Insider

SFIFF51: California Newsreel at 40

What will you do on your 40th anniversary? If you’re California Newsreel, you’ll continue to do the same as you always have: producing and distributing film and video as a means of social change. Founded in 1968, the San Francisco-based Newsreel is the oldest nonprofit, social-issue documentary film center in the United States, with a library that includes Made in L.A. (Hecho en Los Angeles), which follows three Latina garment workers through a groundbreaking lawsuit and consumer boycott; This is Nollywood, an examination of the technical, economic, and social infrastructure of Nigeria’s booming film industry; and The Other Europe, which (among other stories) looks at the 2004 deaths within a group of illegal Chinese immigrants in Morecambe Bay, England — the worst industrial accident in Britain in 25 years.

How have audiences, and Newsreel itself, changed over the years? California Newsreel principal Cornelius Moore sat down with SF360 via email and gave his thoughts on the state of the company, film’s role as an instrument of social change, and Newsreel’s status on MySpace.

The 51st S.F. International Film Festival celebrates California Newsreel’s 40th with a panel on Bay Area political documentary May 3, and screens the CA Newsreel film Faubourg Tremé May 3, 6, and 7.

topics: african american cinema, african cinema, bay area, directors, distributors, documentary, political film, san francisco, world cinema

Take Two

"Warts & All: The Films of Danny Plotnick"

My high school physics teacher was a slight, nondescript fellow who hyperactively sparked to life in the classroom. His mantra was “Physics is fun!” and he gave one of the more clever lads an unexpected bonus point for devilishly scribbling it on an exam in place of an elusive correct answer. The reward wasn’t for sucking up, mind you, but for understanding that enthusiasm was more important than the dogged mastery of information. That this long-forgotten anecdote (and life lesson) came rushing back to me after spending some time with “Warts & All: The Films of Danny Plotnick” is neither accidental nor inappropriate. The 10 short comic narratives made between 1986 and 2001 assembled on this wonderful DVD are exemplars of an unpolished, unpretentious school of moviemaking that aims at every moment to be audience-friendly. It’s an attitude embraced today by thousands of adolescents screwing around with camcorders, and by one Seth Rogen. None of them has ever heard of the popular Bay Area filmmaker, I’d wager, but they all inherited his credo: Filmmaking is fun!

topics: bay area, directors, distributors, dvd, experimental film, independent film

Cinequest announces program

Cinequest announced yesterday in San Jose its 2008 program, emphasizing its role as a “discovery” festival that culled its 153 features and shorts from 1,800 submissions. The festival continues to offer distribution to a select set of films from its festival after the festival is completed. The festival, which runs Feb. 27-March 9, features a rich set of panels for filmmakers. Its Maverick Spirit Award goes this year to John Leguizamo and his film “Where God Left His Shoes” screens. It also features conversations with screenwriter Michael Arndt (“Little Miss Sunshine”) and screenwriter/actor/producer (“Million Dollar Baby”) Bobby Moresco.

topics: digital filmmaking, distributors, independent film, san jose

Anywhere Road's Robert Ogden Barnum on going somewhere fast

Guiding four future pop stars from Brazil onto the big screen this week in “Antonia,” Robert Ogden Barnum’s new Bay Area-based distribution company, Anywhere Road, certainly comes out swinging. Tata Amaral’s impressive film, a story with heart and grit as well as style to burn, has the imprimatur of “City of God’s” Fernando Mereilles, who produced, and should find further popularity with a broader, home theater-friendly audience. Follow that with Brad Gann’s South Boston coming-of-age story, “Black Irish,” in a few short weeks, and it looks like Anywhere Road is going places, quickly. SF360.org spoke with Barnum a week before “Antonia’s” opening, shortly after the Barnum’s whirlwind spin through the Toronto International Film Festival, about the how a small, independent film distributor finds a place in the increasingly ephemeral theatrical market.

SF360: ‘Antonia’ opens this week in New York and Los Angeles. What are the marketing plans for it?

Rob Barnum: One of our partnerships is with Dan Deevy and his site, TheCinemaSource; he’s become our head of marketing. We’re doing a lot of guerilla street-teaming in both cities. We’re having two word of mouth screenings in New York, with sponsors. We have three listening parties, because soundtrack/music is the key piece of ‘Antonia.’ Newark has the largest Portuguese population in the country, so we’re doing these listening parties — one there, one in the Village near the Quad, and another one up near the Coliseum, approaching Spanish Harlem. We’re serving free drinks and playing the soundtrack and pulling people in. Our ad budgets are not

topics: bay area, distributors, q&a

"Wild" rides the box office

“Into the Wild,” actor-filmmaker Sean Penn’s adaptation of the Jon Krakauer novel, earned $212,000 for Paramount Vantage. Its $53,000 per-screen average was tops on the iWBOT and Paramount Vantage’s best debut since its 2006 global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” “Helvetica,” a look at global design culture, earned $8,599 from its exclusive, sophomore run at New York’s IFC Center. Rounding out the iWBOT Top Five were director John Turturro’s musical “Romance & Cigarettes,” Sony Picture Classics’ female ensemble drama “The Jane Austen Book Club” and IFC First Take’s Arctic-set horror “The Last Winter.”

[SF360.org Editor’s note: This article appeared originally in indieWIRE on Sept. 24, 2007.]

With “Into the Wild,” director Sean Penn’s epic adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s true tale of a young man seeking peace in the Alaskan wilderness, Paramount Vantage experienced their best opening since “An Inconvenient Truth.” The drama earned a stellar $212,440 from just four screens, said Rob Schulze, Executive V.P., Distribution at Paramount Vantage. “I think the enthusiastic box-office reception points to a number of factors,” he said. “There is great awareness for the Christopher McCandless story thanks to the success of Jon Krakauer’s amazing novel. We have a great cast and Sean Penn brings the film additional prestige as its director. It’s a crowded marketplace but ‘Into the Wild’ looks to be a film that resonates with audiences.” “Wild,” featuring Emile Hirsch in the lead and Catherine Keener and Marcia Gay Harden in supporting roles, reached a iWBOT topping $53,000 per- screen average. “We’re expanding the film to the top twelve markets Friday and will reach the top 35 markets by Oct. 19,” Schulze said. “Our release strategy is similar to other recent films that play between 300 and 1,000 screens. But I don’t want to limit us by giving out a top print count at this time. There’s no catchall release model for a film like ‘Into the Wild.’”

“Helvetica,” a self-released documentary about global design culture and the Helvetica typeface, earned $8,599 at New York’s IFC Center. Without the additional draw of on-site appearances by director Gary Hustwit, “Helvetica” dropped a steep 55% from its debut weekend but remained the top documentary on the iWBOT with a cumulative box office of $30,323 after two weeks. “Imagine if during the past 50 years of Rock and Roll no one had ever made a music documentary,” Hustwit said. “I think that’s how this film feels for graphic designers. While ‘Helvetica’ might seem like a very niche subject, in a sense, we’re all graphic designers now. Everyone who uses a computer knows what fonts are and they’re expressing themselves through typography. Whether we’re using them or reading them, fonts are part of our daily lives.” “Helvetica” continues at the IFC Center with extended runs in other major cities planned prior to its Nov. 6 DVD release.

“The Jane Austen Book Club,” writer-director Robin Swicord’s female ensemble drama, opened modestly for Sony Pictures Classics. “Jane Austen Book Club” earned just $148,549 from 25 screens. While its $5,942 per-screen average was good enough for the fourth spot on the iWBOT, it ranked 30% below the debut average of another Jane Austen drama, Miramax’s “Becoming Jane,” an indicator of its niche appeal. Its planned expansion over the next few weeks will be telling.

Screen Media Films’ “Adrift in Manhattan,” director Alfredo de Villa’s interlocking stories of New Yorkers, featuring Heather Graham and Dominic Chianese, also opened poorly, earning $2,099 at New York’s Village East Cinemas despite its local connections. “Adrift”‘s poor box-office performance guaranteed its quick exit from the Village East and eliminated any chance of a successful platform outside of New York. The weekend box office also dimmed the release prospects for “Antonia,” Brazilian director Tata Amaral’s look at four young black women from Sao Paulo who form a Rap group to escape their poverty. Anywhere Road and Netflix’s Red Envelope Entertainment, the film’s co- distributors, reported $3,100 from New York’s Quad Cinema and the Music Hall in Los Angeles. And “The Man of My Life,” from Strand Releasing, earned just $2,991 from its exclusive run at New York’s Quad Cinemas. “The Man of My Life” is director Zabou Breitman’s story of a French couple whose lives change after a gay man moves next door to their rural summerhouse.

In its second weekend, director Larry Fessenden’s horror “The Last Winter” earned $8,090 from two screens for a $4,045 per-screen average; good enough for the fifth spot on the iWBOT. But the strongest hold over continued to be the self-released “Romance & Cigarettes,” actor-turned-filmmaker John Turturro’s working-class musical starring James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet as singing and dancing Queens neighbors. “Romance & Cigarattes,” earned $10,332 from its third weekend at New York’s Film Forum; a modest 33% drop for the self-released musical. Its cumulative box office has reached $62,070 from the Film Forum; a bold theatrical debut for a film dropped by its distributor.

Warner Independent Pictures’ “In the Valley of Elah,” filmmaker Paul Haggis’ drama about a missing Iraq War soldier featuring Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron, jumped to 317 screens and $1,275,000 in weekend box office. Its $4,022, while a steep 70% drop from its debut weekend, was good enough for the sixth spot on the iWBOT. In just its sophomore frame, cumulative box office has reached $1.5 million with further expansion Friday. After hitting a $36,472-per-screen average in its debut weekend on fifteen screens, “Eastern Promises,” David Cronenberg’s Russian Mafia drama from Focus Features, dropped to a $4,093 per-screen average with its second frame expansion to 1,404 screens. More noteworthy, its $5.7 million weekend box office was 30% below the wide weekend take of Cronenberg’s 2005 release “A History of Violence.” Another platform, studio release was Sony’s Beatles-inspired musical “Across The Universe,” from director Julie Taymor. “Universe” lost 75% in per-screen average, flattening to $7,427 after expanding to 276 screens. Its cumulative box office has reached $2,996,000.

Of all the limited studio debuts, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” a Brad Pitt western by Warner Bros., reached a solid $28,800 per-screen average from five locations. Warner Bros. plans to expand “Jesse James” steadily throughout October.

THINKFilm’s “In the Shadow of the Moon,” a documentary about the Apollo Astronauts, leaped to 67 venues for its third weekend, an increase of 44 screens and earned $178,150. Its $2,660 per-screen average was a 33% drop from last week. “Shadow of the Moon’s” cumulative tally of $341,666 failed to keep up Picturehouse’s more youthful entry, the arcade game documentary “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,” and its $589,342 cumulative total. THINK expands “Shadow of the Moon” to the top 35 markets this weekend; still looking to confirm its appeal with mainstream audiences. “The Bubble,” director Eytan Fox’s latest drama, a Tel Aviv-set love triangle between Jews and Arabs, from Strand Releasing, earned $9,791 from four screens for a $2,448 per-screen average. Its cumulative box office has pushed beyond $100,000. “Live-In Maid,” Argentine filmmaker Jorge Gaggero’s class drama about a Buenos Aires divorcee struggling to retain her luxurious lifestyle, returned to the iWBOT Top 20 with weekend earnings of $14,207 from six locations. With cumulative box office of $171,522 “Live-In Maid” remained the summer’s top Spanish-language film and a strong debut release for the five-year-old sales outfit, Film Sales Company.

Also notable was the reissue of Hal Ashby’s 1970 race comedy “The Landlord,” featuring Beau Bridges as a trust fund kid who moves to a tenement in the yet-to-be-gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. “The Landlord” earned $9916 at the Film Forum. “The Landlord” placed third on the iWBOT and was a reminder that seldom-seen re-issues have the best commercial potential. At the IFC Center, director Werner Herzog’s larger-than-life, 1982 drama “Fitzcarraldo,” earned $5,286; proof that Herzog’s notorious collaboration with actor Klaus Kinski has been a revival house mainstay for years.

New releases this week include Mitropoulos Films’ “The Price of Sugar,” director Bill Haney’s documentary about a Spanish priest’s attempts to organize poor Haitians who harvest Sugar Cane for Dominican Republic farms. From Shadowcatcher, director John Jeffcoat’s timely comedy “Outsourced,” about a young salesman sent to Mumbai to train Indian call center workers, opens Friday at New York’s Quad Cinema. Director Marco Kreuzpainter follows up his coming of age drama “Summer Storm” is the sex slave drama “Trade,” for Roadside Attractions. On Saturday, Fox Searchlight opens the Wes Anderson film “The Darjeeling Limited,” the opening night film of the New York Film Festival, on two New York screens. “Lust, Caution,” director Ang Lee’s spy drama set in World War II-era Shanghai for Focus Features, opens exclusively at New York’s Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. What remains to be seen is whether its NC-17 Rating for sexual content will boost audiences or serve as an obstacle for the film’s release.

Steve Ramos is a Cincinnati based writer.

indieWIRE:BOT tracks independent/specialty releases compiled from Rentrak Theatrical, which collects studio reported data as well as box-office figures from North American theatre locations. To be included in the indieWIRE Box Office Chart, distributors must submit information about their films to Rentrak at studiogrosses@rentrak.com by the end of the day each Monday.

topics: distributors

Irina Leimbacher and Konrad Steiner on "kino21"

San Francisco has long been a bastion of underground cinema with successive patchworks of DIY productions, intermedia experiments, and atypical screenings. This secret history rests not just with the filmmakers, but also the many institutions (though that hardly seems the word) which have sprung up with appropriately anachronistic systems for exhibition. In truth, the artists and exhibitors were usually one and the same, or at least deeply collaborative (and often collective). Kino21 is the newest such endeavor, though those already enmeshed in the Bay Area scene will already be familiar with co-programmers Irina Leimbacher and Konrad Steiner from their previous work with SF Cinematheque. Thus far, the two have programmed an eclectic, vital mix of avant-garde heavyweights (Bruce Baillie, Chris Marker, etc.) and contemporary excursions, the latest of which ("Neo-Benshi Cabaret") commissioned new, sometimes subversive narrations to be performed alongside preexisting films. I interviewed Leimbacher and Steiner over email to get a little more of a sense for cinema a la kino21. [SF360.org editor’s note: kino21 presents two films of Nathaniel Dorsky, "Triste" and "Threnody" Aug. 16 at SF Camerawork Gallery.]

SF360: First off, how did you two meet, and what was the genesis of kino21? Did you have any experience collaborating before creating the series? Why ‘kino21?’

Irina Leimbacher and Konrad Steiner: We worked together at SF Cinematheque for four years (2003-6), when Irina was Associate Curator and then Artistic Director and Konrad was on the Curatorial Committee. Kino21 is as a continuation of the work we did there. The name combines our first initials using an international word that references a legacy and a future. We both admire the aspirations and achievements of early Soviet cinema and particularly the ambitions of Dziga Vertov and his Kino Pravda. The staff and board at Artists Television Access have generously hosted our projects and they’re on 21st and Valencia Streets. It’s also a name looking forward to this new century.

SF360: Can you both speak to how you conceive of the spirit of kino21 programming, the kinds of films you’re looking to screen?

Leimbacher: We began this project as a way to continue doing something we both love: screening provocative, imaginative, politically astute cinema. We seek out current and historical work that is relevant to our time. We want audiences with high expectations to discover or re-discover this work. The series started out with several ‘classics’ and will continue with historical work, along with co-presentations (MadCat Film Festival, SF Camerawork, The Poetry Center at SFSU and others) and more personal appearances from local and visiting artists, curators and scholars.

Steiner: I hope our programming contributes to the dialog between artists of different media. Along with Steve Polta and Maia Cybelle Carpenter at SF Cinematheque, we all developed a series called Promiscuous Cinema. It’s said sometimes that Poetry or Music or Painting is the mother of all the arts. Well, I thought, what if cinema was really the whore of all the arts, and I mean that in the most sex-positive way. That series had shows with poets, visual artists, composers, and film performance. I’d like kino21 to be a venue that sponsors new collaborative work especially from writers and composers interested in work that both entertains and provokes.

SF360: Did you have any particular models for this kind of programming? Were there specific periods of time that were especially formative to your understanding and appreciation of cinema?

Leimbacher and Steiner: Influential periods of cinema for us start with the eclectic and formally playful ’20s in France and early Soviet cinema. Then there is the very fecund ’60s and ’70s rich with collaboration, intermedia crossovers, and new forms of politically engaged essay filmmaking. Finally we’re very interested in the personal political films of the 1990s and 2000s from all over, not just the US.

As for local inspiration Frank Stauffacher’s Art in Cinema is a big one. That was the first experimental film series in the country. It ran in San Francisco from 1946 to the early 50s at SF MoMA, in a time before experimental film got so specialized. Then there’s the DIY ethos of early Canyon Cinema, evolving into SF Cinematheque, when Director Steve Anker did pioneering work for 17 years expanding the audience for experimental film. Also, Konrad admires the ecumenical-yet-in-your-face spirit of Hugo Ball’s Cabaret Voltaire.

SF360: I’m curious to have you describe the nature of your collaboration a bit more. You’re obviously both bringing distinct backgrounds/experiences to the table for kino21 but do you generally feel you’re on the same page with regards to sensibility and formatting?

Leimbacher and Steiner: Irina is the more experienced programmer with 12 years at Cinematheque, and Konrad is the more active filmmaker. We each have our focus, but after several very pragmatic years of learning from and critiquing each other’s ideas, we also have confidence in each other’s instincts. We can be more objective and also more receptive towards each other, which encourages exploration. We want to share that spirit with audiences.

SF360: How, in your experience, does showing other people’s films compare to screening your own personal work? Konrad, I was struck by what you said introducing the Baillie [