A Busy November
This past month has been a whirlwind of travel! I kicked off November in Toronto from the 1st – 7th for the Parliament of World Religions (this was for one of our projects – but I am getting quite a few spiritually oriented projects lately).
Then it was on to NYC for November 8th-15th. First at Doc NYC to deliver a “manifesto”on independent film releases and data as part of the DOC NYC: PRO Series on Tuesday the 13th This is approximately nine years after my manifesto on hybrid distribution that I gave at CPH:DOX just prior to launching Think Outside the Box Office. (I still remember going over proofs in my Copenhagen hotel room). While in New York, I was also helping to run the IFP Filmmaker Lab in Marketing and Distribution for first-time filmmakers. This year’s lab was full of exciting and inspirational projects including:
512 Hours, directed by Giannina La Salvia and Adina Istrate. For 512 hours, hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world flocked to experience the latest exhibition by acclaimed performance artist, Marina Abramović.
Socks on Fire: Uncle John and the Copper Headed Water Rattlers, directed by Bo McGuire. Socks on Fire documents the fluidity of identity, personality, and performance in one particular place, after a failed poet returns home to Hokes Bluff, Alabama to discover that his aunt has locked his drag-queen uncle out of the family home.
Border South, directed by Raúl O. Paz Pastrana. Told against the backdrop of the North American migrant trail, Border South weaves together migrant stories from different vantage points.
The Burning Field, directed by Justin Weinrich. The Burning Field presents a unique portrait of life in an environmental wasteland through the eyes of four young people who live and work in Agbogbloshie, one of the largest unregulated E-waste dumps on earth.
Flood, directed by Katy Scoggin. In Flood, a jaded filmmaker convinces herself she can fix her strained relationship to her evangelical dad by writing a father-daughter screenplay with a happy ending.
The In Between, directed by Robie Flores. The In Between is a poetic ode to a greater reality of the border than the one portrayed on the news, offering a nuanced and intimate portrait of a place and its people at the heart of Mexican-American identity.
1982, directed by Oualid Mouaness, and edited by Sabine El Gemayel, director of Generation Zapped. In the narrative feature, 1982, an 11-year-old boy is determined to tell a girl in his class that he loves her but has trouble finding the courage to do so until the unexpected occurs; an air invasion reaches Beirut and the school is being evacuated. He gets even more determined.
Clementine, directed by Lara Jean Gallagher. In Clementine, a heartbroken woman steals away to her estranged lover’s lake house and becomes entangled with a teenage girl.
House of Hummingbird, directed by Bora Kim. Seoul, 1994 — In the year the Seongsu bridge collapsed, a teenage girl named Eunhee wanders the city searching for love.
Lost Bayou, directed by Brian C Miller Richard. After news of her mother’s death, a struggling addict ventures out into the Louisiana swampland to reconnect with her estranged “traiteur” (Cajun faith healer) father, only to discover he is hiding a troubling secret aboard his houseboat.
The DOC:NYC manifesto on data was the 2nd talk I am doing on this subject and not the last – stay tuned for more presentations as well as information coming through this newsletter and the updated blog. Sonja Henrici from the Scottish Documentary Institute and did a joint presentation on the importance of data for filmmakers at this year’s IDA Getting Real Conference in September.
Check back for our next blog when I breakdown a short case study for one of my current projects, The Gate: Dawn of the Baha’i Faith.