Toronto readies for 32nd International FIlm Festival

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Toronto readies for 32nd International FIlm Festival

TORONTO '07 Fest Set With 349 Film Slate;

Cowan Unveils Serious, Political 32nd TIFF
by Eugene Hernandez (August 22, 2007)
349 films from 55 countries are set for the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, organizers are revealing this morning in Canada. "There is a lot of soul-searching and a lot of extremely gifted, overwhelmingly passionate cinema in the festival this year, TIFF co-director Noah Cowan told indieWIRE in a conversation yesterday.

"These are filmmakers who are out to transform the way we see the world, they are out to make a difference." As previously announced, the event will kick-off with Canadian Jeremy Podeswa's "Fugitive Pieces" (photo, r.) on September 6th and close with Paolo Barzman's "Emotional Arithmetic" on September 15th.

The massive Toronto fest boasts some 340,000 annual admissions and Cowan is preparing attendees for a challenging, serious roster of some provocative and even quite political films. "The tenor of the work coming particularly from the U.S. is fiercely political, aesthetically challenging, and will probably go down as a real beginning of a real golden age for American cinema in a time of war and strife," Cowan envisioned. "There are so many examples, its a little overwhelming," he added, specifically noting films such as Alan Ball's "Nothing is Private," Stuart Townsend's "Battle in Seattle," and even Tom McCarthy's more subtle, "The Visitor."
The entire 349 film lineup for the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, is available in a complete 17 page PDF document.

Joining the Toronto lineup today are new films from Sidney Lumet, Jason Reitman, and even new, unseen documentaries from Michael Moore, Jonathan Demme and Julian Schnabel. Added to the fests Gala Presentations section are Renny Harlin's "Cleaner," Richard Attenborough's "Closing The Ring," Alain Corneau's "Le Deuxieme Souffle," Robin Swicord's "The Jane Austen Book Club," Kenneth Branagh's "Sleuth," and Paul Schrader's "The Walker." While in the Masters section, the event has added Wayne Wang's "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" and "The Princess of Nebraska."
Some 275 films on the fest roster are features or mid-length titles, according to today's announcement and while planners have downplayed talk of premiere status in previous press releases this summer, organizers are touting that 85 percent of their films are having either a world, international or North American premiere at the festival this year. Saying that some film critics may have a challenge ahead of them at the festival, Cowan explained, "There is very serious, provocative work that needs to be judged at the very highest levels of criticism."

"This is not the American filmmaking we've become used to over the last decade," Cowan said. And citing such films as Neil Jordan's "The Brave One" and Terry George's "Reservation Road," added, "This all feels very much like the 70s vigilante movies." Noting such films as Gavin Hood's "Rendition," and Tony Gilroy's "Michael Clayton," Cowan highlighted some "very mainstream movies which have huge ambitions in terms of their political context." And then, singling out Paul Haggis' "In The Valley of Elah," Brian DePalma's "Redacted," and Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha," he noted that those films directly confront, "what happens to American boys when they are sent into a war that doesn't make sense." Parallels with movies such as "The Deer Hunter" and "Apocalypse Now" are evident, he said, and "comes from the same sense of rage that drove those filmmakers."

New titles in the Special Presentations section this year are Sidney Lumet's "Before The Devil Knows Your're Dead," Melisa Wallack and Bernie Goldmann's "Bill," Michael Moore's "Captain Mike Across America," Gillian Armstrong's "Death Defying Acts," Vadim Perelman's "In Bloom," Jason Reitman's "Juno," Ira Sachs' "Married Life," Jonathan Demme's "Man From Plains," Alison Eastwood's "Rails & Ties," Brian De Palma's "Redacted," Brad Furman's "The Take," Thomas McCarthy's "The Visitor," and Anand Tucker's "When Did You Last See Your Father."

Added to the Real to Reel documentary section are Paul Crowder and Murray Lerner's "Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who," Julian Schnabel's "Lou Reed's Berlin," Ran Tal's "Children of The Sun," Philippe Kholy's "Callas Assoluta," Wang Bing's "Fengming: A Chinese Memoir," Grant Gee's "Joy Division," Olga Konskaya and Andrei Nekrasov's "Rebellion: The Litvienko Case," and Jia Zhang-ke's "Useless."
"It has been a long summer," admitted Noah Cowan, explaining that festival programmers have been debating filmmaker's ideas and agendas during screenings the past few months. "This is not normal procedure in our screening rooms," Cowan said. "I hope that the same debates that we had all summer long are going to translate ot the press and public screenings at the festival."
On the industry side, Cowan predicts a tighter roster of titles aiming for distribution. "It became clear early on that this was going to be a very crowded fall for important cinema from major distributors," Noah Cowan told indieWIRE, "As a result, we've strived to be very careful about the number of acquisition titles that would be on offer here in Toronto." With industry executives in Toronto to both launch Fall titles into awards season and also try to catch buyers screenings, Cowan acknowledged that TIFF is, "unlike Sundance where a distributor can really focus on the acquisition bidding." He noted, "We are aware of the fact that we serve many masters here."

Cowan told indieWIRE that organizers have eased up on emphasizing premiere status in their programming, even though the event still maintains a high percentage of debuts. "Nobody can agree what constitutes a premiere anymore," Cowan said. "Focusing on premieres has lead to films getting hurt," he said candidly, "The European model which insists on all world premieres all the time, that doesn't necessarily benefit the films having those premieres."

On the other hand, Noah Cowan explained, "World premieres are important at a major event. Getting the balance right is something we are always striving to figure out [and] we do play the game, too." Citing the Alan Ball's 'Nothing is Private', in which he discouraged the producers of the film from taking it to another festival, he noted, "That's the kind of movie that we can make a huge difference around and create massive momentum."

"Bigger, better and fewer was our mantra in terms of films that were seeking U.S. distribution," Cowan added on Tuesday, noting this year's available films include a mix of high-profile non-English language titles, a half-dozen high profile films with big stars, and a few horror titles.
Cowan also plugged the festivals Canadian films, particularly titles that were placed in some of the event's highest profile sections. He noted the continuing maturity of the generation after Cronenberg and Egoyan, highlights such filmmakers as Francois Girard, Jeremy Podeswa, and Clement Virgo. "There are no favors being done here," Cowan said, "The bench is deep," adding that the cherry on top for the fest is the world premiere of David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises."

"Ultimately, the difference is that we are an audience based festival, the blend of material is based on what people here in Toronto are looking forward to seeing," Cowan told indieWIRE, "I think we've struck a balance between titles aiming for commercial distribution alongside films by great masters. They seem to have blended this year."
Continuing coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival is available in a special section at indieWIRE.com.

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New Community Radio Station is Launched in Key West

A new radio station, KONK-AM on the dial, was launched on May 26,2009, in Key West. It has evolved to its current place on the dial, at 1500AM, broadcasting from studios at 1106 White Street in the island city and can be heard from Islamorada to Havana, Cuba.

It is Community Radio, broadcasting its AM signal from a tower on Stock Island, and is most easily heard, cystal clear, on the web site, http://www.konkam.com/

I host my own show, ARTWAVES, weekdays at 11am until noon.
We talk about the arts, it's value, impact, where we find it, create it, support it. My guests range the full gamut, from filmmakers, poets, writers, sculptors, painters, jugglers/buskers, dancers (from ballet to modern), musicians of all stripes, arts administrators, policy makers and shakers, and advocates, gallery owners and operators, photographers, even a longboard artisan who creates stunning pieces from woods found only in the Keys, theater actors and directors, operatic singers, divas from dive bars and lounges, treasure hunters and finders, too!

Join in weekdays. Each hour brings another show host, a new program on different topics and issues. All Talk Radio, with live music added in as well. Tune in! Catch a wave...

Blame it all on the 70's

Author Thomas Hine argues we're still suffering from that "slum of a decade" that brought us gas lines, pantsuits and shag rugs.

If the left and right agree on almost nothing else, we agree at least on this: America's in terrible shape. Such shocking shape that -- how did we come to this? -- it might not actually survive.
And there our dialogue dissolves. The things about America you diagnose as lethal are the very things your megachurch-belonging cousin with the rifle rack in his truck prays might save its life. And vice-versa. Gay rights. Abortion rights. Prayer in the schools. Environmentalism. Corporations. Porn. There the shouting, and possibly shooting, begins.
How did we come to this? It's the '70s' fault, writes Thomas Hine in The Great Funk: Falling Apart and Coming Together (on a Shag Rug) in the Seventies (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2007), a richly if incriminatingly illustrated book about a traumatic "slum of a decade" in which "the country was running out of promise."
Well, the '60s were a hard act to follow.
"Only a decade before," Hine muses, "as the nation anticipated the conquest of space, the defeat of poverty, an end to racism and a society where people moved faster and felt better than they ever had before, it seemed that there was nothing America couldn't do." Flash-forward through Watergate, gas crises, helicopters escaping Saigon -- and "to live in the seventies was to live in a fallen world, one of promises broken and trust betrayed." Hine ticks off that decade's insults to heart, mind and eye: "The politicians were awful. The economy was awful. The insipid harvest gold and avocado kitchens were awful." Ditto gas lines, AMC Pacers, and pantsuits.
Nearly everyone who lived through those years would nod, flinching.
An eternal question about any era during which one was young is: Was the whole world embarrassing, or was it just me? As regards the '70s: It wasn't just you. A longtime design critic -- thus more sensitive than most to beanbag chairs and Bicentennial-patterned carpeting -- Hine painstakingly skewers pyramid power and Virginia Slims in chapters whose pop-culture-referencing titles evoke the chronic inferiority complex of those disappointed times: "Running on Empty," for instance, and "It's Too Late," and "Not Ready for Prime Time?"
Yet his skewering has an obligatory quality, a must-mock-Midler delliberateness. It's a setup. Because this book's real point is to burrow deep into the shag rugs and chest hair and extract wisdom. Yes, your dad lost his job. And disco sucked. But from an era that is all too easy to dismiss as silly, trivial and grim sprang most of the essential issues inflaming our discourse today. Grounds for celebration or destruction or for civil war, depending on whom you ask, were cultivated in that decade, in a petrie dish that smelled of Diet Pepsi, amyl nitrate, apple-spice air freshener and, well, funk.
Ecology. Diversity. Ethnic and sexual identity. Individuality. Alternative sources of energy. Feminism. Fundamentalist spirituality. Retrace our steps (in Earth shoes and a crocheted vest and Dacron flares, of course) through Jimmy Swaggart and solar-heated geodesic domes and blaxploitation films and the Village People and you will find it there, albeit all innocent and earnest and embryonic. And not just the topics themselves but the ways in which we face them now: our wary citizen-journalist vigilance, questioning authority, scoping out conspiracies, pursuing truthiness. The '60s tend to get all the credit -- for rebellion, for consciousness-raising, for everything. And those who were young in the '70s faced a deafening chorus roaring: You missed the boat and are, indeed, too late.
The era they'd missed had been imbued with a wild easy-rider-come-together optimism. "Even the protestors of the sixties," notes Hine, who is old enough to have been one of them, "objected that America was using its immense wealth and power to do the wrong things, not that it did things wrong. Yet during the seventies it seemed that the United States couldn't do anything right." And it was precisely that shattering of optimism, the serial humiliations of Nixon and Vietnam and ugly urban sprawl and the wracking poverty spawned by inflation and massive layoffs, that spawned a strange new kind of solidarity. A desperate bottom-of-the-barrel creativity. The sneaky kind of freedom that breaks chains and opens doors when -- to paraphrase Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" -- you've got nothing to lose. And that, of course, was the last song Janis Joplin recorded before she died in 1970. Among baby boomers, Hine writes, "the song's refrain ... was heard as a kind of epitaph." Her death was itself a loss, thus one less thing to lose. As was Jimi's, one month before, and Jim Morrison's, one year hence. As was the Beatles' slow-motion collapse: mere markings on a timeline now and, to most, funny ancient history: Yoko smiling and smug, Linda singing off-key into a switched-off mic, flashing past in the neat anodyne black-and-white of documentaries. But to a generation raised to be the center of attention, the first wave to worship rock-'n'-roll, these losses wrought a shocking loss of innocence. The long and winding road was cracked.
But hey. "When the center cannot hold, well, that's good for those out on the edge," Hine reasons. "When the forces of order are revealed to be a malign conspiracy, it's a good time for a party."
And in that spreading uncertainty, "when the system weakened, the oddballs and malcontents found an opening. It became possible to try out identities and find solidarity with other rare birds like yourself." Failures, deaths and disasters had proven space-age optimism and patriotism illusory. Yet as darkness fell without, light swelled within: "Awareness of a world with limits allowed people to impose fewer limits on themselves and to explore frontiers within themselves." Struggling up out of the ruins of shared midcentury assumptions, Americans dusted themselves off and decided that their ripped jeans required patches -- but which to choose? Smiley faces, pot leaves, praying hands? In that scramble, Americans discovered a new icon:
Me.
Not me, who sits here writing this, but "me" as an idea. An ideology. A literature, a style. An endless source of fascination. "Finding your identity was extremely important," Hine writes of an era when "each family member dressed to express" -- with enormous clashing checks and plaids, with star-studded lace-up boots and "fun fur" skirts and factory-embroidered faux batiks, sudsing with a shampoo only the '70s could spawn: It was called Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific. It was an era when, tellingly, Life magazine folded and People began.
Yes, this arguably turned us into narcissists. But Hine strives to show how all that mirror-gazing also brought self-awareness, direction and long-overdue self-acceptance to countless Americans, even if some of the gazing occurred over the tops of cocaine straws. And sometimes me morphed into an empowering we.
"The history of the seventies is dominated by the rise of like-minded but hitherto marginal individuals asserting the validity of their ways of seeing and doing things. Not all these ways of thinking were ultimately liberating. Nevertheless, finding that there were others who thought and felt as you did was liberating itself." The resounding popularity of the 1977 miniseries Roots, for example, "reached far beyond the African-American community" and, "as its title suggested ... spoke to a wider desire by all sorts of people to know about the circumstances and experiences of their forebears and to connect with their traditions. Roots, by telling such a rich story about slaves, for which the historical and genealogical record was presumed to be sparse, encouraged others whose ancestors didn't arrive on the Mayflower to look for evidence of these humbler lives."
Other corporate products, however cynically motivated, served as touchstones for what are today's identity politics. The 1973 film Jesus Christ Superstar, along with Jimmy Carter's born-againism and Hal Lindsey's 1970 megabestseller The Late Great Planet Earth -- which prophesied the end of the world and the Second Coming and sold 28 million copies -- alternately seduced and scared legions of Americans into "a Christian consciousness," Hine writes, "that was very different from the liberal Christianity that had become the consensus during the post-World War II era."
Disco sowed the seeds of technomusic. Funk sowed the seeds of hip-hop. Compact cars -- despite the Pinto's tendency to explode when rear-ended -- sowed the seeds for Priuses. Shattered ideals sowed the seeds of dissent.
The scrutiny was nonstop. "One of the fundamental approaches" of the groundbreaking 1973 women's-health manual Our Bodies, Our Selves "was self-examination," Hine reminds us, "and some passages were written to be read while holding a mirror, so that readers could discover previously unexplored parts of their own bodies. It was easier, however, to learn by looking at someone else's body. Many women recall consciousness-raising sessions at which, speculum in hand, they examined the vaginas of their fellow participants in order to understand what was inside themselves." During those same years, he points out, Hustler magazine revolutionized over-the-counter porn by printing "pink shots" -- interior photos, as it were. Ironically, if for different reasons, "feminists were engaged in much the same exploration."
Apocalyptic and disco fantasies mixed giddily in those years with a yen for authenticity -- by which yogurt and animal-rights activism and vibrators became mainstream, and by which manufacturers got rich churning out decor in feculent "earth tones." And this is what marks the '70s: this urgency, this dazed, tender, ever-so-public awakening on the cusp between Strawberry Fields and multinationals. It was the decade when a hundred pride movements bloomed. So much pride, so little embarrassment.
And that's what makes the '70s, arguably more than any other decade, so embarrassing.
But hey. They wore that Dacron so you wouldn't have to.

NUTCRACKER KEY WEST 2007

The Nutcracker Key West production, just ended at the Tennessee Williams Theatre, has been dazzling, spectacular and simply phenomenal. Joyce Stahl's amazing reimagined staging of the classical ballet with Key West imagery set records as well as setting audiences ablaze with a rapture usually reserved for high cathedrals or the New York stage.
Eleven performances, over 4500 attended, with the last 6 shows sold out. The Paradise Ballet Theatre brought in the many talents of 18 professional dancers from esteemed ballet companies in the US, with Alun Jones reprising his role as choreographer. You can see the amazing photos at http://www.nutcrackerkeywest.com/ and more will be posted here. Plans are already underway to produce a 2008 version, as Joyce is a whirlwind of motion, not stopping or slowing down for a second. The success of this year has obviously encouraged the consideration of mounting the next show, and will advance establishing the Nutcraker Key West as a real tradition in the community.

MidSummer's Night Update

Celebrate the Most Magical Night of the Summer this Monday, August 13

We’re assembling a wonder-full Midsummer’s Night Dream and Perseid Meteor Showers “Salon Spectacle” - a night of feasting, dancing, and theatrical antics celebrating the art and artists of Key West.

Presenting on Monday, August 13, by Michael Shields and Java Studios as a joint production with Marky Pierson, Christa Hunt, and Quincy Perkins, the Salon Spectacle is being hosted by Joyce Stahl at her 727 Eaton Street home, from 7 to 11 PM. The free event has attracted over 50 artist participants including musicians, singers, dancers, painters, fire jugglers, actors, poets, storytellers, and more, with filmmakers capturing and projecting the evening’s action. George Murphy is M.C. for the festivities, with actors from The Studios of Key West “One Night Stand” presenting their 10 minute plays, on the two outdoor stages, with a band and a DJ keeping the beats, urging people to roam the property and delight in the night. Many surprises are in store!

Midsummer’s Night has been observed worldwide by many cultures and seen as a time when the veil between this world and the next was thin, and when powerful forces were abroad. On Midsummer’s, legend held that you could gain the powers of a bard – or on the downside, end up utterly mad, dead, or whisked away by spirit faeries. Romances flourish, affairs are begun, mystery and mischief abound.

While traditionally celebrated on the Summer Solstice, in Key West, Midsummer’s Night is indeed the midpoint of the summer, between the Solstice and the Equinox. It is also the occasion of the annual Perseid Meteor showers, a true celestial event, displaying the most spectacular shooting stars of the year.

Midsummer’s Night “Salon Spectacle” is being created to celebrate why we live here, and to give artists a voice and a platform to share the power of their dreams. The launch of the Salon on this cosmic night of community is intended to stimulate the arts, foster greater awareness and spawn further Salon style projects. All are invited to join the creation of the Midsummer’s Night. Costumes are caliente! Dancing is delightful! Food and beverage provided.

It all begins with a dream. What is yours? Show your star!

Questions?
Call Michael Shields at 305-394-3804, or email michael@javastudios.org

Mid Summer’s Night Dream & the Perseid Meteor Showers SALON SPECTACLE

Come Celebrate the Most Magical Key West Night of Summer and Share Your Dream ! AUGUST 13th.
The evening historically is a fire festival called Midsummer's Day or St. Johns Eve, representing the middle of summer. Traced back many thousands of years, observed throughout Europe by many cultures, and later called St. John's Eve, which was seen as a time when the veil between this world and the next was thin, and when powerful forces were abroad.
Vigils were often held during the night. It was said that if you spent a night at a sacred site during Midsummer Eve, you would gain the powers of a bard, on the down side you could also end up utterly mad, dead, or be spirited away by the spirit faeries. Indeed, St. Johns Eve was a time when faeries were thought to be abroad and at their most powerful (hence Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream). Herbs gathered and foods eaten then are thought to be imbued with the power of the sun. Add to this the influence of the later sister summer festival of Lughnasa and the circle of fire is further made brilliant, promising abundance and peace in the coming harvest (and, an invigorated arts scene in Key West!)

The community gathers on this special night for the Midsummer's SALON. It is a night of feasting, dancing, theatrical antics and celebrating Mother Nature's summer bounty. While traditionally celebrated on the Summer Solstice, in Key West, Midsummer’s Night is indeed the middle of the summer, midway between the Solstice and the Equinox, or also seen as mid-point of the April-November axis when Summer weather prevails.

It is also the occasion of the annual Perseid Meteor showers, a true celestial event, displaying the most spectacular shooting stars of the year, August 12-13, 2007.

The most gifted musicians play their instruments, filling the night with their magical music. Performers from all avenues join to make the evening memorable and marvelous. Dancers swirl, painters create stories, wordsmiths paint pictures, and above all, dreams are woven in the night air and the shooting stars are witness.
PLUS, we’ll have prepared and festive summer food and beverage - the Keys’ most delectable and tasty – And FUN!
You are Invited ! Read ahead…

Key West is a haven for artists and now’s the time to step forward to further deepen our appreciation for the arts on this truly celestial evening.
Mid Summer’s Night is ideal to celebrate that we live here, to give voice and a platform to experience what gives meaning and pleasure to everyone. You can be heavy or you can be light, sweet or savory, it’s all tasty.
On this Night, we launch The SALON - the channel to make it all happen and set the stage for future SALON development.
Hosted at the home of Joyce Stahl, 727 Eaton Street and 328 William Street, presented by Java Studios and Michael Shields.

And YOU are the Creator of Mid-Summer’s Night!

What is YOUR Dream? Tell Everyone !
Say it in words, song, dance, film, and…?
The Night invites you to show your Star
From pre-sunset to midnight, every fifteen minutes, your turn to shine will be scheduled as you spotlight your talent, your idea, your song, your poem, whatever makes you shine!
We are seeking YOU - Artists, Actors, Singers & Songwriters, Dancers, Poets, Writers, to make the Mid-Summer’s Night a Carnivale, a Celebration of Celestial Light.
RSVP... by August 3…to be part of the SALON & Stage
RSVP… by August 10…to come to the NIGHT and see and hear the dreams being displayed and woven…
Stars In The Making!
394-3804…RSVP…

…Be creative!
and Circle The Date!

JAVA STUDIOS - Media That Matters and Community Development

Thursday, August 23, 2007