Posts Tagged 'Lynn Shelton'

Jed’s Sundance Update #3 – LAGGIES

Published January 20, 2014 Uncategorized Closed
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Cast and crew of LAGGIES

Cast and crew of LAGGIES

Filmmaker and MFF alum Lynn Shelton graces Sundance 2014 with her latest film, LAGGIES, a warm and funny coming-of-age story starring Keira Knightley, Chloe Moretz, Sam Rockwell, Ellie Kemper, Jeff Garlin and Mark Webber. The photo above is of the cast and crew, taken at the Q & A after the film premiere at Sundance. The guy in white is Sam Rockwell, the woman leaning over is Keira Knightley, and Mark Webber and Chloe Moretz are to the right. At the end is filmmaker Lynn Shelton. Her last film to play at Sundance was TOUCHY FEELY, which also played at the 2013 Maryland Film Festival.

-Jed Dietz, MFF Director

TWELVE MORE FEATURES ANNOUNCED FOR MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL 2013!

Published April 16, 2013 Uncategorized 2 Comments
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Good Ol' Freda production still horizontal

GOOD OL’ FREDA

Maryland Film Festival is proud to announce a dozen more titles for our 2013 edition, bringing the total number of features revealed to 36 thus far.  Our fifteenth annual festival, which will take place May 8-12 in downtown Baltimore, has expanded to 5 days and will include approximately 50 features and 9 shorts programs.  We will also present a silent classic with an original score performed live by the Alloy Orchestra and a favorite film selected and hosted by legendary director John Waters!

The diverse round of titles announced today includes work from Finland, Mexico, Austria, and Israel, and such titles as Zach Clark’s holiday-themed, darkly comic White Reindeer; Alex Winter’s riveting look at the rise and fall of Napster, Downloaded; Jessica Oreck’s experiential documentary about a family of reindeer herders, Aatsinki; and Calvin Reeder’s surreal, horror-tinged mindbender about a mysterious loner, The Rambler.

More MFF 2013 lineup announcements are coming soon! If you haven’t seen them yet, make sure to check the 24 features we announced last week! For all the latest information, continue to visit this blog, and follow us at facebook.com/MarylandFilmFestival and on Twitter, @MdFilmFestival.

Today’s announced features for Maryland Film Festival 2013 are:

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16 ACRES

16 Acres (Richard Hankin) From the editor and co-producer of Capturing the Friedmans comes this riveting and nuanced documentary look at the rebuilding of Ground Zero—one of the most architecturally, politically, and emotionally complex urban renewal projects in history.

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AATSINKI: THE STORY OF ARCTIC COWBOYS

Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys (Jessica Oreck) One year in the life of a family of reindeer herders in Finnish Lapland yields an immersive study of hard work, hard earned leisure, and an intricate bond between man and nature. From the director of Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo.

Before You Know It (P J Raval) This observational documentary raises the curtain on a profoundly neglected segment of the LGBT community, its senior population, as three gay men residing in very different regions of the U.S. face new life challenges.

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BLUEBIRD

Bluebird (Lance Edmands) In the frozen woods of an isolated Maine logging town, one woman’s tragic mistake shatters the balance of the community, resulting in profound and unexpected consequences.

Downloaded (Alex Winter) With remarkable insight and access, this documentary tells the story of the rise and fall of Napster, taking a close look at the internet mavericks and musicians involved and the lasting global impact of peer-to-peer file sharing.

Here_Comes_The_Devil

HERE COMES THE DEVIL

Here Comes the Devil  (Adrián García Bogliano) From Mexico comes this horror film concerning disappeared children and panicked parents, offering ever-escalating thrills as it heads to increasingly bloody, diabolical, and even psychedelic territory.

Fill the Void (Rama Burshtein) This drama set in Tel Aviv’s Orthodox community centers around 18-year-old Shira, who faces unexpected life challenges when her older sister dies.

Good Ol’ Freda (Ryan White) Freda Kelly was just a shy Liverpudlian teenager when she was asked to work for a local band hoping to make it big. That band was The Beatles, and Freda was their devoted secretary and friend for 11 years; this documentary tells her story—and the story of the world’s most famous band through her eyes.

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MUSEUM HOURS

Museum Hours (Jem Cohen) From the director of Benjamin Smoke and Instrument comes this gentle and expertly crafted drama about a Vienna museum guard and the friendship he forms with a woman visiting town to care for a sick friend.

THE RAMBLER_Lindsay Pulsipher and Dermot Mulroney shooting_photo by Juliana Halvorson

THE RAMBLER

The Rambler (Calvin Reeder) Dermot Mulroney, Lindsay Pulsipher, and Natasha Lyonne star in the latest psychotronic vision from the director of The Oregonian, in which a mysterious loner, newly released from prison, sets out on a journey filled with bizarre characters and warped experiences.

We Always Lie to Strangers (AJ Schnack and David Wilson) A documentary story of family, community, music and tradition, built over five years and set against the backdrop of Branson, Missouri, one of the biggest tourist destinations in America.

WHITE REINDEER STILL 1

WHITE REINDEER

White Reindeer (Zach Clark) After an unexpected tragedy, Suzanne searches for the true meaning of Christmas during one sad, strange December in suburban Virginia. From the director of Vacation! and Modern Love Is Automatic.

Previously Announced Titles for 2013:

12 O’CLOCK BOYS (Lotfy Nathan)

AFTER TILLER (Martha Shane and Lana Wilson)

AUGUSTINE (Alice Winocour)

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (Peter Strickland)

COMPUTER CHESS (Andrew Bujalski)

DRINKING BUDDIES (Joe Swanberg)

HIT & STAY (Joe Tropea and Skizz Cyzyk)

I AM DIVINE (Jeffrey Schwarz)

I USED TO BE DARKER (Matt Porterfield)

IF WE SHOUT LOUD ENOUGH (Gabriel DeLoach and Zach Keifer)

IT FELT LIKE LOVE (Eliza Hittman)

LEVIATHAN (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel)

THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY (Sophie Fiennes)

PIT STOP (Yen Tan)

POST TENEBRAS LUX (Carlos Reygadas)

PRINCE AVALANCHE (David Gordon Green)

SWIM LITTLE FISH SWIM (Lola Bessis and Ruben Amar)

A TEACHER (Hannah Fidell)

THIS IS MARTIN BONNER (Chad Hartigan)

TOUCHY FEELY (Lynn Shelton)

V/H/S/2 (omnibus)

WATCHTOWER (Pelin Esmer)

WILLOW CREEK (Bobcat Goldthwait)

ZERO CHARISMA (Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews)

SXSW Update #2 – DRINKING BUDDIES, COMPUTER CHESS

Published March 14, 2013 Uncategorized 2 Comments
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drinking_buddies_review_sxsw

Photo still from Joe Swanberg’s DRINKING BUDDIES.

Within their 2013 festival, SXSW Film has found a clever method to remind each audience of the many ways film festivals discover and nurture talent. In celebration of their 20th anniversary, SXSW has been rolling archival festival bumpers before each screening. Bumpers are those short pieces (typically running between 30 and 60 seconds) that thank festival sponsors, audiences, filmmakers, and volunteers for their support. Since SXSW has a great tradition of inviting festival alumni to create these bumpers and give them some narrative heft, they’re now able to draw from two decades of what are essentially little-seen short films by major directors that have emerged on the festival circuit.

One of the most striking bumpers is by frequent MFF alum David Lowery (director of MFF 2011 Opening Night Short Pioneer), whose forthcoming Ain’t Them Bodies Saints was one of the breakthrough films of Sundance 2013, and stars Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, and Keith Carradine. This 2010 SXSW bumper entitled “Soundstage” is an artful encapsulation of the dreamlike aesthetic he brings to his work:

Another bumper, 2007’s “McGriddles,” was directed by Joe Swanberg and stars Andrew Bujalski, a nice distillation of the sharp humor and charm the two brought to Swanberg’s feature Hannah Takes The Stairs.

It’s an intriguing moment to revisit the early work of these pioneers of handcrafted digital cinema, as both have exceptional new features in the SXSW 2013 line-up that seem to mark bold new phases in their careers. Swanberg’s Drinking Buddies is perhaps the film audiences expected from him after 2009’s Noah Baumbach-produced Alexander the Last, which was his most conventionally polished and accessible film to date. Instead, for several years Swanberg turned inward for a series of deeply personal micro-budget films such as Silver Bullets and Art History (both MFF 2011). Drinking Buddies, set in and around a craft-beer brewery in Chicago, is shot by Beasts of the Southern Wild’s Ben Richardson, and brings in a winning cast of familiar faces such as Anna Kendrick, Olivia Wilde, Ron Livingston, and Jake Johnson. As with Lynn Shelton’s recent work, the film depends on these established actors embracing the conversational tone and spontaneous working methods that distinguish most of Swanberg’s filmography; and as with Shelton’s recent films, the cast more than responds to the challenge, yielding results that are warm, hilarious, and emotionally resonant. Drinking Buddies wowed a packed house in the historic, 1200-seat Paramount Theater, a triumphant moment in a fascinating and still-evolving film career. It would seem to mark not so much a move to the mainstream as the mainstream moving toward Swanberg.

Photo still from Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess.

Photo still from Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess.

Bujalski’s Computer Chess, on the other hand, is a masterpiece with no obvious creative precedent. Set circa 1980 and, in a challenging but brilliant move, shot on period-specific analog video, the film takes us inside a subculture of offbeat personalities who camp out in a hotel conference hall, attempting to create the first computer system capable of beating human chess masters. But as the film builds into a Robert Altman-worthy ensemble comedy, it also takes on unexpected surreal and even hallucinatory notes, largely thanks to the rich subplot of a self-help event simultaneously taking place in the hotel. Computer Chess is funny, daring, and utterly unpredictable; each creative risk—and there are many—pays off brilliantly. Simply put, if I see a more original film this year, I’ll be quite surprised.

Lowery, Swanberg, and Bujalski all have the biggest films of their respective careers poised to emerge in 2013. In so many ways, SXSW 2013 has been a great reminder that well-curated, forward-looking film festivals like SXSW and MFF offer unique opportunities for audiences to share in the early discovery of major film artists, and to continue to follow them as they grow and evolve.

– Eric Allen Hatch, MFF Director of Programming

Sundance Update #9 – MFF Alum Lynn Shelton’s TOUCHY FEELY

Published January 27, 2013 Uncategorized Closed
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Photo still from TOUCHY FEELY. 2012, 90 minutes, color, U.S.A., U.S. Dramatic Category.

Photo still from TOUCHY FEELY. 2012, 90 minutes, color, U.S.A., U.S. Dramatic Category.

Lynn Shelton (YOUR SISTER’S SISTER, HUMPDAY) answering questions after a screening of her new film, TOUCHY FEELY, starring Rosemarie DeWitt, Ellen Page, Allison Janney and Josh Pais. It explores various members of a family facing their own crises. The score is wonderful, and Lynn’s hometown of seattle is another part of the family.

Lynn Shelton at Sundance 2013.

Lynn Shelton at Sundance 2013.

– Jed Dietz, MFF Director

Matthew Porterfield, David Lowery, Amy Seimetz Among MFF Alum Featured in Sundance 2013

Published November 29, 2012 Uncategorized Closed
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The last few years have seen an explosion of Maryland Film Festival alumni landing new films in the annual Sundance Film Festival. That trend continued to rise yesterday as Sundance began unveiling the line-up for their 2013 festival (taking place January 17-27 in Park City, Utah).

Sundance has established itself as arguably the premiere festival for American independent film, as well as one of the world’s largest “market” festivals, where distributors acquire many a film for distribution–as was the case with this year’s art-house smash BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD by MFF alum Benh Zeitlin, which premiered at Sundance 2012.

The number of MFF connections in Sundance’s 2013 line-up thus far is so numerous we’re still tracking them, but the following are a dozen feature-film highlights. Needless to say, these are films we’ll be tracking at Sundance and throughout the year as we begin scouting films for Maryland Film Festival 2013:

—I USED TO BE DARKER, directed by Baltimore’s Matthew Porterfield (of MFF 2006’s HAMILTON and MFF 2010’s PUTTY HILL), shot in Baltimore, and co-written by Baltimore’s Amy Belk.

—AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS, directed by David Lowery (director of MFF 2009 feature ST. NICK and MFF 2011 Opening Night short PIONEER), featuring an all-star cast that includes Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker, and Keith Carradine.

—PIT STOP, directed by Yen Tan, co-written by David Lowery, and featuring a cast that includes Amy Seimetz (co-star of MFF 2010’s TINY FURNITURE; director of MFF 2012’s SUN DON’T SHINE) and John Merriman (co-writer/co-director/co-star of MFF 2012’s Opening Night short MODERN MAN).

—MOTHER OF GEORGE, directed by Andrew Dosunmu of MFF 2011’s RESTLESS CITY.  Andrew won the Maryland Filmmakers Fellowship in 2005 for this script. The Fellowship is awarded annually by a group of independent readers,  picked from Friends of the Festival supporters, and given to a filmmaker who’s script has been through the Sundance Labs.

—TOUCHY FEELY, directed by Lynn Shelton, the writer/director of such titles as HUMPDAY, YOUR SISTER’S SISTER, and MFF 2008’s MY EFFORTLESS BRILLIANCE.

—COMPUTER CHESS, directed by Andrew Bujalski, director of MFF 2005’s MUTUAL APPRECIATION.

—99%: THE OCCUPY WALL STREET COLLABORATIVE FILM, a collaborative documentary whose filmmakers include Audrey Ewell and Aaron Aites of MFF 2010’s UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US.

—AFTER TILLER, co-directed by Martha Shane of MFF 2008’s BI THE WAY.

—THE GOOD LIFE, co-directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine of MFF 2007’s WAR/DANCE.

—A TEACHER, directed by Hannah Fidell and featuring a cast that includes MFF alums Jennifer Prediger, Jonny Mars, and Chris Dubeck.

—UPSTREAM COLOR, directed by Shane Carruth and starring frequent MFF alum Amy Seimetz (TINY FURNITURE, SMALL POND).

—GOD LOVES UGANDA, directed by Roger Ross Williams of MFF 2010’s Oscar-winning MUSIC BY PRUDENCE.

A big congratulations to all the filmmakers included in this year’s Sundance line-up! You can also head to Thompson on Hollywood, the Indiewire blog of noted film critic (and MFF 2012 guest) Anne Thompson, for more information on these and other announced Sundance titles.

INDIE SPIRIT AWARDS

Published March 6, 2010 1 Closed
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Lynn Shelton’s HUMPDAY, seeded by a chance encounter between Lynn and Joe Swanberg at a past MFF, wins the Cassavetes Award (best film made for less than $500K

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