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January/February 1998 VOLUME 21, NUMBER 1
Publisher: Ruby Lerner
Editor in Chief: Patricia Thomson
Managing Editor: Ryan Deussing
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Contributing Editors: Lissa Gibbs, Luke Hones, Barbara Bliss
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The Independent Film & Video Monthly (ISSN 0731-5198) is published monthly except February and September by the Foundation for Independent Video and Film (FIVF), a nonprofit, tax-exempt educational foundation dedicated to the promotion of video and film Subscription to the magazine ($45/yr individual, $25/yr student; $7 5/yr library; $100/yr nonprofit organization; $150/yr business/industry) is included in annual membership dues paid to the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers (AIVF). the national trade association of individuals involved in independent film and video, 304 Hudson St., NY, NY 10013, (212) 807-1400; fax: (212) 463-8519; mdependent@aivf.org; http://wwwaivf.org Periodical Postage Paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices.
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agency.
Publication of any advertisement in The Independent does not constitute an endorsement.
AIVF/FIVF are not responsible for any claims made in an ad.
Letters to The Independent should be addressed to the editor. Letters may be edited for length All contents are copyright of the Foundation for Independent Video and Film. Inc. Reprints require written permission and acknowledgement of the article's previous appearance in The Independent The Independent is indexed in the Alternative Press Index.
© Foundation for Independent Video & Film, Inc. 1998
AIVF/FIVF staff: Ruby Lerner, executive director, Lafnce Dixon, membership/advocacy assistant; Leslie Fields, membership coordinator, Jodi Magee, development consultant; Johnny McNair, information services coordinatonMarya Wethers, membership associ- ate; Leslie Singer, director of administration.
AIVF/FIVF legal counsel: Robert I. Freedman, Esq., Leavy, Rosensweig & Hyman
AIVF/FIVF Board of Directors: Carroll Parrott Blue, Todd Cohen*, Loni Ding (co-presi- dent). Barbara Hammer, Ruby Lerner (ex officio), Peter Lewnes, Cynthia Lopez, Jim McKay, Diane Markrow (secretary), Laala Matias*, Robb Moss (chair), Robert Richter (treasurer), James Schamus*, Barton Weiss (co-president), Susan Wittenberg (vice president). * FIVf Board of Directors only
I
N
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1998
FEATURES
33 Credit Check: A Case Study of the International Financing of The Port of Last Resort
A step-by-step study of how the financing came in place for the debut documentary feature of Joan Grossman and Paul Rosdy.
by Rob Sabal
36 Europa 6: U.S. Filmmakers Living Abroad
American indie filmmak- ers living and working in Europe discuss the pros and cons of relocation.
by Ryan Deussing
40 The World According to Foreign Sales Agents
Four top agents talk about the world market and what they look for in the films they represent.
by Sharon Swart
44 Man of the Hour: Geoffrey Gilmore
As chief programmer of the Sundance Film Festival, still far and away the most important film festival in the U.S., Gilmore gets his share of knocks and adulation. In this interview, he talks about what the festival has become and where the cutting edge is today.
BY PAT AUFDERHE1DE
2 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
International Cofinancing & Sales
From these shores, Europe seems to offer a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. In this issue, we look at what producers might actually find in terms of international cofinance, coproduction, and sales. With three features, four festival reports, a legal brief, and a field report on the topic, readers will find a variety of perspectives here.
MEDIA NEWS
11 NEA Survives Act II; Final Curtain for Jane Alexander
With the Senate on its side, the NEA wins hy a whisker in this last round.
by Mark J. Huisman
12 Filmmakers Fight Censorship with Giveaway
With It's Elementary the subject of attack hy anti- gay groups, the filmmakers embark on a unique strat- egy-
by Emily Neye
DISTRIBUTOR FAQ
16 First Look Pictures/Overseas Filmgroup
Ellen and Robert Little talk about their sales and distribution company, which includes works by John Sayles, Tamra Davis, Alex Cox, and other indie feature directors.
BY LlSSA GIBBS
46 FESTIVALS 50 CLASSIFIEDS
FIELD REPORTS
18 Women, Women, Everywhere
Female directors — mature, mid-career, and neophytes — blanket the Toronto International Film Festival this year.
by Patricia Thomson
22 Euro Dollars for Docs: Looking to the Old World
Documentary is thriving in Europe; what does that mean for indies Stateside.'
by Bethany Haye
24 Foreign Treasures
C lologne, Banff, INPUT, and Karlovy Vary: Four events that otter ideal opportunities to find foreign partners.
by Claus Mueller, Maureen Marovich, Ralph Arlyck, and Wanda Bershen
|
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LEGAL BRIEFS
46 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
A guide to foreign sales agent agreements by Robert L. Seigel
54 NOTICES
64 AIVF HAPPENINGS
Cover: Troy Veinotte as the teenaged Sweet William in The Hanging Garden, by Thorn Fitzgerald, one of the sleeper hits at the Toronto International Film Festival. Photo: C Reardon
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'...great reading for anybody... "
UTNE READER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 97
Newsstand
Assembling I'tne Reader pro- vides many chances to eaves- drop on special-interest groups and subcultures via their magazines and newslet- ters. It's a special pleasure when one of those publica- tions is so well done that it jumps out of its niche and becomes great reading for anybody. Independent Film and Video Monthly is just such a magazine. Editor-in- Chief Patricia Thomson and her crew understand the inherent drama of small-
bucks cinema — young ideal- ist with a movie camera struggles to put a vision on film, against scan7 odds — and they infuse their stories (even the technical ones) with at least some of this sus- pense. Thomson et al. also have a knack for picking fas- cinating profile subjects — emerging artists whose pur- suits range from straight movie making to in-the- gallery video art. These peo- ple and the other gutsy folks the Independent pays atten-
tion to, are part of an under- ground so vital that reading about them just might get you excited about American culture again — J.S.
Independent Film and Video Monthly. Foundation for Independent Video and Film. 304 Hudson St., New York, NY, 10013; 212/807-1400. Subscriptions: $45/yr. (10 issues) including member- ship.
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NEA SURVIVES ACT II
Final Curtain for Jane Alexander
■
Conservative lawmakers lost their latest bid to kill the National Endowment for the Arts in late October as the House and Senate passed an appropriations bill containing $98 million for the agency in fiscal 1998. The victory was not only a significant accom- plishment for Chairperson Jane Alexander, who had been wrestling with Congress since early spring to keep the agency alive, but also some- thing of a Capitol miracle (the House actually voted to kill the NEA entirely in mid- July).
The final wrangling began on June 17, when the House Interior Appropriations Sub- committee approved a bill by Rep. Ralph Regula (R-OH) allocating $10 million tor the NEA, to be used for the sole purpose i >t closing the agency down. But Rep. Sidney Yates (D-IL) offered an amend- ment which passed, removing the language specifying the money be used for closing the agency.
On July 10, House Republicans made good on a long-standing threat to table any discus- sion of NEA funding because the agency is not technically authorized to receive funds (its authorizing legislation expired three years ago). The House Rules Committee, which sets the terms of floor debate, introduced a "rule" which prevented restoring any NEA funds. (In years past, this had been a "pro- tected rule," which removed procedural restrictions and permitted funding.) Initially, there was not enough support to pass the rule, so the conservative leadership launched
a flurry of parliamentary maneuvering and arm- twisting. Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) hastily offered an amendment to eliminate the NEA and cut arts funding to $80 million in block grants, with 60% going to local school boards (supposedly earmarked for arts education) and 40% going to local arts agencies. Many Republican moderates, like Connecticut's Christopher Shays and Nancy Johnson, who had long supported the NEA, abandoned the agency in hopes of both pleasing their leader- ship and being able to claim they had support- ed arts funding. Five Democrats — Gary Condit (CA), Gene Taylor (MS), James A. Traficant, Jr. (OH) and Ralph M. Hall and Charles W.
Stenholm (TX) — also voted yes. But because 15 Repub- lican moderates cast votes against the amendment, the drama continued. Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) pulled Rep. Jim McHugh (R-NY), who had already voted against the rule, into the cloak room for a brief discussion. McHugh then actually changed his vote, tipping the scale in favor of the leader- ship, 217-216. Rep. Phil Crane (R-IL) raised a point of order, objecting to the appro- priations bill because the NEA was not authorized to receive funding and the $10 million was immediately stripped from the bill. The Ehlers proposal itself, howev- er, was resoundingly defeated, 271-155. This had the para- doxical effect of preventing the death of the NEA hut killing all arts funding. The entire Interior Appropriations bill, with no NEA funding, was approved shortly there- after by a vote of 238-192. In a rare moment of public pique, Alexander issued a statement saying, "The endowment deserved the opportunity today to receive a vote on its merits and did not get one due to party politics. We now look to the Senate for a fair debate and vote on the future of the agency."
In an immediate challenge to the House, on July 22 the Senate Appropriations Committee approved continued NEA funding at the FY '97 level of $99.5 million. On September 18, after defeating several Republican amendments designed to defund the agency, the Senate passed the Interior Appropriations Bill, includ-
1
January/February 1 998 T H E I N D E P E N 0 E N T 11
\ A T IO N A 1. EDUCATIONAL M E D I A N I T WORK
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•8 million tor the NEA. On September JO the Senate-House conference committee agreed to fund the NEA at $98 million for FY '98. Because conference committees are widely seen as compromise bodies, the final budgetary appropriation was widely anticipated to he somewhere in the middle, but Senate confer- ees, including James Jeffords (R-VT) and Slade Gorton (R-WA), held out and prevailed, scor- ing perhaps the NEA's single biggest victory of the Congressional cycle.
While the funding level remains essential- ly unchanged, NEA rules and procedures are not. State allocations will increase from 35 to 40% and any single state cannot receive more than 15 percent of the NEA's total budget (New York, for example, has received as much as 29% of NEA funds in the past). The NEA will now also be required to give priority to pro- jects that encourage public knowledge, educa- tion, understanding, and appreciation of the arts and to grants benefiting underserved popu- lations. Both the NEA and the NEH now have statutory authority to solicit and invest funds from the private sector, something for which Alexander and other chairpersons had been calling for years. Finally, perhaps the most telling change in NEA operations, the National Council on the Arts was reduced in size from 26 to 20, and changed to include, for the first time, six members of Congress. Although pro- ponents of this change maintain that Congressional members will serve only as ex- officio, non-voting members, the NEA will have its work cut out making sure they do not affect the grant-making process.
Having secured the endowment's survival,
Chairperson Jane Alexander resigned her post on October 8, four years after she took office. (At press time, Alexander's successor had not been chosen.) Before leaving, Alexander unveiled the final report of one of her major ini- tiatives, "American Canvas: an Arts Legacy for Our Communities." The report (available at www.artsendow.gov) contends artists and insti- tutions are somewhat responsible for the increasing alienation between the arts and the public and that such "elitism" had helped make recent cuts in federal funding possible. The very use of the word "elitism" has caused some arts professionals to worry that the report itself will give new credence to the criticism leveled by Congressional critics during the budget process.
Alexander's tenure was marked by severe budget cuts, staff reductions, increased Congressional restraints on grant-making, and
many difficult decisions. Some of her poli- tics, including the reorganization of the agency and streamlining of its rules, did not endear her to artists and institutions. Nevertheless, Alexander's fearless steward- ship, which came under the harshest, most well-planned attacks on the NEA in years, was a primary factor in the agency's survival. She leaves behind an NEA that, while alive and funded, is perhaps more embroiled in politics than ever.
Mark J. Huisman
Mark]. Huisman [cinemark(" mindspring.com] is a New York- based writer and independent producer.
Filmmakers Fight Censorship with Giveaway
Recent months have seen an increase in attacks against producer Helen Cohen and Academy Award-winning director Debra Chasnoff 's It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School (see The Independent, Oct '97). One of the forerunners of a campaign to censor the film is the conservative organi- zation Concerned Women for America (CWA). In a widely- distributed fundraising letter, CWA referred to the film as a "mili- tant homosexual propaganda effort," an "abomination," and an "unspeakable evil" that is "recruiting a new generation to become homosexuals."
With It's Elementary, Cohen and Chasnoff tackled one of the most controversial topics facing primary school educators today and did so with a clear goal in mind: to broaden school curricula. The film, which recorded teachers and students effectively discussing gay and lesbian issues, has not only garnered the praise of education professionals and parents, but has also won numerous awards, including the C.I.N.E. Golden Eagle for Best Teacher Education Film. The filmmakers have also traveled cross-country since the film's completion to aggressively promote it to teachers and students. In the wake of the recent criticism, however, Chasnoff and Cohen are finding it increasingly difficult to reach even their most supportive audiences.
Along with CWA, groups such as Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and the Phyllis Schlafley Report have also spoken out against the film. The most recent blow came from the New York Post, which ran an article headlined "Gay Flick Sickens Kids Minds," (September 21, 1997) which
12 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
was syndicated in several other conservative publications.
Rather than giving up, Chasnoff and Cohen are giving it away. In response to efforts to keep their film out of teachers' hands, the filmmak- ers, in conjunction with the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, are giving away copies of It's Elementary to any public school superintendent or board member who requests one. While their original plan was to donate
tapes only to financially-strapped schools, the recent explosion of criticism has led Chasnoff and Cohen to make their film as readily avail* able as possible, so people can judge it for them- selves. Cohen explains: "We've repeatedly seen how our film has helped open up the dialogue in hundreds of school communities on an issue that most adults aren't sure how to address. We'd hate for any school district to miss out on this opportunity because ot the vicious rhetoric from religious conservatives."
Since the filmmakers made this unorthodox distribution decision, a steady flow of requests has poured into their company, Women's Educational Media. Chasnoff notes that despite the conservative outcry, they "have not seen a dent in orders." "The dialogue is happening," the director affirmed. As of this year, It's Elementary is being used in at least 18 school districts, which is where Chasnoff and Cohen ultimately measure their success.
For more information on It's Elementary, con- tact Ariella Ben-Dor at (415) 641-4616.
Emily Neye is an intern at The Independent
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BY LlSSA GlBBS
First Look Pictures/Overseas Filmgroup, 8800 Sunset Blvd., Suite 302. Los Angeles. CA 90069; (310) 855- 1199; fax: 855-0719
What is First Look?
First Look Pictures (FLP) was established in 1990 to assist producers in the development and packaging of new projects. In 1993, FLP created a theatrical distribu- tion division to package, finance, and distribute theatri- cal motion pictures in the U. S. domestic market.
What is First Look's relationship to Overseas Filmgroup?
FLP is a division of Overseas Filmgroup (OFG). OFG is an independent sales and distribution company started 17 years ago by Ellen and Robert Little which specializes in sales representation of independent features in all media and all markets worldwide. OFG acquires distribution rights to 10 to 15 films per year. Pictures may be acquired at any stage; from development, into prepro- duction through postproduction and completion, as well as through negative pick-up.
Who is First Look?
Ellen Little. Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer; Robert Little, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer; William Lischak, Chief Operating Officer. Chief Financial Officer; M. J. Peckos, Senior Vice President, Domestic Distribution & Marketing; Maud Nadler. Vice President, Creative Affairs; Dennis O'Connor, Vice President. Domestic Marketing & Distribution; Erica Potter, Vice President, Domestic Marketing & Publicity.
The driving philosophy behind First Look is. . .
to offer a fresh perspective in independent distribution.
What would people be most surprised to learn about First Look or its founders?
None of us has the same taste.
How many works are in your collection? Thirty.
Films and filmmakers you distribute:
Films: The Scent of Green Papaya, The Secret of Roan Inish, Antonia's Line. Party Girl, Infinity. The Designated
Mourner, johns, Different for Girls. Mrs. Dalloway, Bitter Sugar. Filmmakers: John Sayles. Marleen Gorris, Leon Ichaso. David Hare, Wally Shawn, Matthew Broderick, Tamra Davis, Bille August, Roland Emmerich, Alex Cox.
What types of works do you distribute?
Feature-length only, all genres, foreign language, cutting edge.
What drives you to acquire the films you do?
Films that we feel passionate about, would love to mar- ket, that have box-office potential, and that make eco- nomic sense based on the conditions of the marketplace.
Does First Look domestically distribute all of Overseas Filmgroup produced and/or repped titles? No. 77?e Prophecy was distributed by Miramax and Richard III by United Artists.
Is there such a thing as a "First Look" film?
"Quality" describes our titles the best. Our films are def- initely not cookie-cutter material.
Best known title in your collection:
Company founders Ellen & Robert Little
Marleen Gorris's Antonia's Line or John Sayles's The Secret of Roan Inish.
What's your basic approach to releasing a title?
Strategy, release date, publicity, nurturing, and luck.
Where do First Look titles generally show?
In the top 100 markets, in specialized theaters, in multi- plexes, and anywhere that puts a sheet up on the wall and that makes sense for the film.
Where do you find your titles, and how should film- makers approach you for consideration?
We find films at festivals like Toronto, Cannes, and Sundance, markets like AFM and MIPCOM, and through sales agents and agents. Filmmakers are absolutely encouraged to approach us directly.
Range of production budgets of titles in your collec- tion:
From $2-10 million. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
What's the biggest change you've seen in the distrib- ution of independent films over the last 20 years?
16 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
Parker Posey as Mary in the First Look production Party Girl.
Independent English-language films are playing to a broader audience, while foreign language films have lost some of their vitality. A younger audience is more aware of independent films. More money is made available for marketing whether or not it makes sense or is appropri- ate for a film.
Mrs. Dalloway. with Natascha Mcelhone (L, as Clarissa) and Lena Heady (as Sally), is one of FLP's recent fea- tures.
All photos courtesy Overseas Filmgroup
Do you think the label "arthouse film" does more harm than good in the marketing of a title in the current film- going climate? We prefer the terms "quality," "independent," "specialized," or "niche" to
describe and mar- ket our titles.
The most important issue facing First Look today is.. .
studios with "independent" films.
Where will First Look be ten years from now?
In the twenty-first century.
You knew that First Look had made it as a company when. . .
We won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language
Film ior Antonia's Line in 1996 and when we received the Entertainment Data Inc. (EDI) award for the highest grossing for- eign language film — also for Antonia's Line in 1996.
If you weren't distributing films, what would you be doing?
Selling shoes in Rio, brain surgery, work- ing at the Gap.
Another distributor you admire:
Marcus Hu at Strand. He's made some- thing out of nothing.
The difference between First Look and other distributors of independent films is . . .
we try harder.
Upcoming First Look titles to watch I for:
Marleen Corliss's first English-language feature, Mrs. Dalloway, starring Vanessa Redgrave; Alegna. the film adaptation of Cirque du Soleil's production of the same name; lllummata. co-written, directed, and starring John Turturro with Christopher Walken and Susan
Sarandon; and Keep the Aspidistra Flying, by Robert
Bierman.
Famous last words:
When choosing a distributor, bigger is not always better.
Distributor FAQ. is a column conducted by fax ques- tionnaire profiling a wide range of distributors of inde- pendent film and video. If you are a distributor and want to be profiled or are a maker and want to find out more about a particular distributor, contact Lissa Gibbs do The Independent, 304 Hudson St., 6th ff, NY, NY 10013, or drop an e-mail to-. Iissa@sirius.com
Lissa Gibbs is a contributing editor to The Independent and former Film Arts Foundation Fest director.
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FIELD REPORTS
I
Everywhere
Female Directors Arrive in Droves at the Toronto International Film Festival
by Patricia Thomson
Summing up the Toronto International Film Festival calls to mind the story of the blind men trying to describe an elephant. "Ah, an elephant is long and limber, like a snake," said one, touching the elephant's trunk. "Hardly. It's flat as a pita, and it flops back and forth like a giant wing," said another, pinching an ear. "How can you say that.7," said yet another as he groped a leg. "An elephant is as cylindrical and solid as a tree trunk."
Toronto is similarly a beast of many dimen- sions. It's a festival of glitzy galas and star sight- ings, along the lines of Cannes or Venice. It's dedicated to serious international arthouse cinema, like Berlin or Rotterdam. It's a bustling film market. And with 279 films, it subsumes countless mini-festivals of Black, gay/lesbian, Asian, Latin American, British, and even experimental work. Truly this year's 10- day event (held September 4-13) offered some- thing for everyone — all 2,300 industry atten- dees and 700 press, not to mention the gener- al public.
This year the characteristic that popped out as big as an elephant's girth was the number of features by women directors of serious stature. Antonia Bird (Priest), Beeban Kidron (Antonia & jane), Marleen Gorris (Antonia s Line), Sally Potter [Orlando), and Agnieszka Holland (Olivier, Olivier), among others, all had new work to present. Some of it was imminently forgettable, like Kidron's Swept from the Sea, a tale of outcast lovers in a rugged fishing village that was a cooker-cutter classic in the "sweep- ing romance" mould, o'er brimmin' with blaz- ing sunsets and thwarted passions. Some was competent but disappointingly pro forma, like Bird's Face, a heist-gone-wrong genre pic. But some was original, compelling, or on lucky days, both. There was Gorris's eponymous ren- dition of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, a film that gets better as it goes, culminating in a bril-
liant high-society party sequence that's imbued with Woolf's wry observations on upper-class ambitions and the pathos of lost ideals. Holland brought Washington Square, one of two Henry James adaptations appearing at the festival. French director Agnes Merlet presented Artemisia, the little-known story of the educa- tion and doomed love affair of Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, the determined young woman responsible for the masterpiece Judith Beheading Holofemes.
Also in the mix was a lesbian science fiction flick (Hillary Brougher's The Sticky Fingers of Time); an older woman/younger man amour fou (Post coitum animal triste, directed by and star- ring Brigette Roiian); a look at the aftermath of relationship abuse (Erin Dignam's Loved); a Black southern gothic saga (Kasi Lemmons' Eve's Bayou); and an offbeat biography of Ada Lovelace, daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron and author of what's considered to be the first computer code (Lynn Hershman Leeson's Conceiving Ada). Add to that a feminist feature from Tunisia (Nadia Fares' much-lauded Honey and Ashes); a recut version of Jill Sprecher's temps-in-the- workplace drama (Clockwatchers); and the
macabre directorial debut of photographer Cindy Sherman (Office Killer), and you've got some sense of the range of work by and about women.
Most prominent of the lot — largely because it was alternately the most admired and the most reviled — was Sally Potter's The Tango
Lesson. The film is a lightly fictionalized account of the director's recent infatuation with tango. (Potter was a dancer and choreog- rapher before becoming a filmmaker.) In the film, a director named Sally (Sally Potter) stum- bles across a tango presentation one night in Paris, which prompts her to take lesson;- with an Argentinean dancer, Pablo (Pablo Veron). In between bouts of writing and pitching a film
18 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
about the fashion industry, she gets more deeply involved with the tango — and with her instructor. They strike a deal; if he'll make her a bona fide tango dancer, she'll let him star in her next film.
"It's self-indulgent," hiss The Tango Lesson's nay-sayers with surprising venom. If pressed, many admit they just can't stand the sight of Potter. "I wanted to punch her," said one.
Personally, that never occurred to me. I found her presence rather winsome and engaging, and am convinced that her motives for appearing on screen had more to do with a director's instincts than a performer's ego.
"I went with huge trepidation into playing in the film," she admits. "But all roads led in the same direction. There was a total inevitability, finally, about being in the story, if it was the story that was eventually told, which is one that plays with boxes within boxes, with levels of reality. The director we're watching on the screen, imagining how to turn the life she's living into a film, is in fact the one who already has done so, because that's the film we're watching. That layer wouldn't have been there had it been an actress playing the part.
"Then there was the very practical level: Who else was English (to make the maxi- mum contrast with Latin American culture), about my age (to be a believably 'mature film- maker,' as you put it), and also had already danced tango at a professional level (to make the dance scenes really believable).7 I'd already been on a two-year obsessive crash course."
I don't mind the tact of Potter's presence on screen, anymore than I do that ot Ross McElwee, Michael Moore, Yvonne Rainer, Marcel Ophuls, Spike Lee, Judith Helfand, Allie Light . . . the list goes on. If what peo- ple are really objecting to is Potter's assump- tion that we, too, will be interested in her lat- est personal passion, then I guess I'm a suck- er for films that are borne ot passion, rather than formulas. And I, for one, was downright exhilarated during the dance sequences, which so effectively capture the exacting, tedious, exasperating, humiliating grind ot practice and the giddy reward of a flawless performance. (The third partner in these dance scenes is the balletic camera of DP Robby Miiller, who hasn't lost his touch for expressive black-and-white photography.)
The Tango Lesson took it in the chin from some of Potter's feminist fans who felt
betrayed by its lead female character falling for a partner who tells her to "follow, always fol- low." But what they missed is the film's most interesting aspect, which is the way two mature adults — each used to leading — learn how to negotiate power and control in their relation- ship, both on the dance floor and off. That's as complicated an act as the fanciest footwork.
Finally, The Tango Lesson is a meditation on filmmaking. It captures the elements usually omitted in films-about-tilms: the solitary writer scratching out a script, the pitch sessions, and, the most invisible part of the process, the birth and gestation of an idea. "It's very much about a director's eyes," says Potter, "how, by looking and listening, you begin to shape your materi- al." Far from being a portrait in vanity, The Tango Lesson is a rich study of relationships and
In Lynn Hershman Leeson's Conceiving Ada, Tilda Swinton plays Ada Byron Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, and inventor of the first computer code. Courtesy filmmaker
the creative process. And it"> got a beat you can dance to.
Perhaps the only other film at Toronto that polarized critics to such .1 degree was Gummo, the much-anticipated directorial debut of Harmony Korine (screenwriter of Kids). The kids are back, but this time the setting is the strip-mall Midwest. Set in Xenia, Ohio, the film was actually shot in Tennessee (and is thick with Southern accents — no minor monkey wrench in the works). Once again, Korine seems disposed to ipoter le bourgeois, loading his film with cat killings, roach-intested squalor, and white-trash violence and malaise. While there are some memorable scenes and a 13- year-old lead (Jacob Reynolds) whose odd face is truly transfixing, Gummo ultimately has an adolescent's cruel sense of humor. Using only four SAG actors, the film is populated by "found" characters — an encephalitic black dwarf, a retarded woman, and so on. Many appear to have stepped straight out of a Diane Arbus or Larry Fink photograph. But unlike those portraits, Gummo holds up its odd lot for
all to see, then points and laughs like a snicker- ing teenager. While some critics saw poetry and bravery in the film, I found that all the easy tar- gets got in the way of that view.
This year the hot new discovery was Thorn Fitzgerald, a New Jersey-born director who graduated from Cooper Union, then took the novel career step of moving to Nova Scotia. This first-time director picked up the Air Canada People's Choice Award and shared the Toronto-City Award tor best Canadian Feature for The Hanging Garden, which in turn was picked by MGM before the festival's close.
"Inspirational" is a word that can inspire shudders, but this time it's appropriate on sev- eral levels. First is the story proper. The film focuses on Sweet William, a miserable 350- pound boy who grows up to be a healthy, well- adjusted gay man. As Fitzgerald writes in his director's statement, "I created The Hanging Garden to send a message to unhappy people that, no matter how much you hate your life and yourself in the current moment, it is possible to become the person you want to be." Fitzgerald shows both sides of the coin, flipping back and forth between the adult who comes home for his sister's wedding after a 10-year absence, and the adolescent whose suffocatingly oppressive family life would drive any sane creature over the brink — a raging abusive father, a self-martyring mother, and a batty grandmother who exposes him after his first gay encounter.
Fitzgerald bravely stuck to his guns when some of his hinders balked at the surreal metaphors threaded throughout the film, par- ticularly the body of fat William hanging by a rope from a tree — a vision that the whole fam- ily shares. After watching the rough-cut, Cineplex Odeon wanted the ending changed so that only the adult William sees his former self strung up in the garden. But not only did the director not have the footage, "I didn't know what [the film] would be about," he says. "William comes home and recognizes that he hurt his family as much as they hurt him. If that corpse isn't there hurting them, then he doesn't learn that." The funders relented; the metaphorical imagery stayed in alongside the slice-of-life realism, and a film rich in poetry and pain was borne.
Fitzgerald's own saga as a writer/director is as inspirational as William's tale. A Canadian res- ident since moving from New York to Halifax right after college, he spent years trying to
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Robin Wright and William Hurt in Loved, Erin Dignam's forceful look at relationship abuse.
Courtesy filmmaker
develop this first feature. "I did all the tradi- tional, stereotypical things," he says. "I lived off my mother's credit card for six months. I made a development contract with my mother (who has a different last name) and pretended she was somebody else so I could lobby money out of the government agencies here. I
sent the script to • ~
_| every distributor in Canada, and hard- ly any of them acknowledged its receipt." Potential funders kept
telling Fitzgerald (who had only a couple of tive- minute shorts under his belt), "You're not a pro- ducer." He'd reply, "How do you know?" None took his proposed
$250,000 budget seriously. But after
persisting for several years, he finally got the ball rolling with seed money from the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation and Telefilm Canada. Eventually Channel 4 and Cineplex Odeon Films Canada joined in, and he had his $1.5 million budget ($1 million U.S.). "I couldn't raise $250,000, but I could
raise $1.5 million," he wryly observes. "I was on a panel yesterday with all
of these 'hot shuts' — first-time direc- tors from around the world," Fitzgerald continues. "They kept talking about 'the struggle,' the lack of resources. 'Oh, we couldn't do anything.' I said, 'Well, I guess I was relatively spoiled; I'm in Canada and I had everything I needed to make the film.' Somebody said, 'What was everyone's budget?' It turned out that all these people who were com- plaining about not being able to do anything had at least twice the amount of money I had, and they had Bob Hoskins and Lisa Kudrow and all these actors. I thought, 'Well, I guess it's just a matter of perspec- tive.' "
If there's one thing Fitzgerald's got that he'll need in spades, especially now, it's a sense of perspective. By the week's end, he had the kind of critical buz: publicists would give their eye teeth for. Over 100 people had been turned away from the industry screening. MGM had inked an acquisition deal. Back-to-back interviews with an insatiable press were the order of the
Thorn Fitzgerald (L), director, and the young Sweet William (Troy Veinotte, below R) with his first love (Joel S. Keller) in The Hanging Garden.
Photos: B. Graham (L) & C. Reardon, courtesy Alliance
day. But Fitzgerald summed up his newfound fame with quiet irony: "I'm on Cloud Nine. But if you really try to stand on Cloud Nine, you plummet to your death, because it is just a cloud."
Patricia Thomson is editor m chiej oj The
Independent
20 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
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A worldwide upsurge in documentary slots, specialized distribution companies, and a new multi-million-dollar facility
to house Marseilles' documentary market — if there was any doubt that documentary is booming globally, Sunny Side
of the Doc is a proof of just how far the expansion has come. But what's the upshot for U. S. independents?
by Bethany H a y e
Sunny Side of the Doc, the international
documentary market held in Marseilles, and its accompanying festival (Vue sur les Docs) have returned to their original home, the Pharo fortress, after a two-year relocation for some renovations. It's clear that the changes, both in the venue and in the global documentary mar- ket, are spectacular.
Not so long ago, network program directors relaxed at pre -fab stands or sipped rose at a makeshift terrace cafe, where commissioning editors such as Catherine Lamour of France's Canal + held open-door afternoons where anyone could walk in and pitch. Today, a multi-million-dollar facility sprawls under- neath the vast palace lawn, endowed with fully equipped stands, modern screening rooms, a permanent restaurant, and expanded tele- phone and fax service . The mood has gone from cosy and intimate to crisp and serious. Commissioning editors put in appearances at the highly informative and interactive forums, but retreat from the crush of proposal-pushers for discreet meetings in town. With whom? With each other,
and a proliferation of themat- ic channels (for example, the History Channel, which also programs panels and feature films). Also new to the market are regional spin-offs of big channels, like Discovery Europe and financially evolv- ing Discovery Latin America, and themed offspring of ter- restrial nets like TF1 (France) 's Odyssee, Spain's Odisea, and Canada's TFO.
Mostly interested in straight acquisitions, these new outlets pay varying per- hour rates. Discovery Europe averages $5,000 per hour, TV Ontario starts at $4,000, Ovation starts at $3,500, while Brazil's CNA pays $1,500. National Geographic, Odyssee, and Multicanal pre- fer not to set rates and negoti- ate on a per-film basis. When they do coproduce, the big
THE WESTERS F.Mr IRE
dmdta a
Ha
and with a few heavyweight documentary
producers whose resources and reputations have brought them into the inner sanctum of inter- national produc- tion over the past 10 years. The days of the joyous free-for-all are over. Documentary has zoomed from a cottage industry into a global business. This is both good and bad news for film- makers and producers. Demand is up. Digital image compression has led to niche branding
channels invest sums that range from middling ($40-50,000 for Discovery) to low (no more than $25,000 for Ova- tion). Canal -f-'s coproduction and acquisitions unit, DocStar, formed five years ago to supply its French and foreign terres- trial and satellite
channels, will shell out $15 million over the
next three years.
Globally, most of the new airtime has come
from cable and satellite, a lot of it in emerging
geographical markets: Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. The bad news is that many of these new buyers don't pay very much; an average is $1,000 per hour. And though the Western European networks are program- ming more factual fare, they have not increased their budget allotments proportion- ally.
What's more, if demand is up, global pro- duction volume is up even more, and the hundreds of new shoestring production hous- es that have sprouted, many formed by direc- tors to produce their own films, must com- pete even more fiercely. A side -effect has been to make commissioning editors' jobs tougher by inundating them with proposals.
Yves Jeanneau, general director of Les Films d'Ici, France's single biggest indepen- dent producer of documentary, notes,
22 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
"[Broadcasters] say this multiplicity creates a great wealth of ideas, of projects and talents. It's sort of a seedbed. But only a few flowers come out of it. In France, each terrestrial network receives at least two thou- sand proposals a year, when they have about fifty slots. It's a night- mare for them."
If documen- tary is bounding ahead, this is because of a fun- damental change in audience attitudes. The form has long since shed its boring and intellectual image, even in the eyes of mass audiences, in part due to event series like The Civil War and popular theatrical releases like When We Were Kings. Inter- estingly, some program directors speculate that documentary's resurgence may be due to the devaluation of feature films which now stuff programming grids. Increasingly formulaic and effects-obsessed, they often lack complex human relations and plausible stories, the ulti- mate skeleton key to audience satisfaction. This is why BBC 2 programmer Nicholas Fraser says he always goes for "very intelli- gent old-fashioned narrative, momentum... real characters" for his newly expanded slot Storybill (formerly Fine Cut).
Still, he cautions foreign companies look- ing for a European broadcaster that they should coproduce or somehow team up with a local partner, through pre-sales, for exam- ple. Nearly all programming directors concur that this is a must — not only because coun- tries like France have quotas requiring a cer- tain amount of the grid to be European-pro- duced, but because nets prefer to work with companies whose work they know and that are familiar with the ins and outs of their par- ticular national industry.
Another major development is the increasingly important role of large distribu- tion companies, such as Europe Images, which recently absorbed Amaya Distri- bution. Brand new this year, Doc and Co. was formed by five independent French doc- umentary production companies to distrib- ute their programs. The Dutch-American
The days of the joyous
free-for-all are over.
Documentary has zoomed
from a cottage industry into
a global business.
company TV Matters, formerly exclusively vin- tage fiction-film distributors, is also acquiring documentary in a big way What all these com- panies do is process an amorphous mass of thousands of hours of diverse programming into salable packages collections and series and take the adminis- trative and paperwork burden off production companies that con- sign their output to them. Since they sell in bulk, they can optimize the lower-paying mar-
kets.
Says Jeanneau of Les Films d'lci, "These developing markets, in Asia, Latin America, even in Africa (not necessarily African chan- nels, hut channels like Discovery, Turner Africa, etc.) for the moment I see as ancillary mar- kets, with prices in the range of $1,000 per hour. So, that where there was nothing, now there is a potential client. That can be good tor companies like us, for example, who have inventory. . . . When a large distributor, like Europe Images, Gaumont TV, or Canal + Distribution has a client that wants to bin a hundred hours, I'm happy it twenty hours of mine are in the package. What do I care it [J eighty hours are someone else's, or several other companies' [Foreign sales] is an arduous, cost-incurring job, one that I don't have time to do. I'm delighted it a distributor does it tor me." Again, smaller companies are having a tough time benefiting from this development, as they generally do not have enough stock to interest the big distributor. Sometimes, however, they may be able to place small or highly specialized catalogues. "If only two or three hours of theirs go into a hundred-hour package, it's still two or three hours they wouldn't have sold to the Russians," quips Jeanneau.
The European documentary industry has come of age, organized itself, become more pro- fessional. Production has consolidated, large- scale, very competent distribution companies have grown up, and the relationship between producers and broadcasters is more structured. "There is still great potential for the documen- tary," concludes Jeanneau, "and wide new mar- kets for it to reach."
Bethany Haye is a Paris-based journalist.
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24 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
£4« . ■
The Cologne Medienforum
by Claus Mueller Virtually unnoticed in this country, the
Cologne Medienforum in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany, has rapidly emerged as a key European media conference and television festival. It has grown into an event with more than 5,500 accredited participants, including 1,100 journalists. Its week-long series of sym- posia are of particular interest to independents, since they provide up-to-date information on emerging markets and new technologies. The conference is ideal for networking with princi- pal players in the German media scene, as senior corporate officials from RTL, SAT 1, ARD, ZDF, and Arte are among the regular attendees. And the forum provides access to one of the most important public funding sources outside the United States: the Film Foundation of North-Rhine Westphalia.
For American producers and sellers, Germany is crucial, since it is the second largest television market in the world and the biggest foreign outlet tor U.S. films as of 1995 and tor television as well since 1996, due to sales of dig- ital television and video rights to the Kirch group. (According to the MPAA, Germany sur- passes even the UK as a market for U.S. film product, generating $309.3 million in 1996, versus the UK's $175 million.) Cologne is an ideal location for a television conference, being home to the largest European public TV sta- tion, WDR, and the biggest European commer- cial TV network, RTL. Nickelodeon, Vox, VIVA, and the radio and television operation of Deutsche Welle (the German counterpart to the USIA) have their base in Cologne, and close to 1,200 companies involved in media production and distribution have settled in the surrounding region. The German equivalent to AIVF, the Verband der Fernseh-, Film- und Videowirtschatt, has its office in Cologne, as do numerous other professional media associa- tions. North-Rhine Westphalia is now the source of 25 percent of all German television production, compared to seven percent only five years ago.
The Medienforum
The Medienforum was established in 1991 as part of a concerted public policy to reposition the North-Rhine Westphalia — a "rust bowl" state that had lost its strength with the decline of steel and coal industries — towards the media, information, and telecommunications
economy. That policy was largely successful; today companies involved with media and communication are the third most important employment source in North-Rhine Westphalia. The Medienforum was organized by the Secretary for Economics and Technology and the State Broadcast Department in associ- ation with the City of Cologne, the NRW Film Foundation, and the private sector. In 1997 sponsoring corporations included RTL, Audi, CNN International, NBC, WDR, Sony, Kanal 4, Sat 1 , Nickelodeon, MTV, and ProSieben.
Since it is largely backed by public authori- ties, political concerns rarely addressed in com- mercial venues are still debated here: funding modalities tor public broadcasting, media access in developing countries, public digital net- works, program quality, etc. In the policy areas, principal themes were set in keynote speeches by prominent politicians. The social democrat- ic Prime Minister of North-Rhine Westphalia, Johannes Rati, and the European Union's Commissioner tor Information and Telecommunications Technologies, Martin Bangemann, outlined priorities for electronic media development, with Rau stressing the need tor setting control mechanisms and Bangemann pleading tor privatization.
Over the past seven years, the Medienforum has developed from a congress focusing on pol- icy debates to a media fair and market with a pragmatic orientation. This shift was reflected in 1997's theme: "2001 Visionary Space Odyssey or Pragmatic Creation of New Markets." From June 6-11, 300 German and foreign speakers, including numerous Americans, covered issues, problems, and updates on media policy, television, film, radio, and the print media in 160 workshops, sym- posia, and panels. A three-day symposium, MECON (Media Economy Conference) dealt with developments in interactive media, and the two-day "Japan Forum" featured political and academic experts. The Film Foundation of North-Rhine Westphalia held workshops on funding, actors as filmmakers, and other themes, while the concurrent Cologne Conference showcased the best of television. "Pitch-Point" was a pilot forum for scriptwriters and filmmakers, where they could discuss with experts the best way to pitch their projects. It will become a full-blown event in 1998.
In keeping with its political origin, Medienforum was accessible to the public. Media corporations arranged the Medien- buergerfest, a media festival for citizens, which served as a two-day warm-up for the
Medienforum and featured 70 exhibits, with a media-career center and 100 hours of live shows on 15 sound stages, including the pro- duction of television and radio programs throughout the old city center of Cologne. An estimated crowd of several hundred thousand attended the free happenings. Daily passes to the Medienforum's exhibit area could be bought for as little as $7. This pass allowed access to panels on interactive media at MECON and presentations staged within the exhibit area, which included more than 160 companies and institutions showcasing their products and services.
The Cologne Conference
A similar open-door policy prevailed at the Cologne Conference, the most visible part of the Medienforum. As a largely independent part of the Medienforum, the Cologne Conference has been organized annually since 1991 by the prestigious Adolf Grimme Institute, with long-term funding by public institutions and corporate sponsorship (includ- ing Sony, NBC, Variety, and TV Spielfilm). The minimal fee of about $20 per ticket opened the conference to a cross-section of the Cologne population. With this year's attendance exceeding 4,000, the Cologne Conference has become the largest popular television festival in the world. According to its director, Lutz Hachmeister, the event is establishing itself as the most important mid-size television market in Europe.
Selected from more than 800 submissions from 34 countries, the 20 programs were shown in two sections: the Top Ten and Spectrum. They ranged from market-oriented TV produc- tions to superb and controversial documen- taries, and generally constituted innovative forms of television. (It was the Cologne Conference that introduced Twin Peaks and NYPD Blue to the German public.) Among U.S. productions, the Top 10 included Paul Haggis' EZ Street (considered by Variety "the most cinematic show on TV") and David Nutter's superbly directed "Millenium episode" from the X Files, which had the highest debut rating in Fox TV history. The Spectrum includ- ed Rainbow Man/John 3:16, the first feature- length documentary by independent filmmaker Sam Green, and The Hamster Factor, an inti- mate portrait of the making of Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys by two graduate film students, Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe. This year's retro- spective section featured the "direct cinema" work of D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
January/February 1998 THE INDEPENDENT 25
36th ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL
CALL for ENTRIES
March 17-22, 1998
Michigan Theater
16mm Independent and Experimental Films of all genres: documentary, animation, narrative, & experimental
awards jury members
Dominic Angergame, San Francisco based experimental filmmaker and Director of Canyon Cinema, Jan Krawitz, documentary filmmaker and Professor of documentary film at Stanford University, and Christopher Sullivan, experimental animator and Associate Professor of filmmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
entry fees
For each film entered:
$32 US entries
$37 foreign & Canadian entries
information
Call, write, fax or email for brochure/entry form
Ann Arbor Film Festival
PO Box 8232
Ann Arbor, Ml 48107
phone: 313/995-5356 fax: 313/995-5396 email: vicki@honeyman.org web: http://aafilmfest.org
$12,000
PRIZES AWARDED
FILM ENTRY m
DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 15# 1998
Television enthusiasts the Medienforum Cologne Conference.
Photo: Uwe Volkner, courtesy FOX
funding from public broadcaster ZDF ($3 mill
The Film Stiftung Nordrhein-Westfaten,
Germany's largest public regional film foundation, has invested $150 million over the last six years in the development and production of about 180 projects. Financing goes to feature films, international televi- sion series, documentaries, training, and distribution. For each production dollar received, the recipient must spend $1.50 in Nordrhein-Wesphalia. In FY97 well over $40 million was disbursed to producers; close to 35 percent went to international projects. The I Film Stiftung is expanding and has received additional i in 1997), with more backing anticipated from the commercial sector. The foun- dation has supported numerous U.S. productions and coproductions, including Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, Mira Nair's Kama Sutra, Mark Rappaport's Exterior Night, John Schlesinger's The Innocent, Syd MacCartney's The Whipping Boy, Jeremy Swan/Michael Kerrigan's The Secret Life of Toys, Michael Lindsay Hogg's Guy, and Chris Bould's Midnight Flight.
Arte, a French-German upscale channel (also distributed via cable and satellite), programs art and culture in primetime. These are the type of productions, frequently international, that have become neglected or even given up by ARD and ZDF in primetime, though they're still present on Germany's thriving regional television. In 1997 Arte had a regular audience of 8 mil- lion viewers in France and 5.6 million in Germany. Best known are Arte's theme nights, scheduled three nights a week, which might combine a feature and a documentary on one issue. American independents have become more prominent in Arte's line- up. (According to rumor, one American has adopted French citizenship to have easier access to Arte funds.) Among Arte's acquisitions or coproductions involving Americans are Steven Bognar's Personal Belongings, Mark Davis's Rescuing Baby Whales, Jonas Mekas's Reminiscences of a Lithuanian Journey, Christine Choy & Nancy Mey-Yu Tong's In the Name of the Emperor, Sue Williams' Les Annees Mao and Born Under the Red Flag, as well as several joint ventures with WNET and Ovation. The list of Americans whose productions were acquired for theme nights by Arte includes D.A. Pennebaker & Chris Hegedus, Michel Negroponte, Susan Todd & Andrew Young, Barbara Kopple, Hal Hartley, Maxi Cohen, and Charles Burnett.
Kabel 1, a niche channel carried via satellite and cable, aims for a four-percent market-share by positioning itself towards upscale programming. To date this has resulted in productions that are peculiar combinations of PBS and Fox-type shows. A 16-part documentary series Adventure Life, based on the "truth is stranger than fiction" concept, employs well-known German public television producers. Interviews with Kabel 1 officials indicate that they would be interested in producing with estab- lished U.S. filmmakers.
Fenster (window) programmers constitute a third force, beside the public and commercial broadcast, satellite, and cable- casters. Commercial programmers require licensing from their respective state broadcasting authorities in order to operate. Getting a license is easier or sometimes predicated upon providing several hours a week to niche programmers and sharing advertising revenue with them. Recently enacted changes in the broadcasting law stipulate that if a commercial channel has more than a 10 percent market share, it has to grant about four and a half hours (including 90 minutes in primetime) to an independent provider of a "window program" (Fenster Programm). Apart from German New Wave director Alexander Kluge's long-running intellectual DCTP (Development Corporation for Television Program), the Cologne-based Kanal 4 is firmly estab- lished as one of these window programmers. Kanal 4 was initiated by independent film- and videomakers in NRW with strong ties to the German Documentary Association (ag dc). Featured on RTL and Sat 1 several times a week, Kanal 4 frequently pro- grams quality material (in stark contrast to its host station). Window programs are organized by Kanal 4 and produced by inde- pendents. They are primarily documentaries and magazine- style shows presenting critical cultural perspectives. Both Kluge's DCTP and Kanal 4 are potential outlets for the work of U.S. independents, as is the window program Green Peace, carried by RTL as of this past fall.
Medienforum: www.medienforumnrw.tle (program info)
Landespresseamt: Bettina Hildebrand, 101573.2764@compuserve.com (info about Medienforum)
NRW Film Stiftung: Helga Binder, info@filmstiftung.de
Arte:www.arte-tv.com (program info in French & German)
Kabel L Kl Fernsehen GMBH, Nicolas Paalzon, Nicolas.Paalzon@Kabell.DE ; fax 01 1-49-89 95 07 21 58
Kanal 4: Juergen Schoen, fax: 011-49-221 2575598
DCTP: Jakob Krebs, fax: 011-49-211-139-227
Webovision: www.webovision.com (links to European TV stations & program providers)
European Audiovisual Information Center www.obs.c-strasbourg.fssr
(up-dated info on all aspects of European audiovisual production)
Sofideaa: www.Coproductions.com (comprehensive site aimed at medium & small companies focusing on coproductions,
investments, jobs, markets, festivals; has bulletin board for locating coproduction partners)
Mandy's Directory: www.mandy.com (TV & film production data for each European country) — CM.
26 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
On the lighter side, the annual cult progtam and party parodied one of Germany's most pop- ular television programs, the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson, which is a sentimental tear-jerker of a pop musak competition.
In addition to the programs screened during the Cologne Conference, accredited partici- pants in the Medienforum could access 80 pro- ductions in well-organized on-demand screen- ings of international television movies, docu- mentary series, and feature films.
For U.S. independents, the Medienforum and its associated events are worth the travel expenses. Cologne is centrally located, and the Medienforum provides crucial access to hin- ders, producers, and strategic information. Many of the discussions are conducted or simulcast in English. In addition, the amhiance makes it easy to establish contacts.
The 1998 Medienforum [www.medienfo- rumnrw.de] will be held June 9-17.
New York-based Claus Mueller teaches media research at Hunter College and organizes the annual New York
Screening Days.
The Banff Television Festival
by Maureen Marovitch
It may come as a surprise to many U. S. independents that they're missing out on one of the largest international TV festivals in North America. Less than a dozen American indies made it to the 18th Banff Television Festival, June 8-14, in the Alberta Rocky Mountains. That left some 1,500 other international players from
Canada, Europe, and Asia hawking, planning, commis- sioning, and acquiring what will be seen on next year's small screens around the world.
But why should American indies head north to a market/festival in, of all places, Canada? Why not just track down the players in L.A. and New York? The answer is that it's far easi- er to meet them here. Sprinkled across several ballrooms, conference suites, and an open ter- race are the key people from the likes of
Channel 4, BBC, ZDF, and Canal +, looking more relaxed they you'll likely ever see them on home turf. You can talk — actually sit down and chat — with these decision-makers with nary an imposing secretary in sight.
Commissioning editors from U. S. cable channels like Arts & Entertainment, the Discovery Channel, and the Movie Network were eager to look at proposals. And the biggest European channels and distributors were hankering for interesting projects to co- produce and acquire. Said U.S. documentary filmmaker Richard Gordon (The Gate of Heavenly Peace), "I'm exhausted from meeting people. But I've been able to do more in four days than if I had spent three weeks in Paris, three in London, and junked around New York City."
Relative to other markets, Banff is smaller than the frenetic MIPCOM in France, less content-oriented than INPUT, and far less star-studded than the Toronto International Film Festival. II anything, the broadcastets are the stars here. But independents can and do make interesting connections and friendships. You see them talking up their projects over coffee, learning about new funding options, and sometimes finding like-minded partners for future ventures. With all this conversing, the conference area of the swank Banff Springs hotel is a constant din. The majestic Rocky mountain^, barely get a second glance as mail- box slots are repeatedly checked for notes and meeting confirmations. Lunch-time is a chance tor the lucky few to score a place at the "Take a Decision Maker to Lunch" — a spon- sored sit-down meal with a key broadcasting executive and eight other eager indies. And then, after a day of panels and
forums, there are always cocktail parties and buffet dinners. With all this chatter, few actually ever watch the hun- dreds of available programs, not even the pre-selected award winners, even though they are feted on the second day of the festival. The dozen screening rooms, open 24 hours a day for tape requests, are invariably deserted.
But the heart of the festival is the Market Simulation, a public pitch spectacle that hap-
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pen- one morning during the festival. Four indi- viduals or teams take the stage before an audi' ence ol several hundred on-lookers to pitch their project to the 70 or so assembled broad- casters. The teams have up to a halt-hour on Stage, but you can feel a project catch tire — or fizzle out — within the first the minutes. Quick- witted emcee and festival director Pat Fern acts as executive producer, keeping pitches on track and putting broadcasters on the spot. "Yes, hut how much in actual dollars and cents will you commit.'" he'll insistently ask a cagey commis- sioning editor.
For those willing to put themselves before the throng, the awards can be enormous — both in visibility and in funding. Toronto producer Megan Smith pitched a three -part documen- tary series on eccentrics that had broadcasters eagerly vying to get in on the action. And Vancouver comedy writer/director Ken Hegan's pitch for a paranoid comedy feature had the audience and broadcasters howling with glee and on his side within the first minute. After the session, people filed by to congratulate him. He soon had a stack of business cards an inch high from the likes of the Movie Network, CHUM/City TV, and Paradigm Films, not to mention job offers to write comedy for several American and Canadian shows.
But all this hobnobbing doesn't come cheap. It costs $950 just to get in the door ($700 if you book several months in advance). Add on a plane ticket to Calgary, Alberta, a shuttle to Banff, accommodations, a little mad money and you could be investing close to $2,000 for a one -week networking orgy. Promising Canadian independents have the chance to get one of 40 all-expenses paid fellowships, spon- sored by CTV Television. But Americans, Europeans, and even nominated filmmakers must pay their own way and prove their tenac- ity. So is really worth it?
Absolutely, says Ken Hegan. "I took a bus to get here last year from Vancouver. I rode 13 hours, I stayed at a hostel for $20 a night, and I came home with $10,000 in work and my first paid TV producing gig." Vancouver indie pro- ducer Trish Dolman agrees, though she advises coming with at least a one-page proposal. But at last year's rowdy beef- and beer-laden BBQ extravaganza, she scored a free camera package from a Vancouver equipment house and 50 per- cent off film stock from a group of happy, slight- ly drunk Fuji executives. At this festival, enthu- siastic party-going is just as essential and lucra- tive as dutifully making appointments and attending every panel discussion.
But be forewarned: it you are painfully shy, if you absolutely abhor schmoozing, if you can't manage at least a little self-promotion and the inevitable rejection that comes with it, your time is probably better spent at home working. Otherwise, you may soon hate the industry — and yourself, wondering whatever happened to the artistic integrity you thought you once had. It's not that this festival isn't about art; the annoyingly oft-repeated motto is "excellence, innovation, collaboration, and vision." The truth, however, is that commerce comes first. But if you can stomach that fact and want to get your TV productions or films financed, scrape your pennies together and circle the Banff TV Festival on your calendar.
Banff Television Festival Gune 7-13, 1998),
1516 Railway Ave., Canmore, Alberta, Canada
T1W 1P6; (403) 678-9260; fax: 678-9269;
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Maureen Marovitch is a documentary filmmaker living
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INPUT
by Ralph Arlyck
What producer would want to go to an international screening event that has no prizes, no press, few buyers, and may not even be located near a beach or a ski slope?
If the event is INPUT (the International Public Service Television Conference), it turns out that quite a few independents have found it
Louis Alvarez, center, dines with fellow documentarians Michael Flaster, left, and Shannon Livingston during the INPUT Conference in Nantes.
Courtesy Timed Exposures
worth the trip. But this annual gathering has to insinuate its way into your blood. The question then becomes how most people first get hooked.
The majority of INPUT regulars get started
by having a film invited. If that happens, your airfare is usually paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. You arrive in some city (Nantes, France, last May; Guadalajara, Mexico, two years ago) where the food and cul- tural attractions are probably a notch or two above what you've just left, and you are even- tually met by a "shop steward" who will lead the discussion for the session in which your program has been linked to several others. If the planners have done their job, the foreign programs and yours will be connected not by subject matter but by themes that raise chewy professional issues. Topics might run along the lines of, say, false verite, using the confessional mode, substance at the expense of pacing, emo- tional cheap shots, sympathy for evil charac- ters, or stretching the definition of "prime- time."
You are asked to show up in a certain loca- tion on a certain day and suddenly your pro- gram pops up on about 20 monitors spread around the room in Stonehenge fashion. This was the case for Carlos Aparicio who, with his partner Susana Aikin, took The Transformation to INPUT in Nantes. Their film is about a for- mer homeless prostitute transvestite who accepts help from a Born Again Christian group in an exchange for renunciation of homosexuality.
Aparicio and Aikin briefly introduced their movie and later, when the lights came back on, survived the customary 20 minutes of close questioning and discussion from assembled commissioning editors, programmers, and fel- low producers from around the globe. (Post-screening exchanges at INPUT can be intense, since the objective is to tackle difficult creative and ethical issues. Comments of the "I-loved-your- movie" or "What-was-your- shooting-ratio" variety are dis- couraged. Aparicio and Aikin then spent the rest of the week looking at work from other coun- tries and meeting other delegates. "It was absolutely fantastic," says Aparicio. "We had just been to Berlin [International Film Festival's market] and that had been really hard work — selling your product constantly, eyeing your fellow filmmak- ers in a state of high competitiveness. But in Nantes it was extremely relaxed. We got to see interesting stuff from all over and to meet the makers.
28 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
"Most of the foreign delegates we met work closely with institutions, and they seemed real- ly shocked to hear how many of us operate over here — doing everything ourselves, credit-card financing, the horror stories. It seemed to be two completely different ways of working, and it was interesting to compare notes."
Aparicio also reports that, despite spending the week in a non-selling mode, he and Aikin were approached by several buyers and that those encounters eventually led to two European sales.
Scott Sinkler may hold the all-time U. S. record for sales growing out of a single INPUT screening. His Inside Life Outside, about a squat- ter community in New York City, was shown in Stockholm in '89. After the session he found himself surrounded by a gaggle of European broadcasters. One bought the program on the spot and in the next few months he made fol- low-up sales to Germany, Sweden, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Sinkler went back to the Montreal INPUT in '94 as a dele- gate.
For most independents, the financial results are neither as dramatic nor as immediate. It you go with the primary goal ot making foreign TV sales or putting together an international co- production, you'll probably be disappointed. INPUT is neither a festival nor a market. It's more of a re-charging station, a five-day break from American production myopia in which what you screen and what yam talk about chal- lenge your ways ot thinking about film and tele- ^ vision. The conference also tends to draw U. S. public television people (from both Washington and around the country) who are interested in independent work of all genres.
As with all such multi-day film gatherings, there comes that inevitable moment when you tind yourself alone and thinking, "Who should I go meet next and, more importantly, what am I doing here in the first place?" But such moments tend to be minimized at INPUT because it is an event that has content (the screenings and discussions). And as you go back in subsequent years, you have the pleasure of reconnecting with other regulars.
Producers who stay connected to INPUT discover that it is, in fact, a lot more than an annual conference; it may be, in Arlo Guthrie's terms, "a movement" — for the reformation of television, no less. The organization runs train- ing workshops in the Third World, has an archive, a Website <http://ourworld. Compu- Serve.com/homepages/INPUT_Public_TV > , and is considering publication of a magazine.
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The I . S. selection Cakes place in November. Nine or 10 Americans (independents, and peo- ple from CPU, PBS, and the stations) spend three days in South Carolina looking for provocative work and accepting about 17 of the I50-some submissions. About halt ot those make it through the international selection in Italy in February, which is run by the same shop stewards who lead the discussions at the con- ference itself.
It you do the math, you'll notice that your chances ot having your program selected are about 20 to 1 (no worse odds than those for most grants or festivals). But anyone who is willing to pav his or her own expenses can go to the conference. There is no registration fee. Next year's event is Stuttgart, Germany, May 10-16. In '99 it will be in Fort Worth, Texas. For information about submitting a program or attending the event, contact: Terry Pound, INPUT Secretariat, South Carolina ETV, 1101 George Rogers Blvd., Columbia, SC 29211; (803) 737-3434; fax; 737-3435; pound® scetv.org.
Ralph Arhck is an INPUT shop steward and member of the board, and an indeperident producer.
Karlovy Vary
by Wanda Bershen
One of the most established film events in the former Eastern bloc, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 4-12) has regained its "A" status from FIAPFE this year (its 39th) and reinvent- ed itself as an ener- getic and ambitious international event. Taking place in the favorite spa town of Hapsburg Emperor Frederick the Great, the festival trans- forms this elegant West Bohemian vil- lage into a place brimming with
young audiences, movie stars, a large press corps, and an impressive list of
invited guests.
What's more, with a new program director (Eva Zaoralova) and management team (presi- dent Jiri Bartoska and general director Rudolf Biermann), and committed corporate sponsors (Philip Morris, Chemapol, SPT Telecom, Transgas, and the main Czech bank), Karlovy Vary is on its way to becoming the major place to tap into Central Europe's developing market for the production and distribution of both film and television.
Biermann, himself a successful producer (The Garden and Orbis Pictus), is focused on increasing the numbers of sales agents, distrib- utors, and international press in attendance and making international production and co- production essential areas of development for the festival. Discussions have been held with the American Feature Market about recom- mendations for a tormal market; this year there was a small area for buyers and sellers to set up booths and arrange meetings with potential clients. In addition, Stefan Uhrik and Hana Cielova, directors of the impressive Inter- national Forum of Independents, advise local distributors about independent films and in 1996 established a Buyers/Sellers desk for these "smaller" films. By underwriting subtitling for several films each year, the Forum creates the conditions for the new smaller distributors in Eastern Europe to acquire independent produc- tions. Films that received theatrical distribution in the last couple of years include SubUrbia
(Richard Linklater), Box of Moonlight (Tom DeCillo), and Trees Lounge (Steve Buscemi).
Urich and Cielova also host Filmopolis, a monthly television program that includes international festival reports and an annual episode "Focus on American Indies." There is a growing audience for U. S. indie films via the new private TV channels (which can afford to run a film like Fargo within a year of its release), as well as the two Czech public channels, which have whetted audiences' appetite for U. S. productions with their Woody Allen and Robert Altman series.
American indies have already gained a large following at the festival proper as a result of Uhrik and Cielova's work at the Forum. Begun in 1992 and a key part of the festival since 1995, the Forum has included the likes of Hal Hartley, Jim Jarmusch, and the Coen Brothers, as well as such interna- tional directors as Jane Campion, Wong Kar- Wai, Aki Kaurismaki, and Atom Egoyan. This year's special presentation at the Forum was three films by Errol Morris, including Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control, which drew packed houses with lively discussions after each screening. Easily as quirky and fascinat- ing as his films, Morris was clearly a hit with the young audience.
Another lure, in addition to the burgeon- ing market, are Karlovy Vary's prizes. At the center of the festival (which this year includ- ed more than 250 films in 11 sections) is an
30 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
International Competition with a first prize of $20,000 (which went to Alain Berliner's Ma vie en rose) and a special award of $10,000 (David Trueha's The Good Life). There are also prizes for Audience Favorite, FIPRESCI, and best documentary ($5,000). In addition to the Forum, other sections include New Czech Film, East of West (contemporary work from former Socialist countries), and retrospectives.
New films by young Czech directors, often produced with TV funds, signal a new pool of talent and energy. The Audience Favorite and Best Actor prizes went to Forgotten Light, a Czech feature by director Vladimir Michalek with the kind of dry humor, complex charac- ters, and underlying seriousness familiar from the films of Jiri Menzel or Milos Forman in the sixties.
The Czech Republic, like Poland and Hungary, is working hard to transform itself into a modern capitalist economy, with the media industries a major part of that. In the tew years since the end of Communism, the TV and film industries have been restructured, with the formerly state-controlled systems now public/private partnerships. American compa- nies with deep pockets, like Time Warner, have cable operations up and running already in Prague, Budapest, and Warsaw and are begin- ning to co-produce locally and regionally. A Central European channel, ALFA-TV, man- aged and funded as a regional initiative, has hired Alan Fountain, former commissioning editor for Independent Film at the UK's Channel 4, to work with them in designing their program schedule.
At the closing night ceremony, President Havel offered some characteristically eloquent remarks on the meaning of statehood, citing the outpouring of aid to the flood- damaged regions in southern Czechoslovakia as a sign of the "civic solidarity" now flourishing in the new post-Communist democracy. That spirit was certainly visible in the hordes of film students jamming the screenings of Czech films (this journalist had to sit on the floor more than once), and in the festival's ability to re -invent itself completely in a few short years. It was vis- ible, as well, in the amazing ovation that greet- ed director Milos Forman as he received a Lifetime Achievement Award on home ground — something virtually unimaginable only eight years ago.
Wanda Bershen was director of the Jewish Museum's Broadcast Archive and Intenuitioiial Film Festival from 1989 to J 995. She established Red Diaper Productions in J 995 to work with international film aiid TV as an independent programmer, distributor, production consul- tant, and UTiter.
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A European Jewish refugee rides a rickshaw through 1940s Shanghai.
Photo: Paolo Vescia, all photos courtesy Pinball Films
The single biggest question thai every aspiring independent] pro- ducer wants answered is, "Where can I yet the money to make my film?" The frequent suggestion is to look .it the financing credits on comparable films, then seek funding from the same sources.
This article checks the financing credits of The Part <>j Last Resort, a documentary about the 20,000 Jewish refugees from Central Europe who escaped to Shanghai in the years leading Up to World War II. It details the path that first-time feature 'documentary producers Joan Grossman and Paul Rosdy took as they sought to answer the financing question tor themselves.
The Concept
Proving again that the best ideas are encountered by accident, the pro- ducers discovered the little-known history of the Shanghai refugees during a visit to Grossman's family. A family friend, Ernest Heppner, had written a book based on his experiences as a refugee in Shanghai. He mentioned to Grossman that he knew of no significant films on this facet of Jewish history. (This year, Ulrike Ottinger came out with her four-and-a-half hour opus, Exile Shanghai.) In the summer of 1993, Grossman read the book prior to its publication. At this time, he and Rosdy were seeking funding for several other films, so they did not immediately commit to the refugee project.
When in Austria a year later, Grossman met with Kurt Jetmar of the production company MR Films in Vienna to pitch the idea of a film on Americans in Prague. Jetmar was friendly and generous with his time, but "clearly not really excited" by the idea, Grossman reports. On the way out the door, Grossman had the presence of mind to mention the
Shanghai concept. The veil of disinterest lifted and the two talked tor another 20 minutes. Although Jetmar never took on the project in any formal way, his reaction was critical. It encouraged Rosdy and ( rrossman to commit to researching the project and raising production funds.
Development Funds
The key to funding The Port <>) Last Resort was the collaboration between Grossman and Rosdy, an American and an Austrian. By assembling a combination of government loans and subsidies, corpo- rate underwriting, foundation grants, and television pre-sales in Europe and North America, the producers were able to raise a total budget that would not have been forthcoming from either continent alone. About one -third of the funding came from American sources, and two-thirds came from Europe.
As a resourceful producer, Rosdy 's job is to know the funding pools in Europe. He began the search with Documentary, one of the pro- grams found under the umbrella of MEDIA, the European Union's Audio Visual Sector. The MEDIA I program (which in 1996 was replaced by MEDIA II, administered in Brussels) provided interest-free loans to European independent producers for 50 percent of a project's development costs. Three-quarters of MEDIA I's loans were provided during development and the other quarter on the first day of produc- tion. The loan is payable six months from the beginning of production, with the assumption that it will be repaid out of production funds. If the project never goes into production, the loan is excused. The Port of Last Resort received about $10,000 from Documentary in early 1995,
January/February 1 998 T H E I N D E P E N D E N T 33
the first contribution to the pro- ject.
Kurt Jetmar of MR Films, who had responded so enthusiastically to the idea tor the film, helped Rosdy prepare a proposal to the Austrian Film Commission of the Ministry of Arts and Sciences foi a work stipend in November 1994. Rosdy received a modest $6,800 stipend in April 1995, which the filmmakers applied toward devel- opment.
The Wiener Stadtische Versicherung is a large insurance company in Vienna that is well known in Austria as a major arts sponsor. Rosdy approached them with a proposal, and in exchange for a credit in the film the compa- ny contributed $2,500 towards development and will provide another $2,500 after the film is completed.
C/?EDIT/?0/.£
Production Funds: U.S.
The Port of Last Resort
Documentary: European MEDIA program development loan.
$13,500, which equals 50% of the development budget;
i 75% awarded at outset, then 25% awarded on the ^
first day of production.
Austrian Film Commission of the Ministry of Arts and Sciences $6,800 work stipend awarded in April 1995
Wiener Stadtische Versicherung Insurance Company (Austria)
$5,000 awarded in June 1995 in exchange for credit and logo on
publicity materials: $2,500 up front and $2,500 after t
^— - he film is finished. —
Arthur Ross Foundation
$10,000 pledge once $180,00 had been raised (August 1995)
Film Commission of the Ministry of Science, Transportation,
and Art (Austria) J
$90,000 awarded in April 1996 1
"Innovation Pot" Subsidy (Austria) $90,000 awarded in July 1996
HBO/Cinemax
Pre-sale for Cinemax Reel Life series made in September 1996
Production Funds: Europe
The first major European produc- tion grant came from the Film Commission of the Ministry of
Science, Transportation, and Art in April, 1996. This government agency does not provide funding to individuals, so Rosdy and Grossman had to form a co-production partnership with an established Austrian production company. Rosdy contacted Lukas Stepanik of Extrafilm, a producer he had met at the Shanghai Film Festival, in order to seek his involvement. Stepanik was excited by the content of the film. And since it is often difficult for Austrian documentaries to reach an international audience, Stepanik was also excit- ed by the organization of the project as an American/Austrian co-production. While a formal agreement is still being negotiated, Extrafilm will have some ownership stake in the project, as well as receiving compensation for expenses.
The benefit of attaching The Port of Last Resort to an established production company is that it opened up opportunities for greater funding. Extrafilm applied to the "Innovation Pot," a subsi- dized television pre-sale program set up between the Austrian Film Institute and Austrian television station ORE The concept behind the "Innovation Pot" is to support smaller, individually produced Austrian projects that already have a significant amount of funding in place. The Port of Last Resort received about $100,000 from this funding pool in July 1996.
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Inc.
$33,500 committed in October 1996
(Dollar amounts are approximate.)
Raising money in the United States proved much more diffi- cult. Grossman and Rosdy applied for all of the usual public grants: National Endowment for the Humanities, New York Council for the Arts, New York Council tor the Humanities, and Independent Television Service. Although they received some pos- itive feedback from panelists and program administrators, none of these sources provided any fund- ing.
Next, the producers turned their attention to private foundations. Their initial research, utilizing the CD-ROM database at the Foundation Center in New York, yielded only a handful of founda- tions that identify themselves as supportive of projects related to Jewish history and also indicate a willingness to fund media. Grossman decided to go against the conventional wisdom of care- fully targeting foundations and instead cast a wide net, contact- ing any foundation that indicated a funding philosophy in concert with any facet of The Port of Last Resort. She also identified potential donors by reading the credits on already completed programs. The Jewish Heritage series, for instance, which aired on PBS, yielded a number of names.
Grossman sent out more than 200 one -page solic- itation letters and received about 15 requests for additional information. When a foundation expressed further interest, she followed up with a three-page project description and budget. As the project progressed, Grossman maintained communi- cation with the foundations.
The Arthur Ross Foundation was the first to commit to some level of production funding. When major development activities had been completed, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation requested a script and a copy of the trailer that the team had produced. Based on these materials, they decided to support the project. Neither foundation was willing to commit early in the project's develop- ment. The Ross Foundation pledged support of $10,000 after $180,000 was raised, and the Weinberg Foundation indicated it would contribute after "a substantial amount of funding was in place." The profiles published in the Foundation Directory indicate that neither the Ross nor the Weinberg Foundation accept unsolicited requests for support.
34 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
Yet Grossman's results make clear that it is possible for an unsolicited application to gain the attention of the foun- dation's administration. Gail Lloyd of the Ross Foundation indicated that while the foundation does not usually support filmmaking, Mr. Ross found the story of the Shanghai refugees historically significant and decided to help fund the project because there is very little material published or produced on this his- torical event. According to Grossman, Weinberg Foundation president Bernard Siegel personally knew several Shanghai refugees and so was interested in the subject. While this may seem serendipitous, it indicates that there are real people at these foundations who have interests that may align with a producer's.
In June 1996, Rosdy attended the Sunny Side of the Doc film mar- ket in Marseilles. Grossman had faxed those U. S. companies send- ing representatives, informing them about the status of the project and inviting them to visit with Rosdy. Rosdy met with Jon Moss, at that time Director of Documentary Programming at HBO/Cinemax. While he was interested in acquiring the film, Moss indicated that the completion funding required was more than what HBO could provide. But once the "Innovation Pot" funds were secured, HBO/Cinemax
was able to provide finishing funds in order
to acquire The Port of Last Resort for the ( I II M
Reel Life series. V V V/ ll
www.austria.org
check Federal Ministry of Science, Transportation, and the Arts (in German)
www.mac.cicv.fr/real/
For detailed information on
country-by-country funding, check under
"financement european"
Moss (who has since left HBO and is now an inde- pendent producer's representative in New York) was excited about the project because the Shanghai story is a new facet of an otherwise well-known and well- documented historical period, and because it includes archival material never previously presented in a doc- umentary on World War II. HBO has ;i tradition of special programs related to World War II and tbe Holocaust, and Moss felt The Port of Last Resort con- tinued and extended this tradition.
According to John Hoffman, the current Director of Documentary Programming, in order for a film to be considered for Reel Life it must have the potential to win festival awards, gain positive press reviews, and receive other forms of critical acclaim. What people at HBO respond to is "filmmakers who have access," Hoffman indicates, especially access to a subculture or unique archival materials. The Port of Last Resort fulfilled the programming objectives of Reel Life and consequen HBO/Cinemax provided the funds necessary for the project's completion in exchange for an 18-month exhibition window.
Creative Development
With the money from the Documentary program and the Film Commission of the Ministry of Arts and Sciences, the producers began searching for archival materials. They attended a conference on the Shanghai refugees in Salzburg where some initial interviews were videotaped. These interviews and the information they uncovered led to one of the most important aesthetic decisions, the choice not to use narration but to utilize the voices of the refugees — either in interviews or through voice-over performances of their letters, diaries, and reflec-
tions.
After a research trip to Shanghai in October 1995, Grossman and Rosdy wrote a script and constructed an 8- minute trailer, which combines interviews shot on video in Salzburg, super-8 film footage shot in Shanghai, and VHS preview tapes of archival film materials. While this was clear- ly a sketch, assembled on a cuts-only VHS edit system for $500, the power of the idea was evident. There is a great deal of passionate debate about the usefulness of a trailer. In this case, it was critical to the project's success. Although skilled, these two filmmakers were essentially unknown first- timers. While someone with an established reputation might eschew a trailer, in this case it provided the kind of evidence flinders were seek- ing that Grossman and Rosdy were going to be able to actualize this idea. According to Jon Moss, the trailer was critical for HBO's funding. Even though it did not have high production values, the trailer demonstrated the substance of the program and provided a feel tor what would finally exist in the 60- minute film. This allowed Moss to sell the project internally, providing convincing evidence to those inside HBO with decision-making authority that the film was appropriate for Reel Lije. The trailer was essential for the produc- ers as well. First, it gave them an oppor- tunity to evaluate the aesthetic choices they were making. Second, it substantiated the claim that the piece was "in production." It showed the archival footage, the recently recorded Super-8 film, and the video interviews. There was no doubt that production was underway. Nothing else is as attrac- tive to a potential funder than knowing there is progress toward the end goal. The greater the progress, the smaller the risk.
There are practical and budgetary issues related to coproductions tor European/American television. The primary issue is with formats. This explains, in part, Grossman's and Rosdy's decision to produce on 16mm film rather than on video. By finishing on film, the pro- ducers could fulfill their obligation to supply original masters to both American (NTSC) and Austrian (PAL) television.
Language is another issue. Grossman and Rosdy did all
the development work in English. Then Rosdy rewrote
e proposals into German for presentation to European
funding agencies. The final version of the film will be no
exception. Once the English version is completed, the Austrian
version will need to be crafted, requiring translation of both acted
and interview materials.
The Port of Last Resort will be completed toward the end of 1997.
Critical to its success is that Rosdy lives in Austria and Grossman lives
in New York. Using the knowledge and resources that each have, they
were able to piece together sufficient funds to cover the entire project.
Here again is proof that it can be done.
Rob Sabal is a filmmaker who last wrote about the distribution of his film Indian Summer in the August/September J 996 issue. This article was prepared with the
assistance of Joanna Sabal.
The Foundation Center
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www.fdncenter.org
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The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Inc.
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Contact: Bernard Siegel, president
(410) 744-6142
January/February 1 998 THE INDEPENDENT 35
SIX U.S. FILMMAKERS LIVING ABROAD
by Ryan Deussing
While the European film industry has become more like its American counterpart in recent years, in many regards it's still a world apart. This article profiles six American independents working in Europe, where they've found a home away from home.
Andrew Horn, Berlin.
Long after his junior thesis film at New York University was nominated
tor an Academy Award, Andrew Horn is still making films, though he's thousands of miles from his native New York City. Since 1989, when he
traveled to then-Wes t Germany on a scholarship, Horn has
been living in Berlin as a filmmaker and journal- ist, working on projects ranging from German soap opera to doc- umentaries about the lost world of socialist popular entertain- ment. His most recent project, East Side Story, is a made-to-order example of the opportunities and chal- lenges that face American independent filmmakers who have pulled up stakes and relocated to Europe — either tor a change of scenery or in the hope of finding an environment hospitable to their own particular breed of filmmaking.
"Obviously it 1 hadn't been living here I never would have gotten the idea to make East Side Siory," Horn explains. The film, which docu- ments the rise and fall of the socialist musical ^^ ^^^^m film in the former Eastern Bloc, was inspired ^ ^^^^H by screenings of films from the East German
^m ^^^^H Film Archives that took place in Berlin just
after the fall of the wall. "I was very surprised to see that the lifestyle portrayed in these films is very human and funny and not at all back- ward or gray," he says. East Side Story has surprised audiences as well, most of whom appreciate the humor inherent in "singing tractor drivers, dancing pig farmers, and socialist summer fantasies set to hip-swiveling Eastern European rock music" (to quote the film's press kit). German audi- ences, however, have been less quick to laugh.
On the one hand, some former East Germans have been put off by the idea of "western" filmmakers making a light-hearted film about the cultur- al products of a society they were not a part of. Horn explains that the film has attracted criticism from the East amounting to "you're from the West: how could you possibly know what happened?" (This despite the fact that the film, which Horn wrote and produced, was directed by Dana Ranga, a Romanian.) Critics from former West Germany have also proven difficult to please. "We had a lot of problems from the West, which I think is because they don't really want to hear about the former East Germany and maybe never really did." German reluctance to dig up the past is echoed by the fact that the first interest in East Side Story came from French and British television, and only after the European Union MEDIA II funding program (which allocates approximately $300 million for the production and distribution of European film and television projects) agreed to pro- vide research funds did German money get involved. [http://europa. eu.int/en/comm/dgl0/avpolicy/nx'dia/en/home-m2.html]
Though the existence of subsidies and state -financed television makes the process of developing a project in Europe unlike that in America, Horn is careful to point out that different does not always mean better. "The big challenge is that I've found Germans aren't as open minded as I originally thought," he explains. "They don't have a lot of underground filmmaking here the way I knew it in New York. And when you suggest certain ways to sort of bulldoze your way through a seemingly impossible situation, they tell you not to think like an American, you can't do things like that here. Of course, under no circumstances can one listen to this kind of advice.
"Another myth that needs debunking is the one that in Europe they're interested in 'art'," Horn continues. "It seems the age of the European art film that not only wins awards but also brings people into theaters is over, and there's an ongoing identity crisis fueled in large part by the dominance of Hollywood." One important exception to this rule, according to Horn, is the deep-pocketed German/French broadcaster Arte, which is dedicat- ed to arts programming and is a crucial resource for many European pro- ductions.
Reflecting on his experience as a filmmaker and emigre, Horn suggests that there's a lot to be gained from a change in circumstances. "I won't say that by being here I was able to escape the problems of being an indepen- dent in the U.S., but being here does present a whole new set of problems that maybe seem a little easier to deal with or just seem more acceptable because they're different."
36 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
From Pain Is..., Jane Weiner's latest European project. The producer at work (inset).
Photo: Jay Matthews. Courtesy filmmaker
Another key aspect of Weiner's success is that once she decided to live in Paris, she made a genuine commitment to staying and making things work. "Lots of Americans show up here and stay for a time," she explains. "Then they get fed up and leave." She's also found that over time, her European colleagues have become more accepting, to a degree. "You're always the 'the American', which isn't always a compliment."
While living in France, Weiner still works a good deal with American independents at home. "I've the advantage of living between two worlds," she explains. "Sometimes that's to my advantage, but sometimes not. It's hard to be in two places at once."
Andrea Weiss, London.
Jane Weiner, Paris.
Though she's worked in Franci for over
10 years and lived there year-round since 1992, Jane Weiner main- tains that she's only recently gotten her toot in the door as a Paris-based writer, director, and producer. In tact, she says it was a while before living in France had a positive effect on her career. "As long as 1 was a New Yorker who spent a lot ot time in Paris, I was very useful and bankable to Europeans, but as soon as I moved here I became useless. At least the per- ception was that I was no longer connected to New York, even though I was travelling back and forth .is much .is ever."
Weiner is most prolific as a producer and has worked with filmmakers such as Peter Friedman, Michel Negroponte, and Richard Leacock on films tor broadcasters ranging from the RRt! to Arte. She's currently finishing production on Pom Is..., an experimental documentary by American direc- tor Stephen Dwoskin (who, incidentally, has lived in England tor 55 years). Unlike Horn, who started his own production company after a tew unhap- py experiences relying on German ones, Weiner lias always found it useful to cooperate with "native" producers. "I make it a point to work with pro- ducers and production companies in whichever country I'm making a film," she says. "They speak the language, they know how things work, and they know who is who and where to get good deals. It also makes for good relations, because I'm seen as a coproducer and not as a competitor."
She's careful to point out that subtle, yet important differences exist between the film industries in neighboring European countries. "The different working habits in each culture- are the biggest challenge," she explains. "These things are sometimes so subtle that they're not readily evident even it you're fluent in the language. What's considered k 'professional' isn't the same in each cul- ture." Weiner also advises that indepen- dents from the U.S. need to be ready to adapt to new circumstances: "One must drop the idea that the 'best' way to work is the American way, since that doesn't matter to any- one outside of the U.S.."
TOGETHER WITH HER TARTNBR GRETA SCHIIXER, ANDREA WEISS HAS BEBN
overseas on and ofl since 1991, when the two decided it was time to get out
ot New York tor a while. "For us, that meant either San Francisco or London, and we chose London. It just happened to be in Europe (or near Europe, which is how the Brits tend to think of it)." The biggest effect the move had on their careers, says Weiss, was that it inspired them to finish then film Paris Was w Woman against all odds. "We were driven in a way that we might not have been had we stayed in New York, since the subject ol women's creativity and voluntary exile had become such a big part ot our own lives." The two now split their time between New York and London, depending on their work schedules.
Gertrude Stein (r) and Alice B. Toklas walk
the walk in Paris Was a Woman; Andrea
Weiss (inset). Courtesy filmmakers
Weiss points out that Paris Was a Woman, a documentary about the largely lesbian circle of female artists, writers, and publishers who flocked to Paris in the 1920s, is an example ot an American independent film made in Europe. "It's American in that we made it from a lot ot small funding sources added together, we deferred payments and begged favors, and we
January/February 1 998 THE INDEPENDENT 37
didn't have a commissioning editor looking over our shoulders." Production also began despite the fact that they never raised the full
financing, and the filmmakers arc now paying ofi debts a bit .it a tune. "It all the commissioning editors in Britain turned down their project, [British indepen- dents] would simply shove it in the drawer and not do it." The European and American indus- tries are "apples and oranges," s.iv^ Weiss. "The Brits always think things look better in the States
(because of the groveling they have to do to commissioning editors here), and Americans think Britain is the land of milk and honey because of Channel Four." In tact, Weiss and Schiller benefited from their production company's incorporation in New York (they received grants from New York State Council tor the Arts and the New York Council for the Humanities) , as well as their presence in London (through association with a British company, they were able to tap into MEDIA funds).
"Each funding situation is different," says Weiss. For my most recent film, A Bit of Scarlet, I worked with another production company and
received funding from Channel Four and the British Film Institute, which would not have seen Jezebel Productions as suitably British when I started it years ago." The BFI has put some money into one of Jezebel's current projects, however, leading Weiss to posit that "our hybrid identity doesn't seem to bother them anymore."
Weiss advises independents looking to establish themselves in Europe to "attend the European conferences, particularly [Rotterdam's] CineMart (tor tiction) and the Amsterdam Forum (for documentary)" While it's not very likely that your project will immediately take off, Weiss says the expe- rience of meeting people and seeing how things work is immensely valu- able. "Also, it's incredibly difficult to get innovative, challenging films made anywhere in the world, so it's not a good idea to talk to European filmmakers as though they have it made — -it will only annoy them."
Michael Benson, Ljubljana.
Far from the media centers of London, Paris, and Berlin, Michael Benson nevertheless finds his position in Ljubljana (yes, that's the capital of Slovenia) rather well suited to his purposes. Benson says he grew up as "Foreign Service spawn" (his father was a U.S. diplomat), and lived, at various times, in both the USSR and the former Yugoslavia. Though Benson is formally based in New York (along with his company, Kinetikon Pictures), it's to his advantage to spend the bulk of his time in Europe, where he has a working arrangement with TV Slovenia, which copro- duced his first feature-length documentary, Predictions of Fire [see "Talking Heads," March 1997].
"This allows me to utilize the facilities and personnel ot TV Slovenia, making films that have an international scope, while still applying for stateside grants, some of which require U.S. residency," he explains. Benson's latest project, which was shot mostly in the U.S., made it to postproduction with the help of grants from the Soros Documentary Film Fund and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Post production and additional shooting will be done at TV Slovenia. "So, partly as a result of financing, I lead a kind of bipolar, schizophrenic existence. Luckily I like that kind of life."
Though Benson's relationship with TV Slovenia is immensely helpful, he has also experienced the difficulty of raising funds in a country that doesn't have the resources of France or Germany. "There's a definite dis- advantage to being an American when it comes to applying for state funds in Eastern Europe," he explains. "The countries in the region have an incredibly hard time scraping together funding for deserving local film- makers. So there's a lot of pressure not to be too supportive of foreign filmmakers, as you can imagine."
Being in the "East" also raises concerns when it comes to production.
"In former socialist countries things can be much cheaper, but you end up
paying in time, and quite frequently in technical quality as well. In New
York I know that for a certain large sum of money I'll get reasonably fast
and efficient lab or sound work, for example. In this region speed is rare,
and technical quality, when you can find it, is more a function ot innate
professionalism than profit motive."
"Unfortunately, there's a sense of being under siege hanging over inde- pendent film production in the East, in the so-called 'countries in transi- tion.' When the wall fell, sources of state support simply dried up, and the- aters started to show nothing but Hollywood product. So there's very little of the 'can-do' spirit and optimism you'll find in the U.S., though excellent films continue to be made in Eastern Europe, against all odds."
38 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1998
Jason Springarn-Koff and his thesis video, Abducted.
Courtesy filmmaker
Jason
Springarn- Koff, Berlin.
When Abducted, his thesis video at Brown, was accept- ed by the Berlin Videofest ifter it was rejected from sev- eral American festivals, Jason Springarn-Koff started to think that maybe his audience was in Europe. After a period of working in New York as an editor and digital cts artist, he finally decided to "quit my job, break my lease, and move" to Berlin.
Not everything has gone as smoothly as he'd hoped. "Germany has a very serious unemployment problem, and they're very reluctant to 'let' Americans work," he says. "The U.S. consulate said that I'd have 'hardly a chance' of getting legal permission to work here."
Language has also proven difficult. "I've studied German tor a tew years, but the film industry, with all of its specialization, require-- a very sophisti- cated vocabulary." He warns that basing a strong command of the lan- guage is crucial. "It you don't, you might find yourself very frustrated and embarrassed."
After a difficult start, he's recently found steady work with a DOStpro- duction studio. "People with my skills and training — especially those who've worked in NYC — are very welcome here. I suppose that I might be one of the top After Effects artists here, where in New York I was mid- level."
Ondine Rarey, Munich.
Tfcc
Unlike filmmakers who have relocated to Europe after cutting their teeth in the States, Ondine Rarey chose to get her start at a European film school. Now in her third year of the documentary program at the Munich Hochschule fur Film und Fernsehen (HFF), she's finishing production on her tirst feature project, Fools and Heroes. The film, about her grandfathers' experiences as artists during WWII, is being produced with funds from the school, as well as with an investment from Bavarian Television.
Attending film school in Germany has its benefits. "School costs about $25 a semester, and the HFF Munich has an incredible technical depart- ment," she explains. "In addition, each student is entitled to funding for each film they make. These funds range from $3,500 for the first film to $16,000 tor the final project. School funding can also be used as seed money, which makes it easier to get investors interested in your project." By combining her own school funding with that of her collaborators, Rarey was able to finance her film's first stages of production without plunging into credit-card debt.
"The main advantage of working in Germany is state-supported TV. The two state networks seem to be constantly on the lookout tor filmmak- ers with good ideas. Producers need filmmakers about as much filmmakers need them."
Rarey is seriously considering leaving Germany before her time at school is officially over, however. "There really isn't enough to make films about here. Everything works. It's terrifically organized and everyone recycles." She thinks that the prevalence of social strife and the many obstacles fac- ing documentary filmmakers m America makes tor better filmmaking, in the long run. "American filmmakers have a dedication and a passion that European filmmakers often lack," she says.
"There's ahn a certain cynicism afoot here that's hard to get used to. Mosi people don't care how great your topic is or what an impor- tant film you're
trying to make. There's money and prestige at stake, and that's what's important to many people in the field, even in documentary."
Ryan Deussing is managing editor of The Independent
January/February 1 998 T H E I N D E P E N D E N T 39
by Sharon Swart
Unless yoi 'ki will versed in the intricate i \\ strlk h rlsofthl world's major media-consuming nations and know your way around the harried international him and TV markets, it is advised that you find a foreign sales agent to facilitate distribution of your project out- side the United States. Collecting revenues trom overseas theatrical, video, pay, and tree TV is a Herculean undertaking and is best lett to the pros.
Simply choosing a sales agent can be challenging on its own. Most familiar with the process suggest considering a company that has expe- rience selling projects similar to your own. Check with other filmmak- ers and find .1 reputable outfit that has a track record and a good num- ber of satisfied producers that can sing its praises. Quiz those who have gone before on everything from advances to payment habits and mar- keting expenditures. You'll be asked to pick up some or all of the costs associated with marketing your him to foreign buyers and seeing it through distribution; make sure you know the price. If foreign sales agents get involved in pre-selling or packaging your project, they're likely to require a producer fee and a credit. The American Film Marketing Association, the trade organization that puts on the American Film Market each winter, should be able to provide general information on member sales companies as well as contracts and other legal questions. [AFMA, 10850 Wilshire Blvd., 9 fl., LA, CA 90024;
Alliance Independent Films
Backstory: The indie feature sales division of the Canadian film and TV conglomerate is headed by Charlotte Mickie. A nine-year Alliance executive, Mickie handles sales and marketing for Alliance- produced specialty films as well as a number of other projects. AIF is known tor handling top-notch Canadian indie features, such as The Sweet Hereafter by Atom Egoyan and The Hanging Garden by Thorn Fitzgerald. It recently branched out to acquire overseas rights to U. S. independent productions. AIF's first U. S. project was Hal Salwen's Denise Qz/!s Up, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995. "The film was a real hit in Cannes with enormous buzz," says Mickie. "It opened a lot of doors for us, in fact, floodgates." Other American films AIF has ushered abroad include Todd Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhuuse, Greg Mottola's The Daytrippers, and Todd Verow's Frisk.
What works: AIF targets films with a marketing hook that also have the potential to he received critically in a theatrical release. Neil LaBute's In the Company of Men, says Mickie, was ideal in that it trav- eled to the major festivals and could be sold as a Dangerous Liaisons for the nineties. When considering projects for representation, Mickie looks for an up-and-coming cast, an appealing script, and a young filmmaker with a bit of a pedigree. Submissions with a detailed cover- sheet work best, she says.
Market view: Territories fluctuate all the time, notes Mickie. For
specialty films, Spain
W specialty uniis, opam
orld Accord ing
(310) 446-1000; fax: 446-1600; info(a afma.com; <www.afma.com>] Keep in mind that finding a fit for your film is paramount and that most deals will vary from project to project.
Here, we profile four foreign sales companies with different tastes and strengths. We also asked the company principals to assess the over- seas marketplace as it relates to their business.
and Italy are current
hotspots, thanks to heated competition at the pay-TV level. "The market for films I sell is extremely stable," she says. "But, of course, not all films are going to succeed."
CS Associates
Backstory: Foreign sales vet Charles Schuerhoff describes himself as "a well-kept secret." Some 17 years ago — after launching a foreign sales operation for Boston's public broadcaster WGBH — Schuerhoff struck out on his own and started hawking documentary programming to territories around the globe via his bicoastal (Boston and Mill Valley, California) CS Associates. The company primarily focuses on television fare, and Schuerhoff has intentionally kept CS small to be able to be personally involved in all programming it represents. The outfit has repped such WGBH series as Frontline as well as series, shorts, and one-offs from other producers. Frontline episodes have sold to more than 30 countries, and associations with such directors as Ken Burns (The Civil War) continue to be fruitful. CS recently sealed a deal with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for the complete Burns library.
What works: While most of CS's product comes from repeat sources, it is open to representing works from new producers. Schuerhoff notes that top contenders would ideally have a strong track record and/or have a project about a unique must-have subject. He generally looks for programming for which he can predict a mar- ket. Of late, that has meant topical nonfiction subjects that tie into specific current-affairs developments around the globe. For example.
40 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
Tabloid Truth: The Michael Jackson Scandal, a feature documentary ana- lyzing tabloid broadcast journalism, logged particularly strong sales overseas. CS prefers dealing with finished product but will consider getting aboard earlier depending on the project. (Bonus tip: Schuerhoff has been trying to develop .1 series on the tyranny of beau- ty and disfigurement in a beauty-driven society. It he had his druthers, it would be hosted by Dustin Hoffman, who's apparently
of Leni Riefenstahl. In addition to a venerable chest of festival darlings, Films Transit commands a growing catalog of TV docs in the one -hour range.
What gives: Films Transit will look at projects in the various stages of development, from an idea to a rough-cut during production or a final cut. It the idea is high-profile and timely, Rofekamp says it is worth it for him to get involved early on. This allows him to consult with the filmmaker on length and cither considerations that ideally result in quicker and more lucrative pickups. A current project about the controversy surrounding cigarette smoking was ramped up at the idea stage, and Rotekamp helped broker presales in Germany and the UK. Rofekamp is also eager to continue to add to his cinema specialty catalog. He recently made a deal to rep a 50-minute documentary on Danish director Lars von Trier and has Hitchcock m Hollywood in the pipeline with producer Michael Epstein (The Battle Over ( ".itizen Kane) from PBS's American Masters strand. From the same series, Rofekamp has high hopes tor Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart, by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, and Man Ray: Prophet oj the Avant Garde, by Mel Stuart.
Market view: The world is split into two distinct markers, contends Rotekamp. "There's the old world where documentaries are still a part of primetime television, and there's the whole new world of cable and satellite broadcasting." Outlets such as Discovery International, Bravo Latin America, and the ever-expanding Canal + in Europe are sprout- ing thematic channels for which documentary programming is swept up en masse. The trend is lowering the price per hour and pushing docs from primetime.
it would be hosted by Dustin Hoffman, who s apparently ■ ^^
to Foreign sales Agents
quite articulate on the subject after his turn as an aesthetically challenged dame in Tootsie. If you have a Hoffman connection, you could be in business.)
Market view: Europe, the English-speaking markets, and Japan remain steady, says Schuerhoff! France is a strong market tor docs, but Germany and the United Kingdom have waned recently. While more- broadcasters are interested in documentary programming, they are smaller outlets that pay less. Demand tor nature and wildlife continues, but it is increasingly difficult to find strong material as powerful buyers (BBC, Canal +) are also suppliers. And the emphasis on entertain- ment values worldwide has made "less accessible" subjects harder to place — even with the most publicly-oriented channels.
Films Transit International
Backstory: Films Transit's Jan Rotekamp started distributing educa- tional independent documentaries in the Netherlands in 1972. Ten years later, he moved to Canada and switched his focus to interna- tional sales. His company's first big breakthrough came in 1987 when Miramax purchased its first film from Rofekamp, the Canadian feature I Heard the Mermaids Singing. The Montreal-based Films Transit has since moved away from fiction and cobbled together a strong reputa- tion for handling high-profile feature documentaries. Accoladed titles include The Battle over Citizen Kane, The Celluloid Closet, Crumb, Manufacturing Consent, Silverlake Life, and The Wonderful Horrible Life
January/February 1 998 THE INDEPENDENT 41
digital film
Your image
is everything
We just make it look good.
Film Resolution Scanning & Recording
35mm Academy Full Frame Vista Vision Cinemascope
16mm 16 • Super 16
Computer Titles
Titles and credits to any 35mm • 16mm • Sl6mm gate
Digital-to-Film
D-l to Film Link transforms video and digital media to any 35mm • 16mm ■ Sl6mm gate
Digital Blow-Up
35mm original negative from 16mm • Sl6mm
Stills
4x5 transparencies and negatives slides • C&R prints -from video computer • cine scans
Good Machine International
Backstory: The New York-based indie feature film company headed hy producers James Schamus and Ted Hope started out small, producing and peddling the early works of Ang Lee and Hal Hartley, among others. Since the phenomenal success of Lee's The Wedding Banquet in 1993, Ciood Machine's profile has skyrocketed and its leverage increased accordingly. They've worked with an impressive roster of indie directors, including Todd Havnes, Tom Kalin, Raul Ruiz, Jan Oxenberg, Jill Godmilow, Nicole Holofcener, Tom Noonan, and Ed Bums. This year the company grew a foreign sales arm to keep up with the competition and to continue to have
a hand in how their films are distributed worldwide. (For domestic distribution, Good Machine has a firstdook deal with Fox Searchlight Pictures.) The division is headed by Miramax's former head of international sales, David Linde, who has also taken on the challenge of selling the October Films slate overseas as a separate label alongside Good Machine International. Linde says he additionally expects to rep about three films a year from outside producers. Current crit- ical favorites The Ice Storm, by Ang Lee, and The Apostle, by Robert Duvall, are on Good Machine's slate. Film budgets for GMI projects this year range from $250,000 to $35 million says Linde.
What works: GMI is looking to represent auteur-driven theatrical product in the vein of Good Machine and October Films tare. Strength of the director, cast, and originality of mater- ial are key components GMI will be looking for when choosing outside projects.
Market view: For specialty films, Europe is still a strong market, reports Linde. Asia is under- going changes, but GMI is still making sales in the area. Linde predicts that as Asian economies stabilize in the next year, the Asian market will structurally be much larger because of ongoing multiplex development in the region.
Sharon Swart was international editor for special issues at the Hollywood Reporter and is currently the London- based European features editor for Variety.
42 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
many cooks didn't spoil this film!"
— Greg Gerson, (speaking about "someone like me," the 80 minute, Color, t6MM feature createfl at Aug. '97 FEATURE WORKSHOPS by 11 writer/directors).
"I applied, I got in, I paid the money, I got on a plane and I'm here — and now that I'm here I've got to shoot it! The details are taken care of!"
— Mark Foga/ty
I "It confirms that risks are well worth taking."
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r^^^^ E< >FFRE1 GlLM( >R£ HAS BEO »M£ S( »ME THING
*~~ o\ an institution m t/if. world 0/ independent
cinema. The program director oj the Sundance Film Festival since April 1990, ■"■"• Giimore is, inr/i /us hand-picked sta/jf; rite
arbiter oj the festival's programming. Each '^^^^^^^^P year he views 300 /tlms, samples 300 more, hears about others, and ends up choosing about 125 for a festival that also features panels, juries, and retrospective celebrations He attracts the kirtd of resentment and fascination that accrue to people who say "no" dozens oj times for every "yes." He looks, too, like someone' perpetually under siege, with his intense gaze, edgy, rapid-fire speech, and quick ability to make connections and to defend decisions. These days Giimore is seen by many independents, for better or worse, as their step- ping stone to celebrity and studio distribution. It is easy to forget his contin- uing passion for independent cinema as a vital social art form, and the fact that he spent many years grappling with issues of exhibition and framing aesthetics in film culture as programmer of the University of California at Los Angeles' cinematheque until 1996.
On a whirlwind visit to Washington, D.C., Giimore spoke with The Independent about the evolution of Sundance, the state of independent cinema, and the fate of film culture.
characterized by stories about people nobody in a studio deemed wor- thy of attention. These days, it's like a cartoon I recently saw in the New Yorker, where one pompous fool says to another, "I'm gonna make the first $100 million independent film."
Independent film has certainly come into the sphere of megamedia. Yes, and is there any real difference between smaller distributors like Miramax, New Line, and Gramercy and the larger studios that are their parent companies.' That said, one doesn't want to lose the dis- tinction between studio and independent films. In the six weeks between Memorial Day and July 4, the studios released 15 films that cost $100 million or more each in marketing and production costs, few of which will succeed. I caught the head of a major studio saying that creativity had ceased to be a major issue. The synergy between the film's release and the release of the CD and other ancillary products had become much more critical. The toy line is more important than whether a story is memorable. So there is a difference between that
and an independent film, even if it cost $15 million.
There's something about the power of commercial enterprise to pull everything into its realm that also bastardizes it. It turns culture itself into commodity. That's the impor- tance of institutions like Sundance. There has to be a realm, not entirely outside commercial determination but not directly commodified. That's the terrain of a festival. But it's an in- between space. I often feel frustrated.
I
) J
IcSfST
Sundance's Geoff Giimore
by Pat Aufderheide
Independent film has changed dramatically since Sundance began, and it seems like Sundance has had a major role in that process.
What Sundance has seen, and helped to create, is the emergence of a mainstream independent cinema. Ten years ago, the biggest thing about independent film was how difficult it was to see. One of the objectives of launching the festival was to build a platform for it, help legitimate it for theatrical release. We've created a monster, in a way.
A monster?
Now independent film is being judged by its commercial success, not by its aesthetic daring or narrative quality. Not only at Sundance, but at Toronto, Cannes, and other festivals, you walk out of a film, some- times with critics on either side of you, and the first thing someone says is, "That film is not going to make a dime." That's not what I came to this for. Independent film has its roots in storytelling, in regional work
Don't you consider an industry framework in your Sundance selections? Sometimes we do, but in most cases, no. We have an enormous range of constituencies. This year we're instituting technical and pragmatic changes. One of them is giving each program a home, so that each theater focuses on one part of the program. Dramatic films, documen- tary, world films, American Spectrum, premieres — each has one the- ater. It'll help ticketing and some complaints about the scattered nature of the festival. Maybe I can even cut down on the marketing mentality, by making it harder to jump out of one theater and see a half hour of the next film. Also, one of our current discussions is how to establish a critics' prize. I'm interested in a critical viewpoint that can highlight the most aesthetically innovative film, the film that took the biggest risk creatively.
Some people say you're not really looking for a range of creative risk, that there's a Sundance-type film: a little politically correct, a little crunchy granola, regional, slow.
44 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
That used to be the stereotype of independent cinema, but I don't think that ethos exists in the same way anymore. You have a much more advanced and sophisticated filmmaking community existing all over, not just bicoastally. The tools of filmmaking have become that much more available, even to small communities. The granola region- al stuff isn't what Sundance is about anymore. We've had a lot of dis- cussion about films that might be considered politically incorrect, like Chasing Amy, which won't be embraced by the gay and lesbian com- munity. A film like Eye of God, which focuses on spirituality and faith, isn't granola. Much of the documentary work comes from a progressive vision, but 1 don't think it's a simplistic ideological vision, partly because I think ideology in the U.S. is so confused, and it shows up in the films.
Do you think that low-end technology has affected a younger generation?
Over the last decade you have come to be able to make films for almost
nothing. It's not just that El Maruichi was shot tor a negative cost oi
$7,000 cash, but it was done in a way that
no one told him he couldn't do it. That
inspired other filmmakers. They often got
things for free, deferred costs, using models
that didn't exist 20 years ago. There's no
inherent virtue in poverty, of course. No
resources doesn't guarantee imagination.
The beleaguered filmmaker with no
resources who tells a story full of truth and
power and emotional impact — that's the
exception and always has been.
I always look for a certain level of aspi- ration from a storyteller and filmmaker. Too often it's at a fairly low level. People get tired of vicariously experiencing some- one's twenty-something alienation. The attack on the archetype of the indepen- dent film recently boils down to "We're tired of self-indulgence." You have film- makers who want to ride a trend and con- quer the world with an arrogance and lack of sophistication that does- n't get them very tar.
Where, for you, is the aesthetic edge, the energy, in independent film? Well, independent film is not is a reducible term. It's diversity, by def- inition. But where I have seen a lot of exciting new work is m gay and lesbian productions, in the telling of personal stories, especially in doc- umentaries, and in strong scripts.
You've programmed a lot of personal documentaries in the last few years. This surely is one of the major aesthetic trends, the evolution of the subjective, personal documentary. Last year at Sundance, half the doc- umentaries submitted were told from a subjective point of view.
There's always controversy over Sundance's documentary choices and the fact that you require that they be on film, not video.
The festival focuses on documentaries that have viability in theaters, not television. One of the things Sundance is saying is that documen- tary as film has gotten too little visibility. We are trying to disprove the myth that documentaries are somehow less interesting. But it's still true that the audience is pretty limited. We need programming in arts institutions, as well as leadership in whatever's left of an intelligentsia in this country. But media arts institutions are in a financial crunch
Independent film
has its roots in
storytelling,
in regional work
characterized by
stories about
people nobody
in a studio deemed
worthy of attention.
themselves. And film schools have lagged in both art and commerce. I'm teaching a course on independent production at UCLA, a course that had never been taught.
What is the idea behind the retrospectives and international work?
One of the reasons we do retrospectives now is to reintroduce people we think have been ignored. I worry about a kind of illiteracy among a lot of filmmakers. We've done Arthur Perm, William Wellman, Fassbinder. I wanted people, for instance, to see how Fassbinder was one of the greatest influences on eighties independents, the ways he broke the rules.
International work is important to us. One of the reasons the festi- val has grown so rapidly has been the discovery of films like Shine at the festival. We'll continue to give visibility to a broader international per- spective. But I have no illusions that it will defeat the parochialism that's endemic — the worst it's been in 20 years.
Sundance ends up playing many roles, and some people think you guys take up so much space there isn't much room for anyone else. It's very important that there not be just one gatekeeper. It puts too much of a bur- den on us, to say nothing about how people then look to us. There are not enough developed alternatives to Sundance, although I think they're coming. We need a teal market, although the Independent Feature Project functions somewhat that way. The New York Film Festival, Toronto, Telluride and the San Francisco Film Festival to some degree also work. The tall festivals are often critical of us because peo- ple hold their films for us. We're [now doing] an early submission process, so peo- ple who do want to hold their films for Sundance can get as quick an answer as possible. Spring festivals — the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival and South by Southwest — have really prospered, though, because they're the alter- native to us.
What about the cross-feeding between the festival and the Sundance Institute? Film> that are developed around the Sundance Institute don't neces- sarily get into the festival. That's not to say there's no crossover. Alison Anders, Gregg Araki, Quentin Ttrantino had been at the Institute. And sometimes people will come out of the festival and go to the Institute. It's talent and happenstance.
There's a line drawn here between the nonprofit center and the profit-making centers, like the Sundance Catalog. There's the Sundance Channel, a cable and satellite pay channel, a way to give a platform to films that haven't found a release. And we're launching a chain of theaters. The world continues to be pretty finite. It's still 95 percent dominated by studio production. What Sundance is trying to do is to create some synergies. The good news is that there were 600 films that came to us alone last year, and maybe another 150 that got made and didn't tit into our cycle. The bad news is that only 50 at most will find theatrical release.
Pal Aufderheule is associate professor in the School of Communication at American
University.
January/February 1 998 THE INDEPENDENT 45
LEGAL BRIEFS
I
by Robert L .
S E I G E L
AS \\ I VILRIAINMLM ATTORNEY, I GENER- ally receive a telephone call a week from a mediamaker who has received a "distribution agreement." Once we review the agreement, however, it's clear that the deal is not with a distributor hut with a foreign sales agent. Although the roles often overlap, there is a dis- tinction.
THE GOOD,
Distributors, such as Fine Line or Sony Pictures Classics, acquire and place completed projects directly into theaters. Sometimes they also act as a sales agent, selling (or more accu- rately, licensing) rights to specific media in a given territory. Some distributors act as their own foreign sales agents. Miramax, for instance, has a foreign sales division and "out- put" arrangements with overseas distributors, while October Films recently entered into an arrangement with New York-based Good Machine, in which the highly successful indie production company acts as a foreign sales agent for its own films and films acquired by October (e.g., Jim Jarmusch's Neil Young docu- mentary, Year of the Horse and the latest pro- ject from Welcome to the Dollhouse director Todd Solondz).
However, the majority of sales agents are independent sales companies that represent a slate of projects either overseas or worldwide. They are the middlemen between filmmakers and distributors. You can find them pressing the flesh at the American Film Market, Cannes, MIFED, and MIPCOM, as well as at such major festivals as Toronto, Sundance, and Berlin, which have become de facto markets. Here they can meet and place a face to that German television acquisitions executive or Japanese home video rep with whom they've been communicating by telephone or e-mail. The personal contacts built up over the years, plus the first-hand knowledge of the intricacies of the various foreign territories, make foreign sales agents an invaluable resource for media- makers who want their work to find an audi- ence abroad.
But as with distributors, a written contract is essential with foreign sales agents. This article addresses a few key points that you would be
wise to negotiate before signing the document and handing over your life's work to someone you may have only just met.
An agreement should state clearly the
scope of rights the agent will represent (which media and which territories). Unless one hits the jackpot — being approached by a big dis- tributor with a significant advance and market- ing commitments — most producers need to decide whether to "split" a project's rights, giv- ing one company domestic rights, for instance, and another rights for the rest of the world. Such a slicing up of the pie prevents or limits
THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
o Foreign Sales J\ gen
"cross-collateralization," in which, for instance, the losses incurred in certain domes- tic media are recouped against monies earned overseas. However, agents can cross-collateral- ize the losses from one medium in a territory against the monies earned in another medium in that territory.
Producers should request a reservation of rights provision. This explicitly states that all rights not specifically granted to the agent are reserved by the producer. In the case of nonac- tion projects, producers may wish to grant a sales agent foreign television rights, but retain the rights to foreign educational markets, in order to license these rights directly to schools and libraries or to hire a company that special- izes in the educational market.
Although every mediamaker seeks an advance or minimum guarantee or a prepayment of royal- ties (to be recouped by the agent from the producer's initial royalties), most agents do not offer either. Many simply do not have the monies; others choose not to pay one, since they know it's a buyer's market; the abundance of product and the limited number of distribu- tion outlets tilts the leverage in the agent's favor. In the rare case a pro- ducer receives an advance or a min- imum guarantee, it is generally payable in installments, with a small portion of the advance or minimum guarantee paid upon signing the agreement while the bulk of it is paid when the producer delivers the materials.
Producers should carefully review an agree- ment's delivery schedule and requirements and discuss which elements are necessary for the agent to do his or her job. For example, if a
project will he licensed only in the television and home-video overseas markets, then such film-based elements as an internegative would not he required. Although most domestic agents and their licensees require "Errors and Omissions" ("E & O") insurance against such claims as copyright infringement and defamation, some foreign sales agents and their licensees are less stringent about such coverage. (This does not relieve a mediamaker from the responsibility of secur- ing all rights for a project.) Producer should feel free to negotiate the extent of any
The issue of
an agent's
expenses
is an
area that
warrants
careful
attention.
.A. g r e e m e i\ t
required coverage (e.g., for the lifetime of the license vs. the duration of a project's copy- right vs. just the first three years). Another negotiable point is whether the producer will pay for this coverage or whether the agent will place the project under its coverage and recoup the cost as a sales expense.
One final point concerning materials: pro- ducers should retain possession of a project's negative or master and grant a lab letter of access to any agent who may have to dupli- cate prints or videocassettes. Such a letter can include a provision in which a lab can keep track of the number of film and video- cassette copies of a project made at the lab.
The issue of an agent's expenses is anoth- er area that warrants careful attention. Be sure to have any agreement call for the agent's reimbursement of only actual, direct out-of-pocket expenses (e.g., duplication, mail- ings, preparation of a trailer) that have been incurred solely due to the project. Expenses such as overhead should not be consid- ered a recoupable expense; agents should cover those costs from their commissions. Agreements should indicate expense "caps" (either per expense or in total) which an agent may incur before requiring the produc- er's prior, written approval. Such caps should decrease every year, since most of a project's expenses are incurred at the beginning of an agreement's term.
An agreement's term can vary from one to 20 years. Producers should recognize that the third-party licenses an agent enters into usually have terms that outlast any foreign
46 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
sales agent agreement. The agent, therefore, is entitled to commissions from any deals he or she has made, or in some cases, negotiated during the agreement's term, regardless of whether the agreement has expired.
Producers often request a performance clause. This specifies that the agent must secure enough deals to meet or exceed a nego- tiated dollar amount during the early part of the agreement's term (e.g., the first one to three years) or the producer would have the right to terminate the agreement (subject to the agent's right to receive commissions for already concluded or negotiated deals). Certain sales agents can provide estimates for license fees or advances for different markets. Producers can require that any agreement that provides for less than the estimate would require the producer's prior, written approval (thereby preventing an agent from making deals at "fire sale" prices).
Agent's commissions can vary from 12.5 percent (a rare occurrence) to as high as 50 percent. The average commission is a flat 20—40 percent, or an agent can receive differ- ent commissions depending on media. However, the amount of the commission is only halt the stop,-; it is important to know from what monies the commissions are payable. At this point, producers get into the nebulous area of "gross," "net," and "adjusted gross." Such labels are not as important as their definitions, which explain bow the monies are calculated. Most agreements are based on "gross" monies, in winch an agent takes a commission "off the top" from the total monies received and then deducts his or her costs and expenses trom what is lett over, with the balance ot monies going to the producer. In other situations, the agent takes the com- mission, then the producer receives a certain percentage (e.g., 20%), then the agent recoups its expenses trom the remaining monies, with the balance remitted to the pro- ducer. A ditterent formula occurs when an agent acts as a distributor in more limited markets and media, such as educational media or home video, since the producer may receive a royalty (e.g., 15-30%) from all monies received by the agent subject to no or limited deductions, with the balance retained by the agent/distributor, who recoups expens- es from this payment.
Agents sometimes enter into an arrange- ment with a sub-distributor tor a specific ter- ritory. Because the sub-distributor will also take a commission and needs to recoup
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If an agent insists that a producer be subject to a "default and termination" clause, the producer should insist on a "notice and cure provision."
expenses, this reduces the bal- ance of monies remitted to the producer. To prevent or limit excessive or "double com- missions," the agreement between the producer and the agent should limit the
amount an
agent can tack on for a sub-dis- tributor's fee without the pro- ducer's prior, written approval, or stipulate that the fee should come out of the agent's commis-
sion. Producers should receive accounting state- ments along with payments on a quarterly basis for the first two years and then semi-annually thereafter (since the bulk of a project's monies generally are earned during the initial few years of an agreement's term). Such statements should include a producer's report, which spec- ifies the monies generated per deal, as well as a breakdown of how an agent incurred expenses (e.g., costs of attending a market, preparing marketing materials, etc.). Copies of licensing agreements entered into by the agent should be made available to the producer.
In some cases, producers may want to exam- ine the agent's books and records pertaining to a project. Such audit rights are generally enforceable by a producer no more than once per year. Since the cost can be expensive, pro- ducers should have a reasonable belief that the financial success of a project justifies such an examination. Although an audit is usually done at the producer's expense, producers can include a provision in the agreement whereby the agent would assume the cost if the audit reveals a discrepancy of a certain percentage (e.g., 5-10 percent).
A producer should insist on a provision in which an agreement can be terminated it the agent should default in its obligations — not meeting the "performance clause" standard, tor
48 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
instance, or failing to provide statements or monies. The agreement should provide for a period in which the agent is notified of an alleged default and given a certain time period (e.g., 10-30 days) to remedy it. If an agreement is terminated, the producer receives the mate- rials he or she paid for or provided to agent. If an agent insists that a producer be subject to a "default and termination" clause, the producer should insist on a "notice and cure provision."
Producers should require that no alterations be made to their projects without their prior, written consent, except for alterations made for censorship purposes or program length — excep- tions that enhance an agent's ability to make deals with foreign third parties. Mediamakers may balk at such a provision and insist on no alternations to their work without their prior written consent. However, different cultural standards and programming needs may require such edits, and a possible deal may fall apart as producers grapple with this creative versus eco- nomic debate.
Mediamakers should insist on an arbitration provision for the resolution of disputes. Most producers (and their counsel) prefer arbitra- tion, since it is usually more efficient and less expensive than litigation. Most agents have deeper pockets than producers and are more likely to win a war of attrition. Further, sales agents generally want disputes to be argued where he or she is based. However, a compro- mise can be offered in which the jurisdiction of the party bringing the claim would govern, or the mediamaker agrees to the agent's jurisdic- tion provided that the sales agreement has an arbitration clause. Producers generally should insist that the prevailing party in any arbitra- tion be entitled to recovery of attorneys' fees and reasonable costs.
Beyond any "deal points," mediamakers should keep two points in mind: (1) producers should work with agents who are both realisti- cally enthusiastic about a project's sales possi- bilities and knowledgeable about the market- place, so all parties understand where and how to approach buyers and licensees; and (2) pro- ducers should engage the services of an experi- enced entertainment attorney to negotiate the deal between the producer and the agent.
Producers should bear in mind that they will prevail on some points, compromise on a few, and concede a few others. The key is to know what to ask for, be prepared to negotiate, and know which points are deal-breakers and which are do-able.
Robert L. Seigel is a New York-based entertainment attorney and a principal in Cinema Film Consulting.
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January/February 1 998 T H E I N D E P E N D E N T 49
FESTIVALS
[festivals@aivf.org]
by Thomas Pallotta
i listings do not constitute an ™ endorsement. since some details may change after the magazine goes to press, we recommend that you contact the festival directly before sending preview cassettes. deadline for sub- mitting a call for entries in the festi- val column is the 15th of the month two-and-a-half months prior to cover date (e.g., jan 15 for april issue). all blurbs should include: festival dates, categories, prizes, entry fees, dead- lines, formats & contact info. to improve our reliability and make this column more beneficial, we encourage all mediamakers to contact fivf with changes, criticism, or praise for fes- tivals profiled.
Domestic
AVIGNON/NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL, Apr 24-May 3, NY. Deadline: Feb 15. Avignon/New York Film Fest is the American version of the 15 year-old Avignon Film Fest, with a top line-up of film pre- mieres, retrospectives, VIP encounters, seminars & fetes. Audience vote decides 4 winners, awards total $25,000 in encouragements to 2 winning feature directors 6k 2 short directors. Formats: 35mm 6k 16mm; preview on VHS (NTSC, PAL or SECAM) Entry Fee: $25. Contact: Jerome Henry Rudes, General Director, French-American Film Workshop, 198 Avenue of Americas, New York, NY 10013; (212) 343-2675; fax: 343-1849; jhr2001@aol.com <www.francetelecom.com>
ASIAN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, July, NY. Deadline: mid-March. Organized by Asian CineVision, NYC-based nat'l media arts center. Noncompetitive fest, created in 1978, country's oldest showcase for Asian 6k Asian American filmmakers. After its NY premiere, embarks on 10-month tour of N. America. Films pro- duced, directed 6k/or written by artists of Asian her- itage eligible. Features 6k shorts in all cats accepted. Formats: 35mm, 16mm; preview on cassette or 16mm. Entry fee: $10. Contact: Asian American Film Int'l Film Festival, ACV, 32 East Broadway, 4th tl., NY, NY 10002; (212) 925-8685; fax: 925-8157; ACVinNYC(S aol.com
BERKSHIRE WOMEN'S FILM & VIDEO FES- TIVAL, July 31 - Aug. 2, MA. Deadline: Feb. 15. Co-sponsored by Celebrate Berkshire Women Artists, Inc. and Berkshire Media Women. This Festival will be part of the Koussevitzky Arts Festival of Berkshire Community College. Applicants must be women who reside in the Berkshire region (defined as including areas adjacent to Berkshire County, MA) Entries must be at least produced, directed or written by a woman. Entries must be in VHS format. Formats: VHS, 3/4", 16mm or 35 mm.
Entry fee; $25 for up to 40 minutes, $35 for longer. A professional independent panel will select films/videos in 3 categories: Documentary, Narrative
and Animation then screened at Festival and Best in each category. Contact: Eleanor Lord, Celebrate Berkshire Women Artists, Box 477, Stockbridge MA
01262; (413) 298-3384.
CALIFORNIA SUN INTERNATIONAL ANI- MATION FESTIVAL, April, CA. Deadline: Feb. 1 1. Vidimation, an Associated Students organization of California State University, Northridge invites animators world-wide to submit their work. All forms 6k styles of animation accepted. CSUN is located in the Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley, minutes from Disney, Warner Bros., Dreamworks 6k other major animation studios. Program will be selected by panel including top industry animators. best will showcase animation to the University Community 6k Los Angeles/Hollywood animation industry. Awards: "The Golden Sun" (cash), plus the top three "Silver Ani's." Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Beta, 3/4", 1/2". Entry fee $25. Preview on 1/2" VHS- NTSC. Contact: California SUN Animation Fest, Attn. Liane Polosky/Vidimation, Dept. of Art-mail drop 8300, California State University, Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330; (818) 382-2909; videoart(5 csun.edu <www.csun.edu/~jpr45052/anifest>
CANYONLANDS FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL,
April, UT. Deadline: Mar 1. Fest est. 1995. Special consideration given to works presenting thought- provoking material, in cats: Dramatic Features 6k Shorts, Doc. Feature, Doc. Short, Southwestern Regional Issues (or work filmed in the region) and epecially, Westerns. Other cats. incl. Avant- Garde/Exp., Comedy, Outdoor Adventure (moun- tain biking 6k river running), Student Produced and Animation. Any genre which offers solutions, ideas and/or hopeful futures based on positive change given special consideration. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, 1/2", 3/4". Entry fee: $30 (35mm, $25 (16mm, 1/2", 3/4") 6k $20 (Student). Contact: Nicholas Brown, Canyonlands Film 6k Video festival, 435 River Sands Road, Moab, UT 84532; (435) 259-9135; <http://moab-utah.com/film/video/festival.html>
CAROLINA FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL,
April 1-4, NC. Deadline: Mar. 10. Univ. of North Carolina fest, now in 8th yr, has goal of showcasing best student 6k ind. film 6k video in all genres, incl. animation, doc, experimental, narrative 6k hybrid. About 50 works screened in competition. Awards of $2,500+ in cash 6k Kodak film stock. Entry fee: $20 (students), $30 (independents). Formats: 16mm, BETA, 1/2"; prescreening on VHS. Contact: Killian Heilsberg, Carolina Film 6k Video Festival, Broadcasting/Cinema Program, 100 Carmichael Bldg, UNCG, Greensboro, NC 27412-5001; (910) 334-5360; fax: 334-5039; akheilsb(a hamlet.uncg. edu <www.uncg.edu/cbt/CFVF.html>
CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTI- VAL, Aug. 12-16, 1998, IL. Deadline: May 15th. Late deadline June 1st. Competitive festival now in its 5th year featuring works of underground, inde- pendent and experimental film and video makers. Looking for works of a controversial, cutting-edge, transgressive and/or politically incorrect nature. Past guest filmmakers have included Richard Kern,
Kenneth Anger, George Kuchar, Beth R and John Waters, 1998 gusts to be announced. Also presents festival sponsored screenings throughout the year. ( lash prizes given to the best film or video in these categories; feature, Short, Experimental, Doc. and Animation. Audience Choice awards also present- ed. Entry Fee $30. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, S-8, Video. Preview on 1/2" VHS. Contact: Bryan Wendort, Chicago Underground Film Festival, 2501 North Lincoln Ave. Ste. 278, Chicago, IL 60614; (773) 866-8660; fax: 342-7192; int"1" cuff.org <www. cuff.org>
CONDUIT, mid-Mar, TX. Deadline: Feb. 15. 2nd annual fest celebrates the convergence/collision of various media and computing technologies by pro- viding a showcase for cutting edge digital media from around the world. Seeks film, video, comput- er animation, CD-ROM, or website work. Preview on VHS-NTSC. Official sidebar of SXSW film and multi-media fest. Entry fee: $10 Contact: Conduit, 911 Congress, Austin, TX 78701; (512) 469-1799; fax: 469-5807; d9(« eden.com
DOMINIQUE DUNNE MEMORIAL VIDEO COMPETITION AND FESTIVAL, May, CO. Deadline: Apr. 15. 28th yr of int'l competition for originally produced videos by high school students, open to any student currenly enrolled in high school grades 9-12 or college freshman entering a film produced w/in past 12 mos. Entries must be sole work of student filmmaker or filmmakers, w/ 2/3 original content. Awards in dramatic/narrative (8-24 mins), experimental (3-12 mins), stop action/computer animated (non prize cat). 1st prize $300, 2nd prize $200, 3rd prize $100. Entry fee: $10 6k SASE. Formats: 1/2". Contact: David Manley, fest coordinator, Dominique Dunne Memorial Video Competition 6k Festival, Fountain Valley School of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO 80911; (719) 392-2657.
FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL, June 12-21, FL. Deadline: Feb 15. 7th year of this 10-day event fea- turing foreign 6k U.S. ind. films (feature, short, doc, narrative, experimental, animation), seminars, Midnight movies, Florida student competition, cel- ebrations 6k special guests. Held at Enzian Theater, major ind. non-profit cinema 6k media arts center, fest has evolved from exhibition-only fest to juried competition. In each of the features, docs 6k shorts cat, there is a Jury Award, Audience Award 6k 1 other award at jury's discretion. Entries for compe- tition must have at least 51% US funding. Features must be 50 min. or more. Fest also sponsors sever- al curated sidebars, special events, seminars 6k receptions. Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Video (for Computer Animation 6k student competetion only). Preview on 1/2" VHS. Entry fee: $15-30. Contact: Matthew Curtis, program din, Florida Film Fest, Enzian Theatre, 1300 S. Orlando Ave., Maitland, FL 32571; (407) 629-1088; fax: 629- 6870; filmfest(« gate.net <www.enzian.org>
GEN ART FILM FESTIVAL, Apr 29- May 5, NY. Deadline Feb 15. Now in its 3rd year, GEN ART is New York City's foremost curated, non- competitive fest championing American indepen- dent film and its audiences. Fest offers gala New York premiere attended by enthusiastic fllmgoers, critics, and industry professionals followed by
50 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
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6 hour workshops over 2-3 weeks. Individual tutoring packages available. New Multimedia Production Studio rental rates also available. Classes limited to 10 students.
To register or receive a complete class schedule contact: HARVESTWORKS 596 Broadway. Suite 602. NYC 10012 2 12.43 1. 1 130x16, http://www.avsi.com/haryesrworlcs.
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January 16, 1998
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IFP SERVICE!
Independent Producers Seminar TRANSCRIPTS)
( in the Clear: Production Contracts Laid Bare)
Don't litter you chances for a clean distribution deal with messy paperwork. Avoid future problems with expert advice. Clearances, releases, music rights, crew, talent and location contracts, product placement and the issue of "fair use" are highlighted in this frank and practical discussion, moderator: Alyse Bezahler, Associate Producer/UPM. The Ice Storm panelists: Vicki Cherkas. Vice President. Business and Legal Affairs, Miramax Films; Wendy Cohen, Production Resources, Product Placements and Clearances; Gary Kauffman, Gary Kauffman. Esq; llene Landress. Producer, HBO's The Soprano's-, Steven Schupak. Manager. Hennmger Media Services
(^Producer's Notebook)
A director's most valuable asset is a dynamic producer How do producer's nurture talent, finance their projects, cut deals, and get your film the best possible release? moderator: Lydia Dean Pilcher, Producer. Chinese Box. Kama Sutra panelist: Anthony Bregman, Vice President, Production, Good Machine/Good Machine International; Margot Bridger, Producer, The Delta-, Sarah Vogel, Co-President, Seneca Falls Productions
{Evaluating the Worth of Your Script)
(Sponsored by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc) How do you determine the best avenues of development for your project? What can you do to legitimize your script in the eyes of the marketplace? How do you assess the budget parameters of your script when targeting potential investors? What options are available to you after you have submitted you script? Get clued in with this panel of experts, introduction: Sara Rose, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Orion Pictures Corporation moderator: Anne Carey, Vice President of Development, Good Machine/Good Machine International panelists: Herb Beigel, Writer/Director, Camp Stories; Jill Bock, Literary Agent, The Tantleff Office; David Miner, 3 Arts Entertainment; Tom Noonan, Writer/Director, The Wife; Michelle Satter, Director of Feature Film Program, Sundance Institute
(Selling Your Film)
Q
(Sponsored by Rudolf & Beer, LLP) Strategies and mis-strategies for filmmakers are compared in this detailed discussion devoted to the various decisions facing a filmmaker with a just-completed project. Where should you launch your film — at an industry or festival screening? How do you use the festival circuit to leverage a distribution deal? Should you split rights? Hire a publicist before it's sold? Try and find your own finishing money? These and other questions will be answered, mooerator: Jed Alpert. Attorney, Rudolf & Beer, LLP panelist: Jay Chandrasekhar. Director, Puddlecruiser. Robert Kessel, Director of Acquisitions, Miramax Films; Marcia Kirkley, Producer, Sudden Manhattan-. Charlotte Mickie. Senior Vice President. International Film Sales. Alliance Communications /"W/e/j ""
SAG Contracts 101 (or Indies: The Inside ScoopJ\fllJ^ ^PhZde!"1
\rj wwy limitpH (Sponsored by Screen Actors Guild) Join SAG for an "off-the-record" discussion\^__3 that puts all SAG agreements under the magnifying glass. Questions are hypothetical and no detail too small. A special focus on the new low budget agreements is a must for independents1 moderator: Sallie Weaver, Director. Production Development and Performer Rights, SAG panelists: Jason Beghe. Actor. G.I. lane-. Angelina Jolie, Actor, George Wallace-Asm Kilik, Producer, Dead Man Walking. Clockers, Basquiat.
( Attracting and Securing Talent for Budget-Minded Indies)
(Sponsored by FILMMAKER Magazine) Can you create your dream cast and stay within your budget? What kind of casting strategies have worked to create breakout indie film? More than ever today, casting drives film financing and development. How do you make an offer without a finance scale7 Avoid mis-casting with tips to guide you toward the stars, moderator: Scott Macaulay, Editor, FILMMAKER Magazine/Co-Producer, Gummo panelists: David Miner. 3 ARts Entertainment; Tim Perell. Co-President, Eureka Pictures; Laura Rosenthal, Casting Director, Juliet Taylor Casting
PACKAGE SET: Buy all 6 transcripts for $50 (members), $65 (non-members) INDIVIDUAL TRANSCRIPTS: $15 each (members),
$20 each (non-members) Call (212) 465-8244 ext.2800 to order by phone or download from IFP's website IndieLink: www.ifp.org
INDEPENDENT FEATURE PROJECT-Supporting independent filmmaking for 19 years!
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Art assemblage by Linda 5. Parker
spectacular party at one of Manhattan's Hippest nightspots. Fest's unique format of screening only one
feature and one short film per night for seven nights allows Gen Art to truly highlight the work of all par- ricipating filmmakers. Formats: 35mm, 16mm; pre- view on 1/2". Entry fees: $15 shorts, $25 features. Submitted work should be completed after Jan 1996. NYC theatrical premiere required. All genres of films, including narrative, doc, experimental 6k animated works are accepted. No videos or works in progress. Contact: Deena Juras, fest din, GEN ART Film Fest, 145 W. 28th St., Suite 11C, New York, NY 10001; (212) 290-0312; fax: 290-0254; genart@emedia.net <www.genart.org>
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FILM & VIDEO DANCE, Jun 1 1-25, NC. Deadline: Jan 26. 3rd annual fest. Cats include: Choreography for the Camera, Doc & Experimental. Fest will be major sur- vey of dance for the camera in the global community of dance 6k will provide an overview of the current trends 6k practices of artists 6k choreographers work- ing in both film 4k video, as well as an historic survey of the genre. Format: VHS in NTSC or PAL. Entry Fee: $25. Contact: Rebecca Hix, American Dance Fest, Box 90772, Durham, NC 27708-0772; (919) 684-6402; rhix@acpub.duke.edu <www.americandancefestival.org>
I INTERNATIONAL JEWISH VIDEO COMPE- TITION, June, CA. Deadline: Mar. 31. Now in 5th
| yr, competition accepts entries on Jewish themes from every level 6k cat of prod, includ. audio 6k interactive
| media. All original formats accepted but entries must be submitted on VHS-NTSC, produced w/in preced- ing 3 1/2 yrs 6k be under 100 min. Awards: Jurors' Choice (share $750); Jurors' Citation (share $500), Directors' Choice (share $250); Honorable Mention (certificate 6k screenings); Lindheim Award for pro- gram that best explores political 6k social relationship between Jews 6k other ethnic 6k religious groups. Winners screened at Magnes Museum for 2 mos, as well as cable 6k other venues. Formats: 3/4", 1/2", Beta. Entry fee $25 under 30 min., $35 over 31 min.
| Contact: Bill Chayes, video competition coordinator, Judah L. Magnes Museum, 291 1 Russell St., Berkeley,
|CA 94705; (510) 549-6952; fax: (510) 849-3673; jewvideo(gslip.net or wchayes@aol.com <www.slip.net/ — jewvideo>
L.A. FREEWAVES, Sept, CA. Deadline: Feb 2. 6th Celebration of independent video 6k new media seeks video's, CD-ROMs, WWW pages, interactive digital, proposals for video installations 6k performances. Will screen narrative, doc, animation 6k experimental works by artists, activists 6k mediamakers. Submissions accepted: NTSC 3/4" or VHS, Mac- compatable CD-ROMs, WWW addresses, 1-2 page proposals for installations 6k performances w/ support materials (video documention, slides, etc.) Will also consider proposals for video bus tours that link alter- native art spaces 6k community centers in Southern California. Include bio or resume, as well as publicity material of video scans in PICT or TIFF formats Entry fee: $10. Contact: L.A. Freewaves, 2151 Lake shore Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039; (213) 664-1510; fax: 664-1577; freewaves@aol.com <www.freewaves.org>
NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL, June 16-21, MA. Deadline: Apr. 10. Screenplay Competition
52 THE INDEPENDENT January/February 1 998
Deadline: March 20. The Nantucket Film Festival, honoring screenwriters 6k their craft, presents feature films, short films, docs, staged readings, QekA with filmmakers, panel discussions, and the Morning Coffee With... series. Writers are encouraged to pre- sent their films and works-in-progress and get feed- back from other screenwriters and filmmakers. Film Submissions: entry must not have had commercial distribution or US broadcast. Formats: 35mm, 16mm; preview on 1/2". Entry fee: $40 features; $25 shorts (35 minutes or less). Screenplay Competition: The Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting Competition, sponsored by Showtime Networks, entry must he screenwriter's original, unproduced work. Entry tee: $40. Contact: Jill Goode, Artistic Director, Nantucket Film Festival, PO Box 688, Prince St. Station, New York, NY 10012; (212) 642-6339 <www.nantucketfilmfestival.org>
NEW YORK VIDEO FESTIVAL, July, NY. Deadline: Mar 16. Originally presented as pan of the New York Film Festival, this noncompetitive test is now an independent project, presented in association with the Lincoln Center's summer fest. It aims to pre- sent the latest in electronic arts and had included video, HDTV & CD-ROM. All videos shown are sin- gle channel, projected in the Film Society's 268-seai Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. Multi- channel video installations ate on view in the the- ater's Furman gallery. There are no categories or awards. Average of 40 works presented m 14 pro- grams; coverage in New York Times is. Village Voice, as well as out-of-town ex. inf.'] coverage. Submitted works should be recent (w/in past two years); New York premieres preferred, but not required. Formats: 3/4", 1/2", Beta, CD-ROM; preview on 3/4", 1/2", CD-ROM (tor pc). Entry Fee: None. Do not send masters, tapes not returned. Contact: New York Video Fest, Film Society of Lincoln Center, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, NY, NY 1002 3; (212) 875- 5610; fax: 875-5636; filmlinc(S dn.net < www.filmlinc.com >
NEWARK BLACK FILM FESTIVAL, July, NJ. Deadline: early March. 6-wk summer test ot films by African-American filmmakers ex films featuring his- tory 6k culture of Black people in America 6x else- where. Fest, now over 2 decades, has screened over 500 films before total audiences of almost 85,000. Paul Robeson Awards are biennial, next competition is 1999. Fest accepts noncommercial, ind. films 6k videos completed in previous 2 yrs in cats ot doc, non-doc, animation 6a experimental. Original 16mm films 6k videos released w/in previous 2 yrs consid eied; industrial, commercial or studio prods ineligi- ble. Committee representing sponsors 6k community arranges test 6a selects films. Cash prizes awarded at discretion ot judges. Fest is tree to public 6k co-spon- sored by Newark Museum, Newark Public Library, Newark Symphony Hall, New Jersey Inst, of Technology and Rutgers University/Newark. Entry fee: $25 (Robeson competiton). Contact: Program Coordinator, Newark Black Film Festival, Newark Museum, 49 Washington Street, Box 540, Newark, NJ 07101-0540; (201) 596-6550; fax: 642-0459.
NIGHT OF THE BLACK INDEPENDENTS FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL, May 17-18, GA. Deadline: April 23. Sponsored by NBI, a nonprofit organization ot African-American filmmakers provid- ing opportunity for independent artists to exhibit and
It snot the 1 e n that counts. .. _
It s what you do with it
Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival June 1 to 7, 1998
CALL FOR ENTRIES: Deadline March 1, 1998.
Guerilla Tactics workshop*: Register to win FREE Kodak film, Deluxe Toronto processing, Panavlslon equipment and Medallion PFA post
For Information call our hotllno: 416-535-4457
JOIN AIVF
Resources, strong connections, and the best information available. Join with more than 5,000 other independent producers who con- sider AIVF vital to their professional lives.
THE INDEPENDENT FILM
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January/February 1 998 T H E I N 0 E P E N 0 E N T 53
FLORIDA
CALL FOR ENTRIES
FESTIVAL
Deadline: February 27, 1998 Late Deadline: March 27, 1998
16mm & 35mm Features Documentary
Juried Competition Shorts Animation
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THE SEVENTH FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL
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"Thanks for the best time I've ever had at a film festival." Chris Gore, Film Threat
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