TORONTO '08 DISCOVERY INTERVIEW | "Medicine For Melancholy" Director Barry Jenkins

EDITORS NOTE: For the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, indieWIRE will be publishing interviews with filmmakers in the Discovery section of the festival, which TIFF describes as a showcase for new and emerging filmmakers from contemporary international cinema. Barry Jenkins' "Medicine For Melancholy" is having its Canadian premiere in the Discovery section of the 2008 Toronto International Film Film Festival. The film, which premiered at SXSW earlier this year, is about two African-American twentysomethings who wake up in bed together with no recollection of how they got there. They proceed to wander the streets of San Francisco, discussing issues of race, class, identity and gentrification, exploring sights of the city. Jenkins talked to indieWIRE about the film and his hopes for Toronto.
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iW BOT | Sundance Trio Takes On The Specialty Box Office

Three very different Sundance acquisitions found their way into the specialty marketplace this weekend. Two led the iW BOT, which ranks based on per-theater-averages, in small bows. Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's Katrina doc, "Trouble the Water," grossed $28,606 on 3 screens for Zeitgeist Films," and Azazel Jacobs' "Momma's Man" grossed $11,072 from one engagement in New York for Kino International. The film with the most box office potential of the three, Andrew Fleming's "Hamlet 2," was also the most disappointing, grossing $439,925 on 103 screens. That gave the Focus Features purchase a $4,271 average. Meanwhile, two Penelope Cruz starrers, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and "Elegy," held up very well in their second and third weekends, respectively.
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Magnolia, Landmark, and Cinetic Planning Parallel Theatrical & Digital Releases for Upcoming Wayne Wang Films

For more than thirty years, Wayne Wang has navigated the vastly different terrains of the independent film industry and Hollywood. Now, he's preparing to extend his experience to another domain -- the Internet. Due to the close relationship between his latest two features, "The Princess of Nebraska" and "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," Wang has decided to make "Princess" available online, for free, shortly after "A Thousand Years" hits theaters next month. Although the details of the distribution strategy remain in development, the final plan for the parallel releases will likely emerge in the coming weeks.
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Walking a Tight Rope and Swinging for the Fences: Across the Country, Non-Profits React to SFFS Announcement

"The rules of the game are in flux," noted Gabe Wardell via email last week, reacting to the news of the San Francisco Film Society's expansion into filmmaker services in the wake of the demise of the 32 year old Film Arts Foundation. "While some say the sky is falling, and others make bold predictions about the future of our independent film, the truth is that no one knows for sure what the future holds." Wardell, who runs the Atlanta Film Festival organization in Georgia, formerly known as the Image Film and Video Center, was just one of the veterans of the non-profit film sector surveyed by indieWIRE via email this week.
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iW PROFILE | "My Mexican Shivah" Director Alejandro Springall

Director Alejandro Springall so deftly manages to capture all the nuances of Jewish family squabbling in his second feature, "My Mexican Shivah," that it may come as a surprise when some viewers learn that his mother isn't a member of the aforementioned tribe. While that factor might disqualify him as a Jew according to certain stringent disciples of the faith, others will probably welcome his insight. Appropriately enough, the movie receives its American release at New York's Quad Cinema on Friday, where its particular market is undeniable. "I think it's the perfect city to try this movie," Springall said in an interview with indieWIRE.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Momma's Man" Director Azazel Jacobs

Azazel Jacobs' "Momma's Man" took a rare approach to filmmaking. Jacobs cast his real parents, Ken and Flo Jacobs, as the parents of Mikey (Matt Boren), a thirtysomething husband and father who takes an extended vacation in his parent's apartment. Shot in actual the New York City loft of his parents, Jacobs' "Momma's Man" was well-received when it premiered earlier this year at Sundance. The film begins a limited release this Friday, August 22 at the Angelika Film Center in New York City.
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"Hamlet 2" | Focus Features Hopes: Blithe Comedy + Well-Known Entertainers = Late Summer Hit

In a key scene halfway through "Hamlet 2," a downtrodden Arizona high school theater teacher named Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan), whose raunchy, quasi-autobiographical play has raised the ire of the local community, gets his confidence boosted by Cricket Feldstein (Amy Poehler), a fiery representative from the American Civil Liberties Union. With a twinge of excitement, Cricket explains that the school's attempt to suppress his work constitutes a First Amendment violation, and he stands a good chance of winning out. As she leaves, Dana notes that, by the way, the play is going to be really good. Without hesitation, she fires back, "It's irrelevant."
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | Toronto Co-Director Cameron Bailey

With his first slate of programming as co-director of the Toronto International Film Festival announced this morning, Cameron Bailey can take a quick breather before the 33rd edition of the festival begins two weeks from Thursday. "Now that we actually have the selection done and out there in public its just a huge, huge feeling of gratification," Bailey said in an interview with indieWIRE this afternoon. A longtime international programmer for the festival, Bailey was appointed co-director last December when his predecessor Noah Cowan was named Artistic Director of Bell Lightbox, the multi-million dollar festival center now under construction in downtown Toronto. Bailey talked with indieWIRE about his new position, the festival's programming, and what it might suggest about overall trends in the industry.
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Bay Area Blockbuster: SF Film Society Plans Expansion as Film Arts Foundation Closes Its Doors

In a seismic shift within the Bay Area film community, the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS), which organizes the annual San Francisco International Film Fesival -- the oldest fest in the United States -- today unveiled a major expansion in the wake of the simultaneous announcement of the closure of the city's 32 year old Film Arts Foundation. The latest non-profit film organization to face fatal financial challenges, Film Arts recently sold its interest in the local 9th Street building it shared with a number of festivals and arts organizations, paying down its debts in the process and paving the way for a deal with the Film Society. "Film Arts Foundation has essentially gone under," SFFS executive director Graham Leggat explained to indieWIRE late Friday, previewing today's announcement. "We managed to catch the ball before it hit the ground."
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iW BOT | The Weinsteins Win With Woody and "A Girl" Tops Chart

Despite record-breaking audiences for swimmer Michael Phelps's bid for record-breaking Olympic gold medals, the semi-wide release of Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" managed to crack the overall top ten, grossing $3,755,575 in 692 theatres. Though its $5,427 average wasn't enough to claim the top spot on the iW BOT, which is ranked by per-theater averages. Claude Chabrol's "A Girl Cut In Two," playing on a rather incomparable two screens, topped it with a $9,329 average. Both films can take pleasure in the fact that they aren't Mark Pellington's "Henry Poole Is Here," which debuted on 527 screens to the sad tune of just $805,219 or about $1,528 per screen.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Trouble the Water" Co-directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

EDITORS NOTE: This interview was originally published during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best U.S. Documentary Directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's documentary "Trouble the Water" humanizes a voiceless population silenced after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. In the film, the filmmakers (who worked with Michael Moore on "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11") team up with native New Orleans filmmaker and musician Kimberly Rivers and her husband to create an account of the effects of Katrina has had on the city's population. The film opens August 22nd at the IFC Center and ImageNation at The Faison Firehouse Theater in New York and the Regal Westpark 8 and Sunset 5 in the Los Angeles area.
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New Video Digital Aiming 1,600 New Films at iTunes, Other Platforms

Digital distribution keeps gaining momentum. While there are currently about 2,600 movies available for download on iTunes, including a number of independent movies and documentaries, that number will soon grow. New Video Digital confirmed this week that it has secured a whopping 1,600 titles for Apple's online store and other outlets. The independent video aggregator said that it has acquired the rights to over 5,000 hours of independent film and television content, with plans to double that number by the end of this year. The company will push that content out to iTunes and other online platforms in the coming months on a non-exclusive basis.
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A Classic Indie Returns: Whit Stillman on "Metropolitan"

Alongside "Slacker," "Roger & Me," "Poison," "Sex Lies and Videotape," and "Paris Is Burning," nearly twenty years ago Whit Stillman's "Metropolitan" marked a distinctive moment in American independent filmmmaking. Yet two decades later, the film is not as widely available as other classic U.S. indies. All that changed when the film debuted last night, for free, on Hulu. Asked how he feels about having the film re-surface online, Stillman deadpanned recently via email, "Great. Not having made a film in so long, I'm keen to have the existent ones available all ways possible."
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Tribeca Institute Selects Seven for Gucci Doc Fund

Seven projects have been selected for the Tribeca Film Institute's inaugural Gucci Tribeca Documentary Finishing Fund. Selected from 450 applicants, the projects will receive a total of $80,000 in finishing funds and post production guidance from the Institute. The new fund is aimed at supporting, in the words of the Institute, "independent filmmakers in need of finances to complete feature length documentaries that promote social change and illuminate issues in need of comprehensive coverage currently missing from mainstream media."
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iW BOT | It's An Indie August Rush As "Elegy" and "Bottle Shock" Take Off

In the past few years, late summer has become a key month for specialty releases, particularly those that skew older or female audiences. Last year saw both Julie Delpy's "2 Days in Paris" and Julian Jarrold's "Becoming Jane" become two of 2008's indie bright spots. Just last weekend, Sony Pictures Classics' "Frozen River" got off to a great start. And this weekend, two more examples can be added to that trend, with Isabel Coixet's "Elegy" and Randall Miller's "Bottle Shock" both opening to great numbers. IDP/Samuel Goldwyn Films's "Elegy" grossed a stellar $104,168 from just six screens, while Freestyle Releasing's more aggressive 48 locations for "Bottle" brought in a $277,839 gross.
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Curtain Rises on Music Box: Little Known Distributor Aiming To Impact Specialty Biz

The rattle and roar of Chicago's Lake Street 'L' is constant. It drowns out the words of Brian Andreotti and Bill Schopf, two of the principals with specialty film start-up Music Box Films. Inside a second-floor office adjacent to a modern art gallery, located in an industrial stretch of West Loop Chicago, Music Box Films performs its business behind a low-rise brick building without notice. For the four-month old distributor responsible for the surprise art-house hit of the summer, the lack of attention does not seem fair.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Red" Director Trygve Allister Diesen

Based on Jack Ketchum's novel, "Red" was originally intended to be directed by Lucky McKee. With a good portion of the film already completed, McKee left the project, leaving Norwegian director Trygve Allister Diesen to take over. Diesen successfully completed the project, which details an old, reclusive man (Brian Cox), whose best friend, a dog named Red, is brutally killed by three teens for no reason, setting him off to find redemption, and it premiered at Sundance earlier this year to warm responses. The film opens this Friday, August 8, at the Cinema Village in New York and the E Street Cinema in Washington, DC. indieWIRE spoke to Diesen about the film and his hopes for its release.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Beautiful Losers" Director Aaron Rose

Aaron Rose and co-director Joshua Leonard's documentary "Beautiful Losers retrospectively celebrates a group of loose-knit American artists and creators. In the 1990s, these artists, including Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Phil Frost, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine, and Ed Templeton, many of them barely twenty-years old, began their careers by coming together and making art for the sole purpose of their enjoyment of doing so. After debuting at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival, "Beautiful Losers" opens in limited theatrical release this Friday, August 8 at the IFC Center in New York. indieWIRE talked to Rose about the film and is hopes for its release.
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DIY Deal: Sidetrack Aligns With Nike For "Beautiful Losers" Theatrical Release

Sidetrack Films has partnered with Nike Sportswear for the upcoming release of Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard's "Beautiful Losers," the documentary that debuted earlier this year at the SXSW Film Festival. While the filmmakers and Sidetrack entertained traditional offers from distributors after the film's Austin premiere, they decided instead to release the film on their own. The shoe and apparel company will assist in funding a five market launch for the film. The doc won the Documentary Jury Award at 2008 Cinevegas and opens this Friday at New York's IFC Center, before a roll-out.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Patti Smith: Dream of Life" Director Steven Sebring

EDITORS NOTE: This interview was originally published during "Patti Smith: Dream of Life"'s premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Celebrity photographer Steven Sebring's feature directorial debut "Patti Smith: Dream of Life" is described by the Sundance Film Festival as a "hypnotic plunge, a breathing collage of this legendary musician/poet/painter/activist's philosophy and artistry that feels as if it sprang directly from her soul." 12 years in the making, "Dream of Life" examines Smith's "interior terrain," the ideas, losses and memories she wrestles with in addition to tracing her outward adventures. The film utilizes music, narration, graveyard pilgrimages, performance, political rallies, archival footage and verite moments with her working-class parents, children and friends to examine this punk pioneer. The film opens at the Film Forum in New York this Wednesday, August 6.
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iW BOT | Solid Opening For "Frozen River" As Sony Classics Hopes For Another Late Summer Hit

Six months after receiving the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Courtney Hunt's "Frozen River" found winning box office numbers in its first weekend of theatrical release. Opening on seven screens in New York and Los Angeles, the Sony Pictures Classics release grossed $73,322 for a per-theater-average of $10,476. The film's patient expansion schedule should hope to follow the promise of two recent films, this weekend's iW BOT leader, Brad Anderson's "Transsiberian," and Guillaume Canet's "Tell No One," which just crossed the $2 million mark. "River" is certainly off to a better start than the rest of the weekend's openers, which included the paltry $337 average Ryuhei Kitamura's "Midnight Meat Train" found on 102 screens.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Stealing America: Vote By Vote" Director Dorothy Fadiman

Director Dorothy Fadiman's doc "Stealing America: Vote By Vote" centers on the democratic integrity of the United States in the last two Presidential elections. For more than thirty years, exit polls accurately predicted election results. Over the last ten years that reliability has disappeared. The last two Presidential elections both came down to a relatively small number of votes, and in both elections the integrity of the voting process has been called into question. With the upcoming election looking to be similarly close, the film asks the questions: What happened in 2000 and 2004? What, if anything, has changed since? And what can be done to ensure a fair and honest tabulation of votes in 2008? This film brings together behind-the-scenes perspectives from the U.S Presidential election of 2004 -- plus startling stories from key races in 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2006. The film sheds light on a decade of vote counts that don't match votes cast -- uncounted ballots, vote switching, under-votes, an many other examples of election totals that warrant serious investigation. The doc opens in limited release beginning Friday, August 1.
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indieWIRE PROFILE | "In Search of a Midnight Kiss" Director Alex Holdridge

[EDITOR'S NOTE: IFC First Take opens "In Search of a Midnight Kiss" in limited release Friday, August 1.] The saga of Alex Holdridge that culminated with his third feature, "In Search of a Midnight Kiss," follows a whimsical plot similar to the charming comedy resulting from it. Holdridge's own story involves upbeat expectations, crushing disappointment, unexpected personal revelations and, finally, an optimistic eye toward the future. The movie came about somewhere in the middle of that journey, but the rough trajectory of its downtrodden protagonist corresponds to the entire arc of Holdridge's uneasy experience. Randomly living in California after a botched screenwriting gig left him stranded there, Holdridge found solace in the prospects of a new production with no grandiose expectations. "It was literally born from the ashes of a project that had not succeeded," he says in a phone interview.
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DOC COLUMN | Theatrical Docs Down, But Not Out

A quick read of David Ansen's recent "The End of the Documentary Film Market" over at Newsweek is a good summary of the theatrical marketplace for documentary film as it stands here in mid-summer 2008. Too much content for too few screens, distributors closing their doors and small grosses for the films that do manage openings, with the mind-boggling exception of the Ben Stein anti-Darwin film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" taking in a whopping $7.6 million. Despite the usual filmmaker mantra that their film requires a big screen to properly showcase their story, audiences are deciding with their dollars what movies they want to see in theaters and which they don't.
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iW BOT | Sky-High Crowds Make 'Man on Wire' 2008's Top Doc

Reports of New York audiences breaking into applause at weekend shows of the debut documentary "Man on Wire," about high-wire artist Philippe Petit and his walk on a wire between the rooftops of the World Trade Center, led to Magnolia Pictures execs cheering chart-topping, weekend box office figures. While the overall domestic box office continued to be robust thanks to strong hold-over business by Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures' Batman installment "The Dark Knight," art house films only recently sprung to life with five new releases leading the top six spots on the weekend specialty charts. Magnolia Pictures achieved the best debut grosses for a documentary since last summer's Michael Moore healthcare documentary "SiCKO" with "Man on Wire," director James Marsh's documentary about Philippe Petit's notorious high-wire act atop the World Trade Center towers. 'Man on Wire" earned $51,392 for Magnolia Pictures.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Brideshead Revisited" Director Julian Jarrold

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Miramax Films will open "Brideshead Revisited" Friday, July 25 in limited release.] Bringing "Brideshead Revisited" to the screen presented a trifecta of challenges. Director Julian Jarrold and screenwriters Andrew Davies and Jeremy Brock had to compress and reconfigure Evelyn Waugh's layered, elegiac novel, while finding a visual equivalent to convey its famously lyrical prose. In a work that Waugh conceived as a paean to the power of Catholicism they had to highlight themes that would chime with contemporary viewers. And most daunting, perhaps, they'd have to brave the enchantments, still potent after twenty-six years, of the opulent 11-part BBC version with Jeremy Irons.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Bustin' Down the Door" Director Jeremy Gosch

Director Jeremy Gosch's doc "Bustin' Down the Door" spotlights surfing as a pastime to pro sport in the Hawaii scene of the 1970s. Co-written with wife, Monika Gosch and narrated by Edward Norton, the film takes a look at a group of young people who put it all on the line to create a phenomenon and an industry that is worth bilions of dollars today. "Bustin'" focuses on six surfers from Australia and South Africa who strived for recognition for their talents and surfings place in the imagination of the world. "Bustin' Down the Door" opens in limited release Friday, July 25.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Baghead" Co-directors Jay and Mark Duplass

Mark and Jay Duplass recognize the irony of their setting. Sitting in a massive conference room in a Manhattan hotel, the brothers provide a strikingly informal contrast to the lavish decor. Shirts comfortably untucked, they toy around with a couple bruised apples and slovenly place their elbows on the table. It's a reasonable display of contentment. After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the sibling filmmakers' low budget sophomore feature, "Baghead," landed a generous distribution deal with Sony Pictures Classics (which opens the film theatrically in limited release Friday, July 25). The mini-major has flown them to New York from Los Angeles, where they currently reside, but the steeper budget hasn't changed their world view.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "American Teen" Director Nanette Burnstein

From John Hughes to Judd Apatow, the plight of the American teen has never lacked appeal in popular culture. But even this steadfast truism doesn't make the concept for "American Teen" immediately salable. A nonfiction portrait of several prototypical seventeen year olds in Warsaw, Indiana, the movie finds all the stereotypes -- from the jocks to the outcasts -- in real life. "I understood that there were certain teen stories that happen in real life. I was going after those," says director Nanette Burstein, speaking from her home in Los Angeles where she recently gave birth.
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Netflix Folds Red Envelope; Exits Theatrical Acquisition and Production Biz

Netflix, the online film rental juggernaut, is adhering to its name: Getting out of the theatrical business altogether, abandoning film production, and focusing solely on Internet and new media distribution platforms. With the move, the company has folded its nearly 3-year-old division Red Envelope Entertainment (REE), which purchased all-rights to indie films, and will be letting go its 5-person staff, which includes veteran exec, Liesl Copland, head of Red Envelope Entertainment.
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