-world of Al Qaeda.

No Orchids for Miss Blanish

One of the oddest and most lurid movies ever to emerge from the British Isles, this noirish gangster thriller, based on American John Hadley Chase’s novel, is set in New York City but filmed entirely on UK sets, with a mostly English cast (with unconvincing accents) and crew! The Grissom gang, led by Slim (B actor Jack LaRue, one of the few Americans in the picture), and their nasty mother, wipe out a pair of bumbling kidnappers and take over their prize: filthy rich heiress Miss Blandish (Linden Travers) and her priceless rocks. The kinky twist is that she likes being a hostage. The film’s original release earned notices from the British press that called it “A wicked disgrace to the British film industry” (Daily Express) and “All the morals of an alley cat and all the sweetness of a sewer.” (Observer). However,“Seeing the film today, one is struck by how much more brazen about sex and violence it is than any of the films that were earning British Cinema a new respect at home and abroad. Unashamedly melodramatic, it also foregrounds the issue of female sexuality with a boldness not to be found in films of the earlier 1940s.” (Brian McFarlane, British Crime Cinema). Truncated by 12 minutes for its U.S. release, this 35mm print from the British Film Institute restores No Orchids’ most shocking moments.

Marion Woodman—Dancing in the Flames

“Our planet is shedding its outworn skin,” says Marion Woodman, a renowned Jungian psychologist and author who believes without death, there is no birth. Perhaps best-known for her groundbreaking work on feminine psychology and addiction via her books Addiction to Perfection, The Owl was a Baker’s Daughter, Bone: Dying into Life, and The Pregnant Virgin, she is one of the western world’s most important wisdom keepers. Through the use of stunning animation from Academy Award®-winning animator Faith Hubley, filmmaker, Adam Greydon Reid merges Marion’s inner and outer lives together and transmits a core truth of what it is to be human. Director Adam Greydon Reid will be in attendance.

Preceded by BEYOND THE SHADOW PLACE • Faith Hubley, US 1997, 9.5 min.
Spirits appear in the everyday life of the Inuit/ Eskimo people. A frantic dance of death takes us through Mexico and Peru to mysterious Easter Island. The deceased of ancient Egypt experience renewal in the light of the afterlife. Death is revealed as a transition, rather than the end.

Still from Gone with the Pope

Paul (writer and director Duke Mitchell) is a sleazy small-time gangster who comes up with a particularly unholy scheme: kidnap the Pope and demand a “dollar from every Catholic in the world” as ransom. A former nightclub entertainer who was, along with Sammy Petrillo, one half of the most popular Martin and Lewis knockoff act, Mitchell turned to independent, low-budget filmmaking in the 1970s with the ultra violent Massacre Mafia Style (1974). At the time of Mitchell’s death in 1981, his second feature, then titled Kiss the Ring, existed only in an unassembled form. Oscar®-winning editor Bob Murawski (The Hurt Locker, Spider Man films) has taken on an enormous labor of love by creating a finished film from Mitchell’s inspiring, exciting, and often hilarious footage. The result is a genuine revelation: one of the most imaginative and fast-paced exploitation efforts of our times.

Bob Murawski, whose work on the film extended more than 15 years, will appear to talk about what went into bringing this small-scale masterpiece back from the brink of cinematic oblivion. This is one festival event you won’t want to miss!

• Download the Festival Schedule here.

• Buy tickets here.

The Extra Man, starring Kevin Kline

About The Extra Man:

Saturday, May 8 • 7 pm • Dryden | Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, US 2010, 108 min.

In one of his funniest and most commanding performances since A Fish Called Wanda, Kevin Kline plays the eccentric Henry Harrison, a once brilliant playwright who spends most of his time as an “extra man” accompanying wealthy New York City widows to dinner and cultural events. Enter the equally peculiar Louis Ives (Paul Dano) a young writer and dandy who becomes a boarder in Henry’s flat and yearns to learn the ways of high society from his new roommate. Louis and Henry are figures from another era and the fact that the story is set in contemporary Manhattan makes this comedy about status from the directors of American Splendor all the more fascinating and funny. Kline and Dano are surrounded by an excellent supporting cast, particularly John C. Reilly as Henry and Louis’ even weirder neighbor, Gershon.

James Ivory, photo by Tomoko Kikuchi

Join us for our fabulous opening night celebration!

Wednesday, May 5 • 6:30 pm
Opening night presentation and screening of The City of Your Final Destination
Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House • 900 East Ave.
Special appearance by James Ivory

Film only:  $15.

Opening Night Party:  Wednesday, May 5, 9 pm. at the Potter Peristyle, George Eastman House, Rochester $20

Opening Night Film & Party package $30

The latest feature from Merchant Ivory Productions, based on a novel by Peter Cameron, is a witty, literate, and lushly photographed romance with an exceptional cast. Omar (Omar Metwally) is a graduate student with plans to write a biography of a recently deceased novelist. Denied authorization by the author’s family, Omar travels uninvited to a remote part of South America to change the minds of the dead man’s widow (Laura Linney), brother (Anthony Hopkins), and mistress (Charlotte Gainsbourg), to whom Omar feels an immediate attraction. Complicating things is the arrival of Omar’s officious girlfriend (Alexandra Maria Lara). The screenplay was written by frequent Merchant Ivory collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who won Oscars® for her work on A Room with a View and Howards End, and a third nomination for The Remains of the Day. The City of Your Final Destination joins the ranks of those well-loved Merchant Ivory movies with its thoughtful ruminations on class, money, and true love.
Director James Ivory, whose career has spanned six decades, will be presented with the title of George Eastman Honorary Scholar prior to the screening.

About James Ivory and Merchant Ivory Productions
Merchant Ivory Productions has produced more than 40 motion pictures, including  Oscar®-winning films A Room With a View (1986) and Howards End (1992) and Oscar® nominees such as The Remains of the Day (1993), Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990), and The Bostonians (1984).

Film director James Ivory will be honored May 5 with the title of George Eastman Honorary Scholar—awarded for artistic achievement in motion pictures—on opening night of the 360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival, when he will present his new film, The City of Your Final Destination, which stars Anthony Hopkins and Laura Linney. Past recipients of this honor include Jeff Bridges and Ken Burns.

Merchant Ivory’s extensive filmography spans more than 40 years and also features The Guru (1969), Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980), Slaves of New York (1989), Jefferson in Paris (1995), Maurice (1987), Heat and Dust (1983), Surviving Picasso (1996), Heights (2004), and The White Countess (2005), plus In Custody (1993) and The Mystic Masseur (2001), both directed by Ismail Merchant. Merchant passed away in 2005 while editing The White Countess.

Merchant Ivory’s features, documentaries, and shorts have been praised for their visual beauty, their mature and intelligent themes, and the shrewd casting and fine acting from which they derive their unique power.

Merchant Ivory is a collaboration of three masters from three vastly different cultures—Ismail Merchant, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and James Ivory. Producer Merchant was born in India; Jhabvala, the screenwriter, was born in Germany and educated in England; and Ivory, the director, was born in the United States. Their partnership is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest partnership in independent cinema history. Merchant Ivory Productions archives its collection at George Eastman House.

Still from Cell 211

In this gritty and pulse-pounding thriller, Juan (Alberto Ammann), a newly recruited prison guard, finds himself locked in with a particularly violent group of rioting inmates on his first day of work. Unrecognized as an outsider by any of the prisoners, Juan earns the favor of the dangerous leader of the uprising, Badass (played by the thrillingly volatile Luis Tosar), and attempts to aid negotiations while trying to secure his own safe reunion with his pregnant wife. Meanwhile, irresponsible television news reporting and corrupt prison officials represent a continuous threat to Juan’s safety. Riveting, politically engaged, and hard-hitting, Cell 211 recently swept Spain’s equivalent to the Oscars®, the Goya Awards.

Director Tamra Davis pays homage to her friend in this definitive documentary but also delves into Basquiat as an iconoclast. His dense, bebop-influenced neoexpressionist work emerged while minimalist, conceptual art was the fad. Also, as a successful black artist, he was consistently confronted by racism and misconceptions. The film is created using both insider interviews and archival footage. Yet, Basquiat’s own words and his work powerfully convey the mystique and allure of the artist himself.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

Still Bill photo

Even though his last album came out in 1985, Bill Withers (the man behind “Lean on Me” and “Just the Two of Us”) has a modern recording studio in his LA home. With soulful delivery and warm, heartfelt sincerity, Withers had written the songs that resonate deeply within the fabric of our times. Yet, he is an unusual performer because he was able to walk away from conflicts with Columbia Records and allow himself to, happily, drop out of the public eye.

This documentary reveals how he started as a musician later in life, after stints in the Navy and blue-collar jobs. It also touches upon his Grammy wins before he stepped away from record company executives’ pressure to promote himself. Now, at 70 years, old he is ready to begin making music again. There are so many stories of musicians who fell due to drugs or living it up that Bill Withers, with his 30-year marriage, nice kids, and comfortable life, seems unusual.

The film offers a unique—and rare—look inside the world of this fascinating man. Through concert footage, journeys to his birthplace, interviews with music legends, his family and closest friends, Still Bill presents the story of an artist who has written beloved songs and who truly understands the heart and soul of people.

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno still

The odd fate of what might have become a major French film of the ’60s is compellingly related in “Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno.” Clouzot, who is considered the French Hitchcock, embarked on “L’enfer” starring Romy Schneider in 1964; the story is a study of jealousy tipping into madness. The documentary is created with fascinating, never-seen footage of tests and scenes shot before the picture shuttered amid high-drama only three weeks into production.

The color and black-and-white studio tests are amazing—hallucinatory and trippy in a disciplined, pre-psychedelic way. Through interviews with nine cast and crew members, an astonishing account of directorial anxiety, neurosis and, eventually, paralysis emerges. The cinematographic event of the decade was never completed nor any of the incredible footage seen by the public.

From the Irish film, Eamon.

A fabulously fresh and highly entertaining first feature, Eamon is a young boy who has managed to insinuate himself between his parents. He holds a privileged space in his mother’s heart while his father—his mother’s current boyfriend—finds himself banished to what feels like a distant planet.

A bright, satirical drama with dark overtones, Eamon follows this idiosyncratic trio on a family holiday of sorts, intended to give them a break from their dire financial straits. Unfortunately, salvation does not sprout on the Irish coast, and sooner or later they come face to face with their problems. Too bad one of the three has no interest in seeing them resolved.

With a darkly humorous touch and some judiciously selected twists along the way, this Irish comedy features adult heroes who have misfortune for a shadow. However, Eamon’s innocence combined with his character’s instinctive ability to hold the middle ground between his parents creates both sympathy for his attempts to cope with two parents who mostly treat him like a wearisome nuisance and guilefulness that belies his tender years.

Backstory/Cinema Museum

About Backstory/Cinema Museum

Artist Mark Lewis has been interested in the old, celluloid-based special-effects technology known as rear projection. He has written about its aesthetic implications, and his rear-projection film, Nathan Phillips Square, A Winter’s Night, Skating, was shown at the Venice Biennale in 2009. He has created two short documentaries which explore his curiosity about historical filmmaking techniques with a carefully aestheticized approach to cinema as both a fan-based and industrialized cultural phenomenon.

The first film, Backstory, introduces audiences to the remaining stars of rear projection techniques that were prevalent in cinema until the development of the green screen. It was most famously by Alfred Hitchcock in films like North by Northwest and Saboteur.

Rear-projection technology was a response to a threefold problem posed by the arrival of synchronized sound in the late ’20s and early ’30s: how to combine star presence and narrative action with audible dialogue. A would-be seamless combination of all three involved first separating them into two component parts. A narrative setting would be filmed on location for later projection in a studio onto a translucent screen. Arranged against the background footage, stars could then be easily shot, and their dialogue carefully recorded. This technique allowed stars to remain in privileged close-up, their words clearly audible and their emotions clearly visible, while the dramatic setting, landscape scenery or urban streets, rolled behind them. The result has the odd quality of being both narratively effective and obviously artificial, ideal fodder for an artist intrigued by modernism’s contradictions.

Lewis interviews the rugged, techie makers of these “plates” with some of the finest work from their archives as backdrops. The effect is uniquely beautiful; the faded, soundless images from a Hollywood past create a Zen-like elegy for the aging figures as they recall the key moments of their profession and unsung art form.

In Cinema Museum, Lewis follows, in a Kubrick-like tracking shot, the eccentric owner of a private museum of cinema ephemera in south London giving a tour. As the deliberate camera finds labels and objects of interest (“Gulag Guns,” for example), it pauses, reflects, seemingly digests information for future use and moves on. Dwarfed by towers of film canisters, rooms of filing cabinets and walls of old signage, the curator seems to embody both our cultural obsession with movies and our widespread disregard for the aging technology that has nurtured it.

Alamar to the Sea Still

This film has been called the “find of the Toronto Film Festival”.

About the film:
Jorge (Jorge Machado) and Roberta (Roberta Palombini) have been separated for several years. They come from opposite worlds: he likes an uncomplicated life in the jungle while she prefers a more urban existence. He is Mexican and she is Italian; and she has decided to return home with their five-year-old son, Natan (Natan Machado Palombini). But before they leave, Jorge wishes to take young Natan on a trip, hoping to teach him about his origins in Mexico. At first the boy is physically and emotionally uncomfortable with the whole affair, and gets seasick on the boat taking them to their destination. But as father and son spend more time together, Natan begins a learning experience that will remain with him forever.

Jorge takes Natan to Chinchorro, home to the second-largest coral reef on the planet and one of the few places in the Mexican Caribbean with an intact ecosystem. Living simply, they spend their days fishing with the experienced Matraca (Nestor Marin), and Natan learns the value of catching his own food. The area is also home to all kinds of exotic animals, and Natan is amazed by the iguanas, crocodiles and seabirds that surround them – a natural world previously unknown to him. Father and son share an important experience when Jorge teaches Natan to snorkel, showing him the beauty of the underwater realm. At first the child is hesitant, but with time and the help of his father, he learns to do it alone.

The relationship between man and nature is subtly revealed as we bear witness to the day-to-day existence of the fishermen in Chinchorro, who still spear for lobster and live with few modern conveniences. Riding a thin line between fiction and documentary, filmmaker Pedro González-Rubio weaves a delicate, moving narrative in this fine feature.

Is this film fiction? Is it a documentary?
Robert Koehler’s essay in Cinema Scope “Agrarian Utopias/Dystopias” aptly captures the spirit of Alamar in its exploration of “the new nonfiction” or “the cinema of in-between-ness.” It’s worth a read.

Long before YouTube there were the outrageous, no-budget, underground movies of filmmaking twins George and Mike Kuchar.

This documentary is a well-deserved tribute to legendary experimental filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar, the Bronx-born twins who spent five decades pioneering underground filmmaking. At the age of twelve, they became obsessed with Hollywood melodramas and began making their own homespun melodramas with their aunt’s 8mm camera. They used their friends and family as actors and their Bronx neighborhood as their set. Early Kuchar titles featured in this film include “I Was A Teenage Rumpot” and “Born of the Wind”.

Their campy, zero-budget parodies—an homage to Douglas Sirk melodramas

It Came from Kuchar Film Poster

In the early 1960’s, alongside Andy Warhol, the Kuchar brothers shaped the New York underground film scene. Known as the “8mm Mozarts”, their films were noticeably different than other underground films of the time. They were wildly funny, but also human and vulnerable.

American Grindhouse Poster

This documentary, narrated by Robert Forster, boasts an incredible list of interviewees many of whom are speaking on-camera for the first time. (Including: Allison Anders, Judy Brown, Larry Cohen, Joe Dante, Don Edmonds, David Hess, Jack Hill, Jonathan Kaplan, Jeremy Kasten, John Landis, Herschell Gordon Lewis, William Lustig, Ted V. Mikels, Bob Minor, Kim Morgan, Eddie Muller, Fred Olen Ray, Eric Schaefer, Lewis Teague, James Gordon White and Fred Williamson.) American Grindhouse is the first feature-length documentary from Director Elijah Drenner; it probes the hidden history of over 100 years of American exploitation film.

From the beginning of the 20th century, Exploitation Cinema emerged from carnie sideshows with features like Freaks and Traffic in Souls. It continued through 1940’s film noir, blasting through the Hollywood Production Code with “Nudie Cuties” and “Roughies”, culminating in the biker films of the 60’s and the “Blaxploitation” flicks of the 70’s. The documentary delves deeply into this often overlooked category of cinema with clips from over 200 films. With an informative and amusing tone, it uncovers the mark Exploitation Cinema has made on American culture, while exploring how its popularity and principles still endure today.

I Am Love film poster

I Am Love, starring Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton

Seven years in the making, director Luca Guadagnino’s “I Am Love” depicts a family’s world on the cusp of change. Presented in a dreamy, languorous fashion the film follows the cultivated world of a wealthy and distinguished family as various members embody passion and constraint, the old order and the rowdy new one, and elegance and turbulence.
Featuring a cast headed by Tilda Swinton, this exploration of one family is a feast for the senses–a stunning work.
The plot:
The Recchis are a wealthy Milan family whose lives revolve around elaborate parties and the family textile business, passed down from the patriarch to his son, Tancredi, and grandson, Edoardo. Tancredi’s Russian wife, Emma, loves her children and runs her villa smoothly, but has no passion of her own.

Emma’s well-kept world is shaken when her daughter Elisabetta comes out as a lesbian–a secret hidden from the conservative family. Then Emma meets Antonio, a gifted but humble chef who wants to open a restaurant with Edoardo. Her desire is ultimately unleashed as their love brings Emma to life — and leads to the film’s dramatic climax.

Huck Finn Still

We all know the story of Huckleberry Finn— a rambunctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, who escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River with Jim, a slave running away from being sold.

However, this 1920 silent version starring Lewis Sargent as Huck and George Reed as Jim has been restored by Rochester’s very own George Eastman House in conjunction with the National Film Preservation Foundation . Director William Desmond Taylor’s adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic novel was a companion piece to Tom Sawyer, which Paramount had released earlier, a tradition that was repeated in 1930, when both stories were released in sound version starring Jackie Coogan.

1920 Huck Finn Still

During the 360 | 365 showing, Phil Carli will accompany the film on piano.

On a side note:
Director William Desmond Taylor was shot to death on February 1, 1922 in his Los Angeles bungalow. No person was ever convicted of the crime. In 1967 film director King Vidor conducted a personal investigation of the crime. Vidor concluded that a woman named Charlotte Shelby was probably the guilty party. Shelby was opposed to the relationship Taylor had with her daughter, actress Mary Miles Minter. Charlotte Shelby died in 1957 and the crime is still officially unsolved. An extensive account of the Taylor mystery and Vidor’s investigation is given in Sidney D. Fitzpatrick’s A Cast of Killers, E.P. Dutton, NY 1986.

About the Huck Finn Restoration:
The restoration was made from the last known print of HUCKLEBERRY FINN, which was donated to George Eastman House in 1962. This print contained Danish intertitles. The preservation was supported by the National Film Preservation Foundation. Our lab partner was Colorlab Corp. of Rockville, MD.

This new restoration retains the original color tinting schemes of the original print. No known script or continuity survived, so all new English language titles were created for this restoration, utilizing a direct translation of the Danish, and, in many cases, direct quotes from Mark Twain’s original novel.

The festival screening will be the first public screening of this new restoration.

Still from the Avant Gaming shorts program

Okay gamers, pop culture aficionados, and fans of avant-garde filmmaking—this program is for you!

Are you ready for a journey into the world of film combined with videogames? The Avant Gaming shorts program was originally curated by the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University. This collection of short films by contemporary avant-garde filmmakers mixes images from online games such as Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto to create poignant imagery. The varied themes of each film range from spiritual exploration to questions of identity and morality.

If you remember Nintendo’s 1980’s game cartridges or prefer the heart-pumping games of today, let these unique applications of familiar images take you on a ride all their own.

Lovers of Hate, playing at the 360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival

Rudy (Chris Doubek) has never been the go-getter sort, but even by his diminished standards his life’s falling apart. Wife Diana (Heather Kafka) has kicked him out and he’s been reduced to living in his car. Things get worse when his highly successful children’s author brother Paul (Alex Karpovsky) enters the picture and acts on his own longstanding feelings for Diana. The picture culminates with an extended, virtuoso set piece at the lavish Park City home to which Paul brings Diana for a romantic weekend, little knowing that Rudy’s already there.

Director Bryan Poyser brilliantly executes an intricate game of cat and mouse in a ski lodge. It is a testament to the actors and a tightly constructed script, that Lovers of Hate juggles both humor and pathos equally well.

The cinematography is by David Lowery, the equally talented writer-director of St. Nick which will be screening at the festival as well as Karpovsky’s TRUST US: THIS IS ALL MADE UP.

360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival New Director Series

21 Below’ is Samantha’s directorial debut. Her television credits include Comedy Central’s ‘Stella’ opposite Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain. On ‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent’, Samantha portrayed Detective G. Lynn Bishop opposite Vincent D’Onoforio. She has had recurring roles on ‘Third Watch’, ‘Six Degrees’, ‘Z Rock’ and has appeared on ‘Sex and The City’.

1. Samantha, since you have plenty of experience in front of the camera (both TV and film) what was the biggest thing to wrap your head around in order to direct?

To be completely honest, I never dreamed of making a documentary film and was naive enough to not think about what I should or shouldn’t be doing. This film happened in a very organic way; and was collaborative in the truest sense of the word. Because of the efforts of Jenny Maguire ,Sophia Raab Downs and myself, we were able to capture the story of Sophia and her family.

I felt a tremendous amount of pressure and responsibility to make sure this family was portrayed as truthfully and as fairly as possible. It is a completely different and greater pressure than I have ever experienced as an actor. I was very fortunate to be working with two amazing women and a tremendous group of people who put their heart and souls into the film.

2. How did you and Zeke Farrow meet up and come to work together on a film?

Zeke and I have been friends and teamed up on various projects for years. He is more like family than just a friend at this point.

Working together on this project was a very “New York” story, though. I was in-between sublets, living on his couch, and watching “21 BELOW” raw footage every night. Soon he was joining me and we would stay up for hours talking about the story and the potential film that could be made.

I wanted the film to play like a fiction narrative. The hope was it would allow the audience to more readily put themselves in the family’s shoes. I found that I could learn more watching how family members interacted with each other than in a 2-hour interview.

Zeke is a tremendous writer who comes from a fiction background. I was very lucky that he came onboard. He helped shape the story and was my constant sounding board during the editing process.

We are currently working on another documentary together as well as a pilot script we wrote together. He has also written a screenplay I would love to direct someday.

3. Why this story for your directorial debut? What about it made you say, “I have to tell this story to the world!”?

I did not go hunting for a story. The story found us. here’s what happened:

In the spring of 2004, my mother invited a few friends and I to come to D.C., for The March for Women’s Lives. One of the women I invited was future partner and producer Jenny Maguire.

I had a feeling in my gut that I should bring a camera with me. The women we heard speak that day are what started us on a journey that would eventually lead to Buffalo, NY. We heard Molly Ivins, Ann Richards, and Sarah Weddington. They asked us to enjoy the March—but reminded us is not just about one day but what you do afterward. I read an article about the 30 biggest activists under 30 and decided that we should document their level of activism during the 2004 Presidential campaign.

One of my friends recommended I bring a young woman who lived Upstate on board. She was in production and involved with Women’s Reproductive rights. That is how we met Sophia.

As Jenny, Sophia, and I spent the summer following young women in an effort to put a personal face on the political issues we were investigating, Sophia talked about her problems with her sister. She was in my apartment when she learned her niece Maya had Tay-Sachs disease. By the end of the summer it became clear that the real story lay in Sophia’s family walls.

The story became much more complex than any of us could have realized. We thought we were going to make a film about young women and their reproductive rights; instead it turned out to be a portrait of an American middle-class family in crisis. Our film is still about choice but like most things in life we found it was not so cut and dry.

The relationships we have inside our family walls affect who we are when we walk out the door. Hopefully this film will make people think and reflect on how they communicate, love, and accept one another.

4. What were the most painful and the most rewarding parts of making 21 Below?

We were extremely naive about what it meant for our producer and friend to become our subject. As a filmmaker, I felt obligated to tell the story fairly and honestly. I love Sophia and her family. Exposing every side of them—the beautiful and ugly—proved very difficult.

Sophia’s family did not ask for cameras in their homes, they did it because she asked—and it proved to be an extremely painful process. Trying to wear the hat of filmmaker and friend was not easy to negotiate.

Luckily, Sophia was so brave and trusting: I was given the freedom to tell the story and was never asked to cut anything from the film that could be perceived as “unfavorable”. She has said that the film is painful to watch; but it is fair. That is the best compliment anyone could say about the film, in my opinion.

Anything I would have to say about witnessing Maya’s (Sharon’s sister’s 14 month-old daughter who was given a terminal diagnosis of Tay-Sachs) would be trite. She was a beautiful soul and we were lucky to be part of her life.

The audience’s reaction has been the biggest reward. We have had many heated Q & A discussions. Many people have shared their opinions and personal family stories. We were in Helsinki a month ago and a Finnish woman came up to me in tears after the credits. She had been unable to express herself or cry after a very tragic event in her life. The film allowed her to open up a part of herself that she had cut off. It was a memorable and profound moment.

Another tremendous gift has been our partnership with the National Tay Sachs and Allied Diseases to raise Tay Sachs awareness. Through NTSAD we have been introduced to families who have dealt with this disease firsthand. One man who suffers from Late-Onset Tay Sachs has become a huge supporter of the film and an inspiration to all of us.

The education we have received while making this film has been prodigious.

The film Videocracy will be showing at the 360 | 365 film festival in May, 2010

What are you going to be doing in May? Coming out to see some great, thought-provoking films at the 360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival (we hope)! Here’s a look at another one of the films we have coming to town—Videocracy.

Videocracy defined: The power of the image over society.

Examples:
“Voter-generated-content”, such as videos on Youtube.

In Italy, the election of Silvio Berlusconi as Prime Minister in 1994 was seen by many as a “media coup d’état [and] a drift towards ‘videocracy’”.

Synopsis:
Videocracy is a film that has been gathering momentum. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September and has been collecting accolades everywhere it goes from topping Indiewire’s Critic’s Choice Poll for best Documentary at TIFF to winning the Special Jury Award at Sheffield Doc/Fest.

It is a skillful compilation of archive footage describing contemporary Italy as a mirror of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s commercial television empire. In the videocracy that is Italy, image is the key to power and Berlusconi is shown as a master of his own image. Prize-winning Italian-born documaker Erik Gandini (“Surplus,” “GITMO”), who now lives in Sweden, presents a persuasive case.
Read more here.

Banned (?) in Italy
Among the journalists to have felt the sting of Italian press censorship is Swedish-Italian filmmaker Erik Gandini, whose revealing documentary on Italian television culture, Videocracy, was banned from coverage in the Italian press.

Government-television conglomerate RAI refused even to broadcast a 30-second trailer for the film, which traces the rise of Berlusconi’s banal, tits-and-ass-style television, implicating it as a form of mind-control machinery that keeps him in power.

Read all about it here.

"Harry Brown" starring Michael Caine

We are going to be posting information about the films coming to the 360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival this May. It’s so exciting to us to see the festival beginning to take shape that we want to share the films–and their stories–along the way.

Without further ado, here is the second:
Harry Brown, starring the incomparable Sir Michael Caine

Synopsis:
Set in modern-day Britain, Harry Brown follows one man’s (played by Sir Michael Caine) journey through a chaotic world where drugs are the currency of the day and guns run the streets.

Brown is retired marine and widower who lives alone in a dilapidated housing estate.

When his only friend is murdered by a gang thugs Harry is compelled to act and administers his own brand of justice.

In a bid to, as he sees it, ‘clean up’ the estate he comes into conflict with the police, led by investigating officer DCI Frampton (played by Emily Mortimer) and Charlie Creed-Miles.

Sir Michael Caine on the project
“I waited two years looking for a script that I really wanted to do. I got so used to being at home. I was beginning to take it up as a profession. And then I read the script, and they said, ‘He’s never directed a movie before.’ And I said, ‘That’s great. What’s it about?’ ‘It’s about a vigilante.’ ‘Well, that sounds promising.’ So I read the script, and I loved it.

Interview with Director Daniel Barber
Q. How easy was it to persuade Michael Caine to come out of “retirement”? Because he keeps insisting he’s retired…
Daniel Barber: Really easy… but he loved the part. I think he’s at that age where he doesn’t need to work anymore and he picks and chooses very carefully what he does. But I think he wants to put something back. He is a Briton, and he’s one of our great Britons, and everybody loves him because he’s a real man of the people. He came from a very poor background and has never said how clever he was. He’s just worked, worked, worked… but now he’s upset. He comes from Elephant & Castle, which is where we filmed Harry Brown, and he sees the way his area is now and the way the gangs roam around and is worried. It’s not going to affect him because he lives in a very beautiful place, but it doesn’t mean he’s lost touch and I think he’d like there to be a conversation about what’s going on something can happen. He certainly didn’t make this for the money.

Read the entire interview here.

Hand-painted animation

Nominee: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature

‘Kells’ refers to ‘The Book of Kells,’ the ancient Celtic religious text that dates back to 800 AD. The animated images evoke the artwork in the actual ‘Book of Kells,’ which is on display for tourists and scholars alike at Trinity College, Dublin.

Synopsis:

In the movie “The Secret Of Kells,” young Brendan lives in a remote medieval outpost under siege from barbarian raids. But a new life of adventure beckons when a celebrated master illuminator arrives from foreign lands carrying an ancient but unfinished book, brimming with secret wisdom and powers. To help complete the magical book, Brendan has to overcome his deepest fears on a dangerous quest that takes him into the enchanted forest where mythical creatures hide. It is here that he meets the fairy Aisling, a mysterious young wolf-girl, who helps him along the way. As the barbarians close in, will Brendan’s determination and artistic vision illuminate the darkness and show that enlightenment is the best fortification against evil?

The hand-drawn animation echoes the look of ‘The Book of Kells’ itself and proves that animation can be equally informed by both modern graphic design ideas and classic iconography.

Here’s an excerpt from a great interview with the director, Tomm Moore:
Q: The film looks really beautiful, what was the idea behind it?
T: It was based around Irish medieval art, the illuminated manuscripts like The Book of Kells. We looked at things in that world. We wanted to make something really distinct. Because it’s an independent film you might as well do something really different. It’s all like medieval art, really decorative, lots of details. And just the movement to lead the eye and the colour rather than usual theatrical staging. When there’s danger we pull out the colour and throw in some perspective and angles. When the Viking attack it’s more like fascist art, all red and black.
All of the main characters are hand drawn and scanned in. The Vikings and the pagan snake god, Crom Cruich, are CG. Most of the backgrounds are hand painted in Photoshop.
In the Forest we were able to free up. So we did all the triptychs. It is mainly hand painted in our studio in Kilkenny. It had to have a special sound as well. We had French sound designers so we had to make sure that the animal and birds sounded Irish.

Read the full interview here.

We’ll be revealing the first film very soon. Here is a hint-it’s an Oscar-nominee!

On Saturday, March 20 at 8 p.m., 360 | 365 and George Eastman House will present the first screening in our New Director series, featuring director Samantha Buck and her film 21 Below.

The Dryden Theatre is home to our New Director series, a quarterly program which presents the first local screenings of recent works from directors making their first or second feature-length effort.

“We are thrilled to be launching the 360 | 365 George Eastman House New Director series,” said Linda Moroney, managing director of the 360 | 365. “Rochester is, after all, the birthplace of motion picture film–and here is an opportunity for our community to see, firsthand, films by tomorrow’s great visionaries.”

Filmed on location in Buffalo, N.Y., 21 Below tells the compelling and multi-faceted story of one American family in crisis. Pregnant with her first child, Sharon returns to Buffalo in an attempt to repair the relationship between her mother and her younger sister, Karen, who is pregnant with her third child and caring for one daughter dying from a rare, genetic disease. Richly complex and inspiring, 21 Below unfolds as a compassionate portrait of a family coming apart and the compromises required for reconciliation.

“Samantha Buck is a veteran film and television actress who makes a startlingly good directorial debut with this inspiring portrait of a Buffalo family in crisis, revealing their previously hidden emotional dimensions,” said Jim Healy, Director of Programming, 360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival.

Buck has acted in Z Rock, Six Degrees, Stella, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She will introduce the film and talk with the audience following the screening with a question-and-answer session.

General admission is $7 and $5 for students. Please note, no Take-10 tickets or passes will be accepted at this special event. For more information, please visit www.film360365.com or 585-279-8312.

Tickets are available online at film360365.com/festival/tickets-and-passes

Afternoons included panels and music. According to Nora, there was a great deal of real interest in NY this year. “Not too many people kicking tires. Most of them were asking specific questions,” she said.

New York held its own party one night in the Park City Museum/Bing Bar. Lots and lots of filmmakers with great energy! The place was packed. I had the chance to meet former football star Jim Kelly who was representing Fifth Year Productions (Based right here in Rochester; they are our festival’s presenting sponsor). Downstairs in the building was a jail museum-and before that, it was originally a mine.

Other events with local ties included the big “Kodak Party” at the Riverhorse (held there for over ten years) with a live band (Voodoo Box) and food. There were lines out the door and into the street. There were lots of Kodak folks I was able to catch up with a little bit.

Most of my time at Sundance was spent seeing films, so I can’t comment on too many parties, but this should give you a flavor of what it was like.

Our dedication to you, our loyal film audiences, kept our eyes open when we really wanted to close them and take a nap. So, without further ado, here is some of what I saw and heard during Sundance 2010.

Jack Goes Boating
Fairport native, Philip Seymour Hoffman made his directorial debut with the film Jack Goes Boating. Here is the Sundance write up of the film:
Jack Goes Boating is a tale of love, betrayal, and friendship set against the backdrop of working-class New York City life. Jack and Connie are two single people who on their own might continue to recede into the anonymous background of the city, but in each other begin to find the courage and desire to pursue their budding relationship. In contrast, the couple who brought them together, Clyde and Lucy, are confronting the unresolved issues in their rocky marriage.

The multifaceted Philip Seymour Hoffman makes his directorial debut demonstrating an assured style and grace, both behind the camera and in front of it. He leads a skilled cast, who waltz through their group scenes in perfect counterpoint, each getting what he or she needs from the other. The writing is fiercely authentic as are the performances. Lyrical and lovely, Jack Goes Boating is an offbeat love story that almost forgets to happen.

On another note, the film was originally a play. Here is a little bit about it from Wikipedia:
Jack Goes Boating is a 2007 play by Bob Glaudini. An unconventional romantic comedy set in the midst of working-class New York City life, Jack Goes Boating’s original production was directed by Peter Dubois and starred Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Jack, John Ortiz as Clyde, Daphne Rubin-Vega as Lucy, and Beth Cole as Connie. The show played in Martinson Hall at the Joseph Papp Public Theater [1] for six weeks, and received positive reviews, particularly from the New York Times.

I was lucky enough to be in attendance at the Vanity Fair “10 Directors to Watch” party where Philip received the Acura Indie Impact Award. He received a standing ovation from the audience. He truly is, as they say, a local boy “done good.” The party itself was a very Sundance affair, held in the St. Regis resort in Deer Valley was accessible via a funicular which moved guests up the mountainside in cozy groups of ten at a time. Once inside the resort, we were offered hot chocolate-spiked or virgin. (Funny, I never really considered hot chocolate to be anything but a non-alcoholic beverage). Most of the 300+ attendees were filmmakers celebrating their up-and-coming peers while rubbing elbows. The mood was very energetic as people were excited to meet the celebrated directors. Although the resort is a pretty posh place, most attendees were dressed very casually in parkas and fury boots. I left after the awards ceremony to (you guessed it!) attend a film, but there was a large tent with food and music set up outside to make the event into a real party.

–Linda

“We wanted filmmakers to have fun with this theme and to use throwing a pie in someone’s face as an artistic excuse,” said John Richardson, executive director of 360 | 365. “We had twenty films submitted with a high level of creativity and originality–we couldn’t be more pleased.”

Beginning at 5:00 p.m., Monday, February 1st, in The Little Theatre café, guests can treat themselves to dinner, mingle with the filmmakers, and meet some of the 360 | 365 staff. Then, at 6:30 p.m., guests will head into the theatre for a screening of all the entries. Individual tickets are $5 and only available at the door. The first place winner will receive a $1,000 cash grand prize and two All Access 360 | 365 Film Festival passes. The second and third place winners will receive tickets to the festival. All three top films will be shown at the Festival in a special screening.

The weather report is sunny with lots of slush to dredge through in Park City. So far, they’ve been riding around on the shuttles with other Festival attendees, ski bunnies, and locals. It’s packed (and although some people get kind of loud on their cellphones), everyone is well behaved…

Linda’s list of films for Friday:
–Nowhere Boy
–The Red Chapel
–Last Train Home
–His & Hers

Jim’s list for Friday:
–Double Take
–Restrepo
–Enemies of the People
–7 Days

Anything could happen–they might be able to fit in even more films or schedules could change but this is the plan for the moment. They also hope to get to Main Street and visit the NY Lounge. To find out how the day REALLY unfolds for them, follow our Twitter account and check in on Facebook too.

First of all, did you know that New York State sponsors a lounge during the festival? It features bagels (of course!) and coffee each morning, panels and musical performances later in the afternoon. The New York Lounge is a great place to network and The Rochester Finger Lakes Film and Video Office’s own Nora Brown will be helping to keep things running smoothly.

They will also be attending Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch reception on Sunday. You can follow Variety online for complete Sundance coverage. Also, here’s an article from Vanity Fair previewing the parties and swag…

In addition, Linda and Jim will be sneaking off to Slamdance to see the film, “And Everything Is Going Fine” directed by Steven Soderbergh. The doc concerns the life and work of Spalding Gray, who made a career as a writer, actor, and monologist. Gray and Soderbergh worked together previously on the 1996 film, Gray’s Anatomy, as well as 1993’s King of the Hill .

Also, Linda has commented that seeing Edie Falco would really drop her jaw. We hope she has the opportunity!

In between all of the film watching, coffee-drinking (to help them stay awake) and popcorn eating, they’ll be connecting with filmmakers and the people behind the films. They’ll also be schmoozing to bring the new name and focus of 360 | 365 onto the radar of people in the business. They want the festival to become a must for filmmakers and distributors to consider. (Linda is also hoping to reconnect with folks from her NYC production days.)

Some of the films that top our personal lists of  Sundance must-sees include:

Linda:

The Taqwacores-A film about Muslim punkrockers in Buffalo

His & Hers-A documentary that explores a 90-year old love story through the voices of 70 different women of all ages

The Runaways-The first film by acclaimed music video artist Floria Sigismondi. It focuses on the duo comprised of Joan Jett and Cherie Curry as they broke out of the 1970’s LA music scene

Jim:

The Killer Inside Me-Written by Rochester Native John Curran. The film is based on the legendary pulp novel by Jim Thompson

Jack Goes Boating-Philip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut is a lyrical love story that is as offbeat as it is lovely

Jim and Linda will be sending updates via Twitter and Facebook during their time at Sundance. Follow them here:

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