SUNDANCE SHORTS:
ANDY BLUBAUGH'S SCAREDYCAT

We screened Andy's charming short Hello, Thanks last summer and we are really excited to see that he has continued working in a similar vein but seems to really be making strides as a video artist, or video diarist, or personal documentarian or whatever he decides to call himself. Scaredycat is really great and since it screened at Sundance Sundance you can watch it online HERE.

FEMME HELMER STATS
Hollywood Reporter printed these stats yesterday, originally compiled by critic Carrie Rickey (all stats are 2006 only):

60% (3 of 5) of 2006 Oscar nominated documentary features are directed by women,
40% (2of 5) of 2006 Oscar nominated foreign-films are directed by women,
25% of Sundance 2007 features and shorts are directed by women
10% of 2006 best-picture Oscar nominees are directed by women
6.25 % of top-250 domestic box office grossers in 2006 are directed by women
1.8 % of top-1000 domestic box office grossers in 2006 are directed by women.

As the article points out, you can probably spin this raw info any way that you want, but it's interesting to see that even though Sundance is roughly 15 times better at presenting women's films than the market as a whole, it can still only manage to fill 25% of it's slate with films by female directors. This is not a criticism by any means--I am sure they are doing everything that they can. I'm merely pointing out how few films are directed by women at this point in time, and how few of those films that do get made get any significant distribution whatsoever. Clearly, institutions like Sundance, most other film festivals, and even the Academy are inclined to recognize as many good films by women as they can. But for whatever reason, women get very few chances to succeed in the film marketplace.

SUNDANCE SHORTS:
IAN OLDS' BOMB

Ian Olds has worked on several really great films over the years, including the Academy Award short-listed documentary feature, Occupation: Dreamland and the extraordinary (according to Mark) suburban tank documentary Cul de Sac, which is not yet available on DVD, unfortunately. Bomb is quite different from either of his doc films, but still quite an achievement. You can watch it HERE and if you like it you can read an interview with him from Filmmaker Magazine (which I have now coincidentally linked to in consecutive postings) and another one from The Reeler.

RURAL MICROCINEMAS AND WHISKEY SMUGGLIN'

There is a nice little article in FIlmmaker about indie director Jay Craven's DIY 100-Town-Tour. Disappointed that all of the theaters in Vermont were booked with more commercial fare (even in the boonies of backwoods Vermont), he decided to rent as many churches and union halls as he could (for as little money as possible) and screen his whiskey smuggling epic Disappearances all over the state. In just one summer he was able to bring in more than $175,000 in box office receipts in the Green Mountain State alone--all without screening in any of the 24 towns that actually possess a proper movie theater--and I'm sure he reached a lot of audiences that wouldn't normally flock to low-budget SXSW period films. Of course, not every self-distributed indie stars Kris Kristofferson, a man that I imagine might still be considered quite a celebrity in all those small towns across Vermont that do not yet possess reel-to-reel projection technology (and in case you were wondering, yes, Kristofferson is still taking roles that require him to react badly when someone tries to tell him that he "can't just go highjack the train"). Regardless, Craven's successful tour is a lesson in ingenuity and perseverance that all of us so-called micro-cinema experts should probably take to heart. Tip of the hat to former Rooftop volunteer Brian Liloia and DV Guru.

SUNDANCE AWARDS AND THE BEST SHORTS

We are back from Sundance and had a great time. We won't bore you with details of our social interactions, since there are more entertaining and complete Sundance blogs out there. I'll just say that I didn't get to meet Hammer, or Dakota Fanning, but our friend Casimir did.

Some of our favorite features screening in Park City were:
Zidane
In the Shadow of the Moon
The Great World of Sound
Hot House
Chasing Ghosts
Crossing the Line
Zoo
VHS Kahloucha
It is Fine. Everything is Fine!
Comrades in Dreams

Of course, not everything was so fantastic. Some dissapointing films were:
Manda Bala
Chicago Ten
The Unforeseen
Offscreen

We'll try to talk a little bit more about each of these films over the next few days, but I'll also put together some little segments on the shorts as well and try to point out some of our favorites. You can watch most of them online, either for free or by paying $1.99 for them on iTunes (which really isn't so bad, if you think about it, since a good chunk of that goes to the filmmakers). There were a good number of very good shorts and a few that we thought were truly exceptional. Mark Elijah Rosenberg was on the shorts jury, so obviously he saw al of them. I have seen most of the selections at this point, though not Don Herzfeldt's new short--which everyone says is extraordinary and which won the jury prize. Hopefully Mark will get the chance to blog a little bit about his experience and about his selections. Until then, I will just list the winners:

Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking
"Everything Will Be OK"; directed by Don Hertzfeldt

Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking
"The Tube With a Hat"; directed by Radu Jude

Shorts Jury Honorable Mentions in Short Filmmaking
"Death to the Tinman"; directed by Ray Tintori
"The Fighting Cholitas"; directed by Mariam Jobrani
"Men Understand Each Other Better" ("Mardha Hamdigar Ra Behtar Mifahmand"); directed by Marjan Alizadeh
"Motodrom"; directed by Joerg Wagner
"Spitfire 944"; directed by William Lorton
"t.o.m."; directed by Tom Brown and Daniel Gray

Feel free to sort through all the shorts yourself, but the Sundance website is a little screwy and I will be posting highlights from the shorts with links to where you can watch the films over the next week or so, so you can also just check back in here daily and I'll give you my recommendations. To start, you should all go watch Ray Tintori's newest short, Death to the Tinman.

THE BEST SCENES FROM
THE REMAKE OF THE WICKER MAN

There was a part of me that wanted to get upset a few years back when I found out that they were making a remake of the Wicker Man--so much so that I couldn't bear to even Netflick the Nicholas Cage version. But having seen this extraordinary YouTube compilation, I now realize that I may have missed out on something incredible. Luckily, the new version just came out on DVD and you better frickin' believe that The Wicker Man (2006) is in my queue now. I don't care about that 87% rotten rating it got. Those reviews are written by guys named WIllie Waffle who say things like "When he was reading the script, and saw the part of the movie where he is supposed to run through the forest in a bear suit, I hope Nicholas Cage asked for a huge pay raise." Personally, I am very glad he didn't ask for a pay raise, because the image of him bear-slapping that nymph is indelibly etched into my brain and it makes me smile every time I think about it. My as yet uninformed opinion is that Cage and LaBute may have somehow actually improved on a classic. I'll update you all when the red envelope arrives.
p.s. I just read that the remake was dedicated to the late Johnny Ramone, who introduced Nicholas Cage to the original. Oh, to have been in the room when Cage and LaBute discussed that tribute.

TONY VS. PAUL

Two million people saw this before I did, including the folks at The House Next Door but that's OK...

JONATHAN REYNOLDS BURIAL AT SEA
I don't really know anything about this Jonathan Reynolds, but this film is pretty magical. Find out (a very little bit) more about him at http://www.jonathanreynolds.co.uk/. Spaghetti Terrestris is also pretty cool...

ROOFTOP SHORTS:
CASMIR NOZKOWSKI'S BODEGA

Longtime Rooftop Films alum, YouTube celebrity, Utz eater and Quarter Water chugger Casimir Nozkowski returns to the Rooftop blog with this homage to really unhealthy food bought cheaply from inner city corner stores. You can watch it HERE.
UPDATE: If you like Bodega, you can also see what happens when they hang out in Park City at
http://www.thedailyreel.com/ or on Cas' youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/CasimirN. The next entry will be the filmmaker episode and features MC Hammer. I saw Gary Coleman on Main Street and told them where to find him, but when they went looking all they could find was Screech.

ROOFTOP EDITING CLASS
Intro to Avid Xpress DV
Rooftop Films offers friendly, do-it-yourself, hands-on classes in Avid editing, at the cheapest rate in New York or beyond. Avid is the industry and independent leader in digital non-linear editing, and Rooftop Films has ten years of experience supporting independent filmmaking: this class is a perfect fit.

Rooftop Films' Introduction to Avid Xpress DV is a six-hour class, held over two weeknights, for only $200. Classes are held at the Rooftop Films office at 232 3rd Street, Brooklyn.

UPCOMING CLASSES
+ Two-night class: January 8 and 9, 6:30-9:30

REGISTRATION
Simply send an email to avid@rooftopfilms.com with "Avid Class" in the subject heading. Include in the body of the email the following information:
+ Your name, address and phone number.
+ Your preferred method of payment (cash, check or credit card).

For more information, please visit http://rooftopfilms.com/classes.html.