The University of Michigan Library will welcome the papers of another maverick to their growing collection of material that highlights visionaries in the genre of independent film. Ira Deutchman has announced that he will donate his entire archive to U-M's Screen Arts Mavericks & Makers collection. The announcement was made December 2 at Lincoln Center in New York.
Cinematographer Carmen Cabana relied on camera support products from Manios Digital and Film while shooting on location for the new romantic comedy Holiday Breakup. Cabana employed a Cartoni Laser head and tripod system, along with a Vocas handheld rig to support the Blackmagic Cinema Camera that she used to capture principal photography.
While non-traditional gender roles are becoming more widely accepted, stereotypes still have a tendency to get in the way. This is particularly true for a Latina woman who is a teacher by trade, but wanted to blaze her own trail as the first female surfer in a tiny rural fishing village. Filmed on location in Baja, Mexico, La Maestra is a unique surfing movie told in the words of teacher/surfer, Mayra Agulair, which brings to light the issues facing female surfers, as well as the importance of taking care of the environment that we use for recreation and sports.
Telefilm Canada and UniFrance films have partnered on the distribution and promotion of independent films from their respective countries. They announced their partnership at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Organizers of the nonprofit Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles have announced its 7th annual feature film line-up. The five-day event, July 22-26, will be held in venues throughout downtown L.A.’s historic core with The Regent Theater serving as the festival’s primary venue.
Following its critically praised premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, Cinedigm has acquired all U.S. distribution rights to Anton Corbijn’s Life, starring Dane DeHaan (Life After Beth; Kill Your Darlings; Place Beyond The Pines), Robert Pattinson (Twilight,Cosmopolis, Maps To The Stars), and Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Sexy Beast, Schindler’s List).
Dogs have been considered man’s best friend for centuries, but these days it might be more accurate to consider dogs man’s best baby. This sometimes strange phenomenon inspired filmmakers Kasi Brown and Brandon Walter to produce Gone Doggy Gone, a film with a comedic twist that follows a couple stuck in a lackluster marriage who treat their dog like a baby until it gets kidnapped.
AlphaDogs is pleased to announce they have completed work on the new film Revision, where a petty thief seeks to atone for his past by returning to the house he robbed. It was director Zac Wong’s vision to not only tell a good story but also explore how a film could portray the overlap of human consciousness and memory. Wong explains, “I was fascinated by the way that we tend to experience several disconnected events in our past simultaneously. I found the feeling of guilt to be the most palpable manifestation of chaotic memory and a great subject for this film.”
Cinedigm has acquired all North American distribution rights to The Falling, starring Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones, Doctor Who), an evocative and beguiling film centered on an epidemic of fainting (mass psychogenic illness) at an English girls’ school in the 60s directed and written by Carol Morley (Dreams of a Life).
Alan Blanco says he thinks of himself “as a filmmaker first” and it’s understandable why. For someone still so early in his career he’s had a wide range of craft jobs on a long list of films. His IMDB credits list includes gaffer, key grip, camera operator, sound recordist, editor, sound editor and ADR engineer. Now, he’s added two more credits: screenwriter and cinematographer. Blanco co-wrote Manos Sucias, a widely acclaimed independent feature film with director Josef Kubota Wladyka and shot the film on location in Colombia. The film opens in select New York theatres April 3.
