TFC Journal at TheFilmChair.com

Independent happenings:

• IndieGoGo, the crowdsource funding website for indiemakers,  has acquired Distribber, a digital distribution service, so it can offer a toolbox for independent filmmakers using its fundraising service. (indieWire)
• Eli Daughdrill’s Faith, a narrative feature taking a “sensitive, but critical” look at religion in America, needs a kickstart. (Kickstarter)
• Sabi Pictures, the production company behind White Knuckles and Heart of Now, is taking its films on the road in August 2010. Tell them you want the films to come to your town. (Sabi Pictures)
• John C. Lyons’ launched the Facebook page for his next motion picture, There Are No Goodbyes. Become a fan. (Facebook)

And now, the trailer for The Grover Complex. If you’re in LA, you can catch this indie teen comedy at New Filmmakers Los Angeles on March 18.

Fin.

Do it with others.

• Justin D. Hilliard wants you… to help him make Swallow. And you should. (IndieGoGo)
• The Butler brothers, my favorite Canadian indie brewers, just posted the second episode of their web series Larry & Burt’s Gut Rot. (YouTube)
• David Spaltro writes about making his spectacular indie …Around for The Wrap. (The Wrap)

Fin.

Drinking it indie…

• Gary King’s indie musical How Do You Write a Joe Schermann Song just crossed $1,500 on Kickstarter. Help him make the film happen.
• Gavin B. James’ Footsteps, which has a hypnotic little trailer, now has some behind the scenes footage online at Vimeo.
• Better late than never: Check out Frederic Lumiere’s Obama Inauguration video, Keep it Moving, released last month.

Fin.

schism (2009)
DVD Review

Schism is a tough film to watch. It’s tough because the story, one of a older man named Neil who is stuck in a nursing home battling the onset of Alzheimer’s, isn’t something we like to talk about in our culture. Bring up eldercare at a party, or even in everyday conversation, and, well, I don’t even know what. I can’t say that I’ve ever even had a conversation like it.

For families that love someone like Neil, such conversations are part of a difficult reality. What schism succeeds in doing is making us aware of what dementias really look like. In its own surreal way, schism shows it to us, warts and all. Families affected by similar circumstances know they’re not alone after seeing schism. And people who haven’t personally experienced what we see here are asked to consider, for 96 minutes, what it’s like to age in America.

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This hypnotic, atmospheric trailer for Footsteps, an indie film written, directed and produced by Gavin B. James, is quite possibly one of the best cut indie trailers I’ve ever seen. What that means for the film, I can’t really say. It is a trailer–one that I can’t stop watching.

From the trailer’s Vimeo page:

Ever since Douglas’ Mother mysteriously vanished when he was 8 years old, his life has been controlled by panic, fear and desire. Now, two decades later, Douglas returns home to his small industrial town to take care of his dying father. In a bar one night he finds a mysterious wallet and in attempts to return it, enters a world of lust, deceit and murder; a world that holds the secret to his family’s tortured past.

Follow Footsteps on Twitter.

The Butler Brothers rarely disappoint. When the duo’s latest effort, a web series titled Larry & Burt’s Gut Rot, opened with a nod to Taxi Driver, I knew I was in for another great experience. From Scorsese to Baumbach, the Butler Brothers’ work is inspired by the best. I love their productions because they love movies as much as I do.

Check out the first episode of Larry & Burt’s Gut Rot above, then visit Substance Productions for more Butler Brothers goodness.

Click to Enlarge

Striped Socks Productions and director Justin D. Hilliard premiered the posters from the upcoming indie Swallow today on Facebook. This afternoon, Hilliard was kind enough to pass on those first posters for posting here.

I love the red and yellow one’s simple, sharp design, but that second poster is a little more intriguing. I guess if I catch Swallow at a film festival, I’ll just have to pick up both cards.

From Striped Socks Productions:

Swallow is a bittersweet, lyrical sci-fi drama that examines the complexities of relationships in the near future, some real and some artificial.

I covered Hilliard’s first feature, Wednesday, nearly five years ago on this site. Of all the indies that have come my way over the years, it’s still one of my favorites. While I wasn’t over the moon for his second, The Other Side of Paradise, it at least had all the qualities I loved in his first film.

I’ll be keeping an eye on Hilliard’s Swallow, so stay tuned for more information on this upcoming indie.

Become a fan of Swallow on Facebook.

The Sundance Film Festival announced that it will show eight select films from the 2010 festival at special screenings across the country. The screenings take place in 8 cities on Jan. 28, close to the end of the film festival’s scheduled Jan. 21-31 dates. And yes, the filmmakers will be in attendance.

For those of us who can’t afford can’t find the time to go to the actual festival this is a great way to feel like you’re at least part of the goings on in Park City. Looks like I may have to make a trip to Ann Arbor in January.

From Sundance (edited):

Sundance Institute today announced eight films from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival scheduled to screen in eight different cities nationwide on the night of Thursday, January 28, 2010. Tickets for the January 28 screenings are available through each individual theater’s box office.

Films screening as part of Sundance Film Festival USA are:

Cyrus – Ann Arbor, MI — Michigan Theater www.michtheater.org
Directors and screenwriters: Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass —A recently divorced guy meets a new lady. Then he meets her son who is, well…interesting. Cast: John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill, Catherine Keener. World Premiere

The Company Men — Brookline, MA — Coolidge Corner Theatre www.coolidge.org
Director and screenwriter John Wells will screen his drama — filmed on location in North Boston — about three company men attempting to survive a round of corporate downsizing while trying to fend off its effects on their families and their identities. Cast: Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Rosemarie DeWitt. World Premiere

Daddy Longlegs – Brooklyn, NY — BAM www.bam.org
Directors, screenwriters, brothers and Native New Yorkers Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie will bring to New York their latest film—A swan song to excuses and responsibilities, to fatherhood and self-created experiences, and to what it’s like to be truly torn between being a child and being an adult. Cast: Ronald Bronstein, Sage Ranaldo, Frey Ranaldo. North American Premiere

Jack Goes Boating — Chicago, IL — Music Box Theatre www.musicboxtheatre.com Director: Philip Seymour Hoffman; Screenwriter: Bob Glaudini, both well know to Chicago film and theatre lovers. – A limo driver’s blind date sparks a tale of love, betrayal, friendship, and grace centered around two working-class New York City couples. Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Ryan, John Ortiz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Tom McCarthy.

Teenage Paparazzo — Los Angeles, CA — Downtown Independent www.downtownindependent.com Where better than Los Angeles to explore the effects of celebrity on culture? Director Adrian Grenier’s documentary does exactly that. A 13-year-old paparazzi boy snaps a photo of Grenier, leading the actor/director to explore the effects of celebrity on culture.

The Runaways — Madison, WI — Sundance Cinemas Madison www.sundancecinemas.com Director and screenwriter: Floria Sigismondi—In 1970s LA, a tough teenager named Joan Jett connects with an eccentric producer to form an all-girl band that would launch her career and make rock history. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Scout Taylor-Compton, Michael Shannon, Alia Shawkat, Tatum O’Neal.

The Extra Man — Nashville, TN — The Belcourt Theatre www.belcourt.org Directors: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini; Screenwriters: Robert Pulcini, Jonathan Ames, Shari Springer Berman, based on the novel by Jonathan Ames — A down-and-out playwright who escorts wealthy widows in Manhattan’s Upper East Side takes a young aspiring writer under his wing. Cast: Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, John C. Reilly, and Katie Holmes.

Howl – San Francisco, CA — Sundance Kabuki Cinemas www.sundancecinemas.com Directors and screenwriters: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, both local San Franciscans, will be on hand to screen their nonfiction drama about the young Allen Ginsberg finding his voice, the creation of his groundbreaking poem HOWL, and the landmark obscenity trial that followed. Cast: James Franco, David Strathairn, Jon Hamm, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeff Daniels.

When I reviewed indie director Gary King’s New York Lately, I said his first feature was either too ambitious or not ambitious enough. If it was too ambitious, then King appears to have remedied that with What’s Up Lovely.

King (who you can and should follow on Twitter at @grking) is taking the “one girl, one night” approach with this film, which means maybe that ambition thing is being checked a bit. Of course, the trailer also says What’s Up Lovely is part one in “the loneliness trilogy,” so maybe managed is a better word than checked.

Regardless, I’m eager to see this one.

For more information, check out:
http://www.whatsuplovely.com
http://www.facebook.com/whatsuplovely
@lovelyfilm

A little hometown news. Erie filmmaker John C. Lyons directed a film called schism, the making of which I chronicled in the now grossly neglected section of this blog called In the Lyons Den. (Sorry, John.)  The film tells the story of a man’s descent into Alzheimer’s dementia. Heavy stuff, but beautifully made.

Well the film is playing at the Lancaster Area Film Festival tomorrow night.  If you’re in the Lancaster area, you should definitely go see it.  As I said after I first saw the movie, Lyons has a little Aronofsky in him.

Screening info after the jump.

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