Director Benjamin Millepied’s “Carmen,” a musical starring Paul Mescal, will have its West Coast premiere March 25 at the 2023 Sonoma International Film Festival (Siff).
Another debut set to take place during the five-day festival is the world premiere of “Jules,” with director Marc Turtletaub and stars Ben Kingsley and Jane Curtin planning to make an appearance for the occasion. The screening will kick off the opening night of the festival on March 22.
Capping off the event are closing night films “The Eight Mountains,” which received a grand jury prize after its Cannes premiere, and Stephen Williams’ “Chevalier.”
Including the seven U.S. premieres slated for the festival, this year’s lineup features 110 films representative of 32 countries. In total, 38 narrative features, 20 documentary features and 52 short films were selected by the festival curators.
“For my first edition at the Sonoma International Film Festival, with a new curatorial team in place, we aimed...
Another debut set to take place during the five-day festival is the world premiere of “Jules,” with director Marc Turtletaub and stars Ben Kingsley and Jane Curtin planning to make an appearance for the occasion. The screening will kick off the opening night of the festival on March 22.
Capping off the event are closing night films “The Eight Mountains,” which received a grand jury prize after its Cannes premiere, and Stephen Williams’ “Chevalier.”
Including the seven U.S. premieres slated for the festival, this year’s lineup features 110 films representative of 32 countries. In total, 38 narrative features, 20 documentary features and 52 short films were selected by the festival curators.
“For my first edition at the Sonoma International Film Festival, with a new curatorial team in place, we aimed...
- 2/28/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay, Charna Flam and Katie Reul
- Variety Film + TV
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (Sbiff) announced its winning films at a ceremony this morning in Santa Barbara.
“This 38th edition of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival drew filmmakers from as far as Turkey, India, Israel, and Sierra Leone, half of whom were women,” said Sbiff’s Programming Director, Claudia Puig. “We were delighted with the enthusiastic reception to our diverse program of 200 films from 43 countries. Cinema is one of the most powerful vehicles for empathy, providing a window of understanding to all who seek to look through it. We thank the filmmakers in attendance and our avid Santa Barbara audience for so heartily embracing the festival experience. Several films prompted standing ovations and packed theaters, marking 2023 a full-throttled return to celebrating cinema from around the globe.”
The 38th Santa Barbara International Film Festival took place February 8 – February 18. Official events included screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels, and celebrity tributes,...
“This 38th edition of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival drew filmmakers from as far as Turkey, India, Israel, and Sierra Leone, half of whom were women,” said Sbiff’s Programming Director, Claudia Puig. “We were delighted with the enthusiastic reception to our diverse program of 200 films from 43 countries. Cinema is one of the most powerful vehicles for empathy, providing a window of understanding to all who seek to look through it. We thank the filmmakers in attendance and our avid Santa Barbara audience for so heartily embracing the festival experience. Several films prompted standing ovations and packed theaters, marking 2023 a full-throttled return to celebrating cinema from around the globe.”
The 38th Santa Barbara International Film Festival took place February 8 – February 18. Official events included screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels, and celebrity tributes,...
- 2/18/2023
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
In what has been the widest open Oscars’ international feature category race in years, countries that previously had not been dominant in the category have emerged as strong contenders.
For instance, Cambodia sent in Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul,” which debuted at Cannes. The country has been nominated only once in this category, for 2013’s “The Missing Picture.” “Return to Seoul” follows an adoptee who makes a journey of discovery from France to her Korean birth home. Star Park Ji-min makes a striking debut. Before the end of 2022, the film would have played at more than 60 noted festivals and it has been picking up awards on the way.
“I think the unpredictability of the narration, resulting from the unpredictability of Freddie, the main character of the film, her force and anger, her vitality and self-destructiveness, and the amazing performance of Park Ji-min who interprets her, are something the academy voters could feel sensitive to,...
For instance, Cambodia sent in Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul,” which debuted at Cannes. The country has been nominated only once in this category, for 2013’s “The Missing Picture.” “Return to Seoul” follows an adoptee who makes a journey of discovery from France to her Korean birth home. Star Park Ji-min makes a striking debut. Before the end of 2022, the film would have played at more than 60 noted festivals and it has been picking up awards on the way.
“I think the unpredictability of the narration, resulting from the unpredictability of Freddie, the main character of the film, her force and anger, her vitality and self-destructiveness, and the amazing performance of Park Ji-min who interprets her, are something the academy voters could feel sensitive to,...
- 12/7/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Germany is well represented at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival with films by both debutants and returning filmmakers. Scattered around the festival's program, German films are among the most daring productions and co-productions that will premier this week in Park City to eager audiences.
Here is a list of German films at Sundance this year:
German Productions
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
"Wild"
by Nicolette Krebitz
Producer: Heimatfilm
World sales: The Match Factory
Press contact: Required Viewing, Steven Raphael
Us Dramatic Competition
"Morris from America"
by Chad Hartigan (De/Us)
German producers: Lichtblick Media & Indi Film
World sales: Visit Films
Press contact: Brigade Marketing, Adam Kersch
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
"Halal Love (And Sex)"
by Assad Fouladkar (De/Lb)
German producer: Razor Film
World sales: Films Distribution
Press contacts: Required Viewing, Steven Raphael & Denise Sinelov
World Cinema Documentary Competition
"Sonita"
by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami (De/Ir/Ch)
German producer: Tag/Traum
World sales: Cat & Docs
Press contact: Entertainment Communications, David C. Magdael
German Co-productions
World Cinema Documentary Competition
"The Light of the Enlightened"
by Pieter-Jan de Pue (Be/Nl/Ie/De)
"The Settlers"
by Shimon Dotan (Fr/CA/Il/De)
Documentary Premieres
"Eat That Question- Frank Zappra in His Own Word"
by Thorsten Schütte (Fr/De)
Spotlight
"Cemetery of Splendour"
by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Th/Gb/De/Fr/My)
"Land of Mine"
by Martin Zandvliet (Dk/De)...
Here is a list of German films at Sundance this year:
German Productions
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
"Wild"
by Nicolette Krebitz
Producer: Heimatfilm
World sales: The Match Factory
Press contact: Required Viewing, Steven Raphael
Us Dramatic Competition
"Morris from America"
by Chad Hartigan (De/Us)
German producers: Lichtblick Media & Indi Film
World sales: Visit Films
Press contact: Brigade Marketing, Adam Kersch
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
"Halal Love (And Sex)"
by Assad Fouladkar (De/Lb)
German producer: Razor Film
World sales: Films Distribution
Press contacts: Required Viewing, Steven Raphael & Denise Sinelov
World Cinema Documentary Competition
"Sonita"
by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami (De/Ir/Ch)
German producer: Tag/Traum
World sales: Cat & Docs
Press contact: Entertainment Communications, David C. Magdael
German Co-productions
World Cinema Documentary Competition
"The Light of the Enlightened"
by Pieter-Jan de Pue (Be/Nl/Ie/De)
"The Settlers"
by Shimon Dotan (Fr/CA/Il/De)
Documentary Premieres
"Eat That Question- Frank Zappra in His Own Word"
by Thorsten Schütte (Fr/De)
Spotlight
"Cemetery of Splendour"
by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Th/Gb/De/Fr/My)
"Land of Mine"
by Martin Zandvliet (Dk/De)...
- 1/22/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The Rights Roundup is the most comprehensive listing of licensing of film rights at the current markets. It lists the current International Sales Agents (ISAs) alphabetically, A through Z, and their reported sales at the chief winter events – in this case the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlinale Fest and European Film Market (Efm) of the Winter 2015.
Buy the Rights Roundup Here!
The international sales agents (ISAs) are listed alphabetically and the sales are those reported to SydneysBuzz or to other trades. The author makes no claim to be comprehensive or even 100% correct. Titles show which distributors have licensed rights along with territories of the distributors as they are reported. When prices have been mentioned, they are included.
In order to assist professional research when more information is needed, international sales agents and distributors link to their own company websites and include links as well to Cinando and IMDbPro. Titles link to Cinando. If Cinando is not appropriate or does not have the title, then titles will link to IMDbPro. Occasionally they will link to the Festival because the former are not available. Subscriptions to these other databases are required.
Cineuropa.org (free) will also be referenced occasionally as will Film New Europe (free). Subscribers to Screen International will also have access to Screenbase. In theory, all of these online databases list comprehensive rights held by distributors though, in fact, each in its own unique way is missing information or contains errors.
The Efm, Sundance and Winter Rights Roundup
The European Film Market is one of the three major international film markets of the world. Without it, we in the film industry would be sitting on a two-legged stool. Along with the Cannes Marche and the American Film Market, this is where the business which supports all of us in the film business takes place. Of course there are important markets in Hong Kong (Filmart), Busan, Ventana Sur in Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, and de facto markets at many festivals, chief of which are Toronto (Tiff) and Sundance. Acquisitions there are often included in these reports as well.
It is imperative for filmmakers, buyers, sellers and financiers to know what the competition is doing, to see what films – similar in sensibility – are selling, to whom they are selling and who is selling them. All who must intelligently strategize their entry into the marketplace must come armed with this knowledge. SydneysBuzz.com’s Rights Roundups Reports give detailed and comprehensive listings with links to sellers’ and buyers’ sites and to Cinando and IMDbPro sites to facilitate deeper research.
Over 8,000 industry leaders from over 100 countries converge in Berlin February 5 to 13, 2015 for eight days of deal‐making, more than 1,000 screenings for 1,500 buyers by almost 500 international sales agents, seminars, and events for docs, young talents, tv series, books to films, coproductions and more.
Buy The Rights Roundup Report now and get ahead of the competition as you plan for the next big market, the Cannes Marché, May 13 to 24, 2015!
Sundance and Producer Reps
A question often asked by indie filmmakers is, Do they need to have a producer rep? The answer varies. During Toronto and Sundance there are more producer reps on films than at any other festival or market. However, at Sundance 2015, 47 out of 127 films had producer reps. The breakdown was as follows:Cinetic – 14, ICM – 10, Preferred Content – 8, CAA – 6, UTA -3, Wme – 2, Submarine – 2, Paradigm – 1, Cassian Elwes – 1.
And there are many publicists, some not wanting to be named who also “represent” films but do not always attempt to make deals like the producer reps, with the exception of Steven Raphael’s Required Viewing. Publicists with films at Sundance were: Brigade with 9 films, Strategy – 7, Ryan Werner – 6, Prodigy – 6, Acme – 4, Susan Norget – 4, tcdm – 4, Steven Rafael, Mj Pakos – 2, Jazo – 1, Dish – 1, Sophie Gluck – 1, Bigtime – 1.
And there are also attorneys who rep the films but are not named here, examples: Donaldson & Califf, Linda Lichter, Shelly Surpin, Harris Tulchin, Craig Emanuel of Loeb & Loeb, et al.
14 films had U.S. distribution going into Sundance:
“A Walk In The Woods”- Entertainment in Motion (airline)
“It Follows- Radius-twc
Shaun The Sheep- Universal Pictures
Eden-broad Green Pictures
The Tribe-Drafthouse Films
True Story -Fox Searchlight Pictures
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief-hbo
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck-hbo
What Happened, Miss Simone?-Netflix
‘71-Roadside Attractions
Z for Zachariah-Roadside Attractions
Wild Tales-Sony Pictures Classics
Girlhood-Strand Releasing
A comprehensive report on all U.S. Distributors and their product for 2014 is available at http://www.SydneysBuzz.com/Reports.
Buy the Rights Roundup Here!
The international sales agents (ISAs) are listed alphabetically and the sales are those reported to SydneysBuzz or to other trades. The author makes no claim to be comprehensive or even 100% correct. Titles show which distributors have licensed rights along with territories of the distributors as they are reported. When prices have been mentioned, they are included.
In order to assist professional research when more information is needed, international sales agents and distributors link to their own company websites and include links as well to Cinando and IMDbPro. Titles link to Cinando. If Cinando is not appropriate or does not have the title, then titles will link to IMDbPro. Occasionally they will link to the Festival because the former are not available. Subscriptions to these other databases are required.
Cineuropa.org (free) will also be referenced occasionally as will Film New Europe (free). Subscribers to Screen International will also have access to Screenbase. In theory, all of these online databases list comprehensive rights held by distributors though, in fact, each in its own unique way is missing information or contains errors.
The Efm, Sundance and Winter Rights Roundup
The European Film Market is one of the three major international film markets of the world. Without it, we in the film industry would be sitting on a two-legged stool. Along with the Cannes Marche and the American Film Market, this is where the business which supports all of us in the film business takes place. Of course there are important markets in Hong Kong (Filmart), Busan, Ventana Sur in Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, and de facto markets at many festivals, chief of which are Toronto (Tiff) and Sundance. Acquisitions there are often included in these reports as well.
It is imperative for filmmakers, buyers, sellers and financiers to know what the competition is doing, to see what films – similar in sensibility – are selling, to whom they are selling and who is selling them. All who must intelligently strategize their entry into the marketplace must come armed with this knowledge. SydneysBuzz.com’s Rights Roundups Reports give detailed and comprehensive listings with links to sellers’ and buyers’ sites and to Cinando and IMDbPro sites to facilitate deeper research.
Over 8,000 industry leaders from over 100 countries converge in Berlin February 5 to 13, 2015 for eight days of deal‐making, more than 1,000 screenings for 1,500 buyers by almost 500 international sales agents, seminars, and events for docs, young talents, tv series, books to films, coproductions and more.
Buy The Rights Roundup Report now and get ahead of the competition as you plan for the next big market, the Cannes Marché, May 13 to 24, 2015!
Sundance and Producer Reps
A question often asked by indie filmmakers is, Do they need to have a producer rep? The answer varies. During Toronto and Sundance there are more producer reps on films than at any other festival or market. However, at Sundance 2015, 47 out of 127 films had producer reps. The breakdown was as follows:Cinetic – 14, ICM – 10, Preferred Content – 8, CAA – 6, UTA -3, Wme – 2, Submarine – 2, Paradigm – 1, Cassian Elwes – 1.
And there are many publicists, some not wanting to be named who also “represent” films but do not always attempt to make deals like the producer reps, with the exception of Steven Raphael’s Required Viewing. Publicists with films at Sundance were: Brigade with 9 films, Strategy – 7, Ryan Werner – 6, Prodigy – 6, Acme – 4, Susan Norget – 4, tcdm – 4, Steven Rafael, Mj Pakos – 2, Jazo – 1, Dish – 1, Sophie Gluck – 1, Bigtime – 1.
And there are also attorneys who rep the films but are not named here, examples: Donaldson & Califf, Linda Lichter, Shelly Surpin, Harris Tulchin, Craig Emanuel of Loeb & Loeb, et al.
14 films had U.S. distribution going into Sundance:
“A Walk In The Woods”- Entertainment in Motion (airline)
“It Follows- Radius-twc
Shaun The Sheep- Universal Pictures
Eden-broad Green Pictures
The Tribe-Drafthouse Films
True Story -Fox Searchlight Pictures
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief-hbo
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck-hbo
What Happened, Miss Simone?-Netflix
‘71-Roadside Attractions
Z for Zachariah-Roadside Attractions
Wild Tales-Sony Pictures Classics
Girlhood-Strand Releasing
A comprehensive report on all U.S. Distributors and their product for 2014 is available at http://www.SydneysBuzz.com/Reports.
- 4/7/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Greetings from Paradise. My blessed good fortune -- actually Steven Raphael, founder of Required Viewing.net (producer rep, publicist, theatrical distributor) -- invited me to join a small group going Costa Careyes, Mexico where the fourth edition of Infiniti ArteCareyes Film & Arts is taking place March 5th through 9th.
Situated on the Pacific coast of Mexico, a lush tropical forest in the state of Jalisco (a four hour drive from Guadalajara where the Guadalajara Film Festival will soon be held), about an hour and a half north of Manzanilla and south of Puerta Vallarta, Costa Careyes’ beauty defies description. But I am going to try to describe all that happens in the four days we spent here: nightly open air feature film screenings, contemporary art exhibitions, a charity auction, a live music program, matinee screenings and workshops held in venues sharing the land with huge permanent art installations in a tropical mountain terrain by artists including Retna and Jeffrey Sharf, two muralists whose West Hollywood Library murals illustrate an extraordinary coincidental synchronicity which continued throughout this long weekend.
In our little group, John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival, here for the second time, is on the board of Arte Careyes. His husband Paul Louis Maillard, an executive of Kaiser Permanente, spent hours studying for his Harvard Leadership Course where he will spend the next two weeks. The documentary filmmaking and married team Jarrett Engle and Cort Tramontin and David Zellner, half of the Zellner Brothers filmmaking team whom John invited to present Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, the sleeper of Sundance which went on to show in the Forum of the Berlinale, were also part of our little group which shared a stunning four bedroom house, built in an extravagant Mexican style incorporating inside and outside living. David and I were consigned to our own little guest houses just down a flight of stairs. All our windows looked out onto the ocean which at night was domed by stars in an equatorial splendor, bright and disconcerting, different because we are so much closer to the equator. I was reminded of that marvelous Ray Bradbury short story, Nightfall.
Our late evening talks and early morning breakfasts together with Steven and John telling great stories were such fun and also deepened my appreciation and knowledge of the special part of “the biz” we are in.
John Cooper has been a member of the Sundance Film Festival programming staff since 1989 and assumed the role of Festival Director in April of 2009 after serving as the Sundance Film Festival's Director of Programming since 2003. Parenthetically, he is the only gay head of a major film festival, an achievement no woman can claim…yet.
His early work in theater, ranging from performance to design, took him to New York City. By chance, he volunteered at the Institute's Summer Labs in 1989 and fell in love with the process and energy of Sundance (and with his future husband). He returned to California to become part of the Festival programming team, which at that time consisted of two people. In the Festival's early years, Cooper created the short film program and quickly transitioned into programming documentaries and feature films.
In recent years, he took the lead in developing the Institute's online presence, which has garnered two Webby Awards. As Festival Director, he oversees creative direction of the Festival and has final decision on all films and events.
Other work includes guest curator or juror at major film festivals around the world. From 1995-1998 Cooper served as Programming Director of Outfest, a Los Angeles festival held annually in July, and until 2002 served on the Outfest Board of Directors.
John Cooper was a dancer before he became director of Sundance and though he did not dance for us, his performance skills are top. Watching him navigate as our “house father” was worth the trip.
The purpose of this art, music and film event as described by its founder Filippo Brignone and the film curator, Marina Stavenhagen, is to link creative people across disciplines – pictorial and plastic arts, music, design, literature and filmmakers in dialogues that will result in greater creativity for the good of the community and beyond.
Our host Filippo Brignone, who has been working and reworking this event for four years is intent as well about preserving the nature of the area along with incorporating the most progressive education in science and math as well as the liberal arts in a system which includes the interactions between the 100 + families who are creating a community and the children of the families in the town who have been here since time immemorial.
Our conversations around all these subjects flowed freely among the guests over the past four days.
The patriarch of the family, Gian Franco Brignone, the 86+year-old Italian onetime banker with an artistic sensibility and a love of nature, bought eight miles of coastline with more than 5,000 hectares of coastal forestland in 1968 and began inviting friends like Bill and Melinda Gates and Paris Hilton to visit.
Bignone père and his two sons, Filippo and Georgio, have continued to build Careyes into a glamorous residential community and resort with accommodations ranging from cozy beach bungalows to “castles,” like the six-bedroom, sunshine-yellow aerie Casa Oriente where we stayed. Filippo also took us to his home, equally beautiful and mystic in its nature.
There’s also a small hotel, a contemporary art gallery, – curated by Los Angeles’s Hammer Museum Los Angeles Hammer Museum curators Ann Philbin and Laurie Firstenburg, who is also creating a tropical Marfa, were instrumental in organizing both Pacific Standard Time, a citywide showcase of Los Angeles art of the 1950s and 60s and Laxart are curating the art side of this community. More on the art of Careyes can be read here.
This community also contains a world class polo club overseen by Giorgio, five restaurants, and 8 glorious miles of coastline which Felippo plans to allow families and individuals to build on if they fit certain qualifications.
Filippo, his brother Giorgio and PR and Communications executive Viviana Dean operate this entire enterprise under the auspices of The ?! Careyes Foundation. Btw, the Foundation is looking for a general manager who will know how to share the vision of what they are building here. Filippo himself is a bon vivant with an enormous curiosity and the executive ability to develop his vision. From speaking with him, my perception of whom they would grant residency to would be those the ability to enjoy the life that is here in all its aspects. Not only partying (which is extraordinary) and conversational abilities, but intelligence, an excellence in achievement, originality, a compassion which includes curiosity and the wish to include, discuss and implement all aspects of what makes life better for all.
The ?! Careyes Foundation's mission is to catalyze innovative programs related to education, health, sport, ecology and art in order to improve the well-being of local communities along the coast. Over 30 years of individual philanthropic efforts in Careyes, Mexico, and the surrounding villages along the Mexican Pacific Coast are consolidated in The ?! Careyes Foundation. From Perula to Agua Caliente, the region of initial concentration includes a population of approximately 6,000 people. In 2013, The ?! Careyes Foundation registered as a non-profit public charity with 501(c)3 tax designation in the United States in order to make its efforts in the region more accessible and impactful. The Foundation is in the process of obtaining a similar status in Mexico and in other countries over time.
The Foundation is overseen by a an Executive Board over which our host Filippo presides and a Board of Trustees and Advisors with expertise in each of the Foundation’s concentrated areas — community, sea, land, and arts. The Executive Committees determine the scope of projects, initiating proposed ideas that prove to be transformational, scalable, and sustainable. Members of the international Honorary Board serve as global ambassadors for the Foundation and its work, supporting programmatic and philanthropic efforts.
On the Executive Board:
Executive Board Secretary, Emanuela Brignone Cattaneo, is an architect who has spent most of her life travelling to Careyes, and lending her design vision to create a large new urban space, the Plaza Caballeros del Sol, including a Sanctuary and the Contemporary Art Space of Careyes. She is also dedicating herself in the restoration of many historical Italian buildings from the Xii century transforming them into Museums such as the Modern Art Gallery of Genova or Palazzo Lomellino listed as a Unesco world heritage. Emanuela holds a Ma from Colombia University in NY and serves as a Trustee of the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, the Wolfsonian Foundation in Miami and Genoa. Emanuela is an Advisor of Airc , the Italian Association for Cancer Research.
Board Treasurer, Isabel SantoTomás, is Vice President of Investments for Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management focusing on portfolio management for ultra high net worth individuals, family offices, and endowments. She joined Morgan Stanley in 2008 and has 26 years of industry experience. Isabel received her Bachelors degree at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has spent the last 25 years in New York City and is relocating to Miami, Florida with her two children. She has been a part of the Careyes community for over 20 years.
Jonathan Congdon, co-founder of Beachbody LLC, has been instrumental in shaping the mission of the company, expanding its vision and growth, and overseeing media distribution channels and International business to increase the Beachbody market worldwide. After starting his career at Procter & Gamble, Jon traveled the world “on walkabout” before teaching science for more than three years in California. In 1995, he launched an educational consulting firm, but soon felt the call back to the world of marketing entrepreneurship. Jon was a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year on two boards, including his second term on the Electronic Retailing Association (Era) Board of Directors. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, and holds a degree in political science with dual emphases in American Constitutional Law and International Relations. Jon has been part of the Careyes community for over 10 years.
The fifth member of the Executive Board, Guillermo Barnetche Davison, is also Chairman of Grupo Profesional Planeacion y Proyectos, S.A. de C.V. (Pypsa) where he is in charge of the leadership and operating direction of multiple projects in the industrial, agricultural, sea, infrastructure, and building sectors. Guillermo received his Civil Engineering certification at the National Autonomous University of Mexico before getting a Masters in Hydraulic Resource Planning at Georgia Technology Institute and studying Economy and Systems Engineering at Stanford University. He has more than 40 years of professional experience in civil engineering and is a long-standing member of the Careyes community.
On the Honorary Board (a list in progress):
Ann Philbin, Director of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Daniela Michel, Director of the Morelia Film Festival, Gian Franco Brignone the Founder & Visionary of Costa Careyes, Johan Van Lengen, The “Barefoot Architect”, Founder of Tiba School Brazil and our own John Cooper, the Director of the Sundance Film Festival.
The Advisory Board is made up of:
Jennifer Arcenaux, Director, External Relations Sundance Film Festival, Arceneaux previously served as Director of Development for The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Moca). During her seven-year tenure at Moca, Arceneaux cultivated philanthropic relationships and fostered the careers of artists and curators in the Los Angeles art community. Arceneaux also launched the successful Moca Now communications and development campaign to increase grassroots engagement in fundraising and create transparent communication with Moca members and patrons. The campaign evolved into the Moca New initiative raising more than $70 million in operating and endowment support. Prior to joining Moca, Arceneaux served as Director of Development at the Accelerated School in Los Angeles where she executed a $60 million capital campaign for a new campus and community center. Her professional experience spans over ten years working with non-profits and community-based arts organizations including Rand Corporation, Inner-City Arts, CityLife, A.R.T.S. Inc., The Housing Rights Center and more recently in a board and advisory capacity with the Watts House Project, and Laxart.
Sarah Ezzy is a Director of the Global Philanthropy Group. As a Director at Global Philanthropy Group, Sarah has advised a range of high-profile individuals and corporate clients on their philanthropic strategies. She has worked on a variety of issues including global education for girls, poverty alleviation, domestic homelessness, youth and fitness, and sustainable agriculture. She was previously with Booz Allen Hamilton’s Strategy and Organization Practice where she worked with international organizations, developing country governments, and domestic policymakers and NGOs on a range of development issues. Sarah holds a BA in French Studies and Geography from Dartmouth College and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She speaks fluent French and is co-founder of Sadiq, a non-profit organization created to support Iraqi refugees in the Middle East.
Douglas K. Freeman, J.D., LL.M. the Senior Managing Director of First Foundation Advisors, Director of First Foundation Inc. and Director of the First Foundation Bank. First Foundation provides strategic planning and organizational management advice for business, nonprofit, foundation, and family clients. He brings to First Foundation clients his experience gained as a consultant to nearly 300 family foundations, support organizations and public charities throughout the United States. Mr. Freeman is a noted retired tax attorney and founder of the Los Angeles based law firm, Freeman, Freeman & Smiley, Llp. From 2005 through 2008, he was recognized by Worth magazine as among the 100 top attorneys in the United States. In 1999, he was featured by Bloomberg Financial as one of the nation’s leading estate planning attorneys. He is the founder of National Philanthropy Day, proclaimed by Congress and celebrated throughout the United States since 1986. Mr. Freeman serves as a director of family foundations, independent foundations, and public charities. He is the past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of California, Irvine Foundation and chairman of its $1 billion campaign. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Orange County’s Pacific Symphony and a member of the Board of Advisors of the University of Southern California Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy.
Mr. Freeman is the author of three books and over 30 articles and treatises on philanthropy and wealth planning. His new book, published in 2009, co-authored with Dr. Lee Hausner, Ph.D., is entitled “The Legacy Family… The Definitive Guide to Creating a Successful Multigenerational Family“. He is the co-author with Dr. Hausner of a leading treatise for family foundations, entitled “A Founder’s Guide to the Family Foundation“. He speaks throughout the country on behalf of professional associations, such as the Council on Foundations, the Association of Small Foundations, and the American Bar Association. He is a graduate of Stanford University (B.A. with Distinction, 1967), University of California at Los Angeles (J.D., 1970), and the University of San Diego (LL.M. in Taxation, 1984). Until retirement, Mr. Freeman was designated a Certified Specialist in Taxation under the State Bar of California.
Members of the Board of Trustees includes members like (list in progress):
Adam Lindemann – Art Collector & Advisor ; Alejandro Ramirez Magaña – CEO of Cinepolis ; Eric Goode – Founder & President of Turtle Conservancy; Esthella Provas – Art Advisor, Careyes ArtCommittee for special projects ; Eugenio Lopez – Collector, Jumex Collection; Patricia Marshall- Art Advisor, Careyes Art Committee; Piero Golia – Artist ; Serena Cattaneo Adorno – Director, Gagosian Gallery Paris, CareyesArtCommittee.
Continuing a trend of coincidences occurring for me on this incredible journey, out of the blue, at the first cocktail party held at this event, there appeared Christian Halsey Solomon, the son of a twenty-plus-year resident of Careyes, Michael Jay Solomon, whom I have known since the days when we were in our 20s when he set up McA Television in Latin America and personally bought prize winning shorts from the company where I was the acquisitions person. Years later, when I was buying feature films for Lorimar, his company Telepictures bought Lorimar. Christian and I also go way back to the days when he was 23, and I was working for the first time in independent international sales. We worked together in Milan, Italy at the Mifed film market with someone who has long since left the film scene. As if that were not enough of coincidences, my own brother Barry was the photographer for his first wedding.
Michael and Luciana had bought land here twenty years ago where they built their dream house. It is now home to Christian, his wife and two beautiful children who attend the incredible school here. Cuixmala School is a private non-profit school teaching core academic subjects in a bilingual environment while it emphasizes experiential learning about nature and the world; the students ride horses, raise their own food and have guests from every field from buddhists to biologists from the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve nearby. Christian showed me his home which was two doors down from our own Casa Oriente (next door to Seal) and he and his wife invited me back to visit and stay a while to write.
After each screening we were served delicious locally grown lunches and dinners. One wonderful night at the "ranchito", there was an art show of the old bones of animals who have died in this area where they are left out for the buzzards to pick clean. These bones, as if they were a precious as the fur and leather of beasts were decorated like Versace luxury items and showcased as art in the former stables of this former ranch. The best was the unicorn, a cow skeleton, whose short ribs look like they must have been really delicious before they were cleaned of all meat. This unicorn however, was missing its single horn. What a funny art show. The first two stalls looked like rooms where people were living, only the inhabitants were selling the furniture as art. Little stools made in traditional simple peasant style, were recreated in heavy marble. You can sit on them, or use them as little side tables. And shipping them home is not a problem.
Elegant community meals put us at the table one night where I sat next to Guillermo Arriaga, his wife, son and daughter. He was being honored with a tribute and he showed his short film The Blood of God (La Sangre de Dios) from the anthology which he produced as well, Words with Gods. Another coincidence is that he had just finished his short film Texas from Rio, I Love You, the franchise of our good friend Emmanuel Benbihy with whom we worked on Paris, Je t’aime and New York, I Love You. The Arriagas’ son and daughter are students at Mexico's private Ibero-American University’s School of Communications where Arriagas himself was a student and then a professor for twenty years and where is wife was a student of his. Coincidently that is also where he met his future partner Alejandro González Iñárritu with whom he worked on Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel, and where Marina Stavenhagen and her sisters and brothers are alumni as well as the 2013 Academy Award Winner for Cinematography, Emmanuel Lubezki.
Sr. Arriaga and I spoke quite a while - first about hunting which was not a topic I could speak much about beyond expressing surprise on hearing he was a hunter. But when we spoke about my Spanish and then about words and their derivations and meanings in Spanish and English, I became more actively interested. What I only realized afterward was that the conversation about words could have developed into the issue over words that ruptured his relationship with Iñárritu. The word for screenwriter in Spanish is objectionable to him because the word "guionista" means a tour guide or a writer of travel books and so a screenwriter accredited as “guionista” is merely a tour guide, putting up signposts for the director aka "The Auteur" in French parlance. I agree that the director alone is not the “auteur” of the film. Not only is a superbly written screenplay (which Arriagas writes often in close collaboration with his brother-in-law) an absolute necessity if a film is to have any chance to excel, but the producer who turns on the lights and turns them off and produces the money both before shooting and after shooting via distribution deals is required for a film’s success. Personally we think the producer and writer are the "Auteurs". The Auteur Theory proposed by Francois Truffaut in Cahiers de Cinema and promulgated in the U.S. by Peter Bogdanovich is merely a theory and not etched in marble. Pity about their falling out after their collaboraton on three greatest films in new Mexican cinema. But we did not get into all that.
The curator of the ArteCareyes film program, Marina Stavenhagen, also graduated from the Ibero-American University. Marina and I spoke the next day more about this event, which by its location and by design must stay small (around 300 - 400 people). Her thoughts concern creating an artist residency program, perhaps a think tank on a different topic every year such as music for film or producing along with two or three master classes, mentorships and inviting young filmmakers with shorts who can benefit from the intimate setting.
Marina Stavenhagen is a screenwriter and film developer with over 20 years of professional work in Mexico. Her work as a writer includes several short film and feature film scripts and has obtained several awards and recognitions. Marina has been a teacher, counselor and script consultant with many public and private Mexican institutions, and a jury in various national and international film festivals.
As a promoter of film, she has actively participated in the organization of exhibitions and film festivals in Mexico. She has been president of the Association of Women in Film and Television (Wift-Mexico), and was Director General of the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (Imcine). She is Member of the Board of Advisors of the Phoenix Film Ibero American Award and the Academic Council of the Bergman Cathedra, of the Unam University. For her work in promoting quality films and cultural exchange, Marina was honored by the Government of the French Republic with the Order of Arts and Letters in France.
After leaving her six year term as the head of Imcine, Marina was invited to create an interesting film program by Filippo Brignone while she returns to screenwriting.
Coincidently (again!), Marina’s sister is Andrea Stavenhagen, who was the head of the Iberoamerican Coproduction Meeting and Director of Industry at Ficg (Guadalajara Film Festival) until August 2013. She also co-directed the Morelia Lab Workshop for Young Producers in Latin America at the Morelia Film Festival and is now the San Sebastian Film Festival's new delegate for Latin America. All three of her siblings are in film, as is her husband.
Marina has invited other creative thinkers here, surprisingly my good friend Gary Meyer, Artistic Director of Telluride, Ivan Trujillo, Director of Ficg and Daniela Michel, General Director of Morelia Film Festival, with her husband, an educator, who is also renovating a jewel of an art deco theater just outside of Morelia.
Filippo took us on a tour of the land his father bought in 1968. We saw La Copa (The Cup) a folie his father built where the sun at the solar equinox beams a ray into the pyramid inside the mountain several miles away.
Situated on the Pacific coast of Mexico, a lush tropical forest in the state of Jalisco (a four hour drive from Guadalajara where the Guadalajara Film Festival will soon be held), about an hour and a half north of Manzanilla and south of Puerta Vallarta, Costa Careyes’ beauty defies description. But I am going to try to describe all that happens in the four days we spent here: nightly open air feature film screenings, contemporary art exhibitions, a charity auction, a live music program, matinee screenings and workshops held in venues sharing the land with huge permanent art installations in a tropical mountain terrain by artists including Retna and Jeffrey Sharf, two muralists whose West Hollywood Library murals illustrate an extraordinary coincidental synchronicity which continued throughout this long weekend.
In our little group, John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival, here for the second time, is on the board of Arte Careyes. His husband Paul Louis Maillard, an executive of Kaiser Permanente, spent hours studying for his Harvard Leadership Course where he will spend the next two weeks. The documentary filmmaking and married team Jarrett Engle and Cort Tramontin and David Zellner, half of the Zellner Brothers filmmaking team whom John invited to present Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, the sleeper of Sundance which went on to show in the Forum of the Berlinale, were also part of our little group which shared a stunning four bedroom house, built in an extravagant Mexican style incorporating inside and outside living. David and I were consigned to our own little guest houses just down a flight of stairs. All our windows looked out onto the ocean which at night was domed by stars in an equatorial splendor, bright and disconcerting, different because we are so much closer to the equator. I was reminded of that marvelous Ray Bradbury short story, Nightfall.
Our late evening talks and early morning breakfasts together with Steven and John telling great stories were such fun and also deepened my appreciation and knowledge of the special part of “the biz” we are in.
John Cooper has been a member of the Sundance Film Festival programming staff since 1989 and assumed the role of Festival Director in April of 2009 after serving as the Sundance Film Festival's Director of Programming since 2003. Parenthetically, he is the only gay head of a major film festival, an achievement no woman can claim…yet.
His early work in theater, ranging from performance to design, took him to New York City. By chance, he volunteered at the Institute's Summer Labs in 1989 and fell in love with the process and energy of Sundance (and with his future husband). He returned to California to become part of the Festival programming team, which at that time consisted of two people. In the Festival's early years, Cooper created the short film program and quickly transitioned into programming documentaries and feature films.
In recent years, he took the lead in developing the Institute's online presence, which has garnered two Webby Awards. As Festival Director, he oversees creative direction of the Festival and has final decision on all films and events.
Other work includes guest curator or juror at major film festivals around the world. From 1995-1998 Cooper served as Programming Director of Outfest, a Los Angeles festival held annually in July, and until 2002 served on the Outfest Board of Directors.
John Cooper was a dancer before he became director of Sundance and though he did not dance for us, his performance skills are top. Watching him navigate as our “house father” was worth the trip.
The purpose of this art, music and film event as described by its founder Filippo Brignone and the film curator, Marina Stavenhagen, is to link creative people across disciplines – pictorial and plastic arts, music, design, literature and filmmakers in dialogues that will result in greater creativity for the good of the community and beyond.
Our host Filippo Brignone, who has been working and reworking this event for four years is intent as well about preserving the nature of the area along with incorporating the most progressive education in science and math as well as the liberal arts in a system which includes the interactions between the 100 + families who are creating a community and the children of the families in the town who have been here since time immemorial.
Our conversations around all these subjects flowed freely among the guests over the past four days.
The patriarch of the family, Gian Franco Brignone, the 86+year-old Italian onetime banker with an artistic sensibility and a love of nature, bought eight miles of coastline with more than 5,000 hectares of coastal forestland in 1968 and began inviting friends like Bill and Melinda Gates and Paris Hilton to visit.
Bignone père and his two sons, Filippo and Georgio, have continued to build Careyes into a glamorous residential community and resort with accommodations ranging from cozy beach bungalows to “castles,” like the six-bedroom, sunshine-yellow aerie Casa Oriente where we stayed. Filippo also took us to his home, equally beautiful and mystic in its nature.
There’s also a small hotel, a contemporary art gallery, – curated by Los Angeles’s Hammer Museum Los Angeles Hammer Museum curators Ann Philbin and Laurie Firstenburg, who is also creating a tropical Marfa, were instrumental in organizing both Pacific Standard Time, a citywide showcase of Los Angeles art of the 1950s and 60s and Laxart are curating the art side of this community. More on the art of Careyes can be read here.
This community also contains a world class polo club overseen by Giorgio, five restaurants, and 8 glorious miles of coastline which Felippo plans to allow families and individuals to build on if they fit certain qualifications.
Filippo, his brother Giorgio and PR and Communications executive Viviana Dean operate this entire enterprise under the auspices of The ?! Careyes Foundation. Btw, the Foundation is looking for a general manager who will know how to share the vision of what they are building here. Filippo himself is a bon vivant with an enormous curiosity and the executive ability to develop his vision. From speaking with him, my perception of whom they would grant residency to would be those the ability to enjoy the life that is here in all its aspects. Not only partying (which is extraordinary) and conversational abilities, but intelligence, an excellence in achievement, originality, a compassion which includes curiosity and the wish to include, discuss and implement all aspects of what makes life better for all.
The ?! Careyes Foundation's mission is to catalyze innovative programs related to education, health, sport, ecology and art in order to improve the well-being of local communities along the coast. Over 30 years of individual philanthropic efforts in Careyes, Mexico, and the surrounding villages along the Mexican Pacific Coast are consolidated in The ?! Careyes Foundation. From Perula to Agua Caliente, the region of initial concentration includes a population of approximately 6,000 people. In 2013, The ?! Careyes Foundation registered as a non-profit public charity with 501(c)3 tax designation in the United States in order to make its efforts in the region more accessible and impactful. The Foundation is in the process of obtaining a similar status in Mexico and in other countries over time.
The Foundation is overseen by a an Executive Board over which our host Filippo presides and a Board of Trustees and Advisors with expertise in each of the Foundation’s concentrated areas — community, sea, land, and arts. The Executive Committees determine the scope of projects, initiating proposed ideas that prove to be transformational, scalable, and sustainable. Members of the international Honorary Board serve as global ambassadors for the Foundation and its work, supporting programmatic and philanthropic efforts.
On the Executive Board:
Executive Board Secretary, Emanuela Brignone Cattaneo, is an architect who has spent most of her life travelling to Careyes, and lending her design vision to create a large new urban space, the Plaza Caballeros del Sol, including a Sanctuary and the Contemporary Art Space of Careyes. She is also dedicating herself in the restoration of many historical Italian buildings from the Xii century transforming them into Museums such as the Modern Art Gallery of Genova or Palazzo Lomellino listed as a Unesco world heritage. Emanuela holds a Ma from Colombia University in NY and serves as a Trustee of the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, the Wolfsonian Foundation in Miami and Genoa. Emanuela is an Advisor of Airc , the Italian Association for Cancer Research.
Board Treasurer, Isabel SantoTomás, is Vice President of Investments for Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management focusing on portfolio management for ultra high net worth individuals, family offices, and endowments. She joined Morgan Stanley in 2008 and has 26 years of industry experience. Isabel received her Bachelors degree at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has spent the last 25 years in New York City and is relocating to Miami, Florida with her two children. She has been a part of the Careyes community for over 20 years.
Jonathan Congdon, co-founder of Beachbody LLC, has been instrumental in shaping the mission of the company, expanding its vision and growth, and overseeing media distribution channels and International business to increase the Beachbody market worldwide. After starting his career at Procter & Gamble, Jon traveled the world “on walkabout” before teaching science for more than three years in California. In 1995, he launched an educational consulting firm, but soon felt the call back to the world of marketing entrepreneurship. Jon was a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year on two boards, including his second term on the Electronic Retailing Association (Era) Board of Directors. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, and holds a degree in political science with dual emphases in American Constitutional Law and International Relations. Jon has been part of the Careyes community for over 10 years.
The fifth member of the Executive Board, Guillermo Barnetche Davison, is also Chairman of Grupo Profesional Planeacion y Proyectos, S.A. de C.V. (Pypsa) where he is in charge of the leadership and operating direction of multiple projects in the industrial, agricultural, sea, infrastructure, and building sectors. Guillermo received his Civil Engineering certification at the National Autonomous University of Mexico before getting a Masters in Hydraulic Resource Planning at Georgia Technology Institute and studying Economy and Systems Engineering at Stanford University. He has more than 40 years of professional experience in civil engineering and is a long-standing member of the Careyes community.
On the Honorary Board (a list in progress):
Ann Philbin, Director of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Daniela Michel, Director of the Morelia Film Festival, Gian Franco Brignone the Founder & Visionary of Costa Careyes, Johan Van Lengen, The “Barefoot Architect”, Founder of Tiba School Brazil and our own John Cooper, the Director of the Sundance Film Festival.
The Advisory Board is made up of:
Jennifer Arcenaux, Director, External Relations Sundance Film Festival, Arceneaux previously served as Director of Development for The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Moca). During her seven-year tenure at Moca, Arceneaux cultivated philanthropic relationships and fostered the careers of artists and curators in the Los Angeles art community. Arceneaux also launched the successful Moca Now communications and development campaign to increase grassroots engagement in fundraising and create transparent communication with Moca members and patrons. The campaign evolved into the Moca New initiative raising more than $70 million in operating and endowment support. Prior to joining Moca, Arceneaux served as Director of Development at the Accelerated School in Los Angeles where she executed a $60 million capital campaign for a new campus and community center. Her professional experience spans over ten years working with non-profits and community-based arts organizations including Rand Corporation, Inner-City Arts, CityLife, A.R.T.S. Inc., The Housing Rights Center and more recently in a board and advisory capacity with the Watts House Project, and Laxart.
Sarah Ezzy is a Director of the Global Philanthropy Group. As a Director at Global Philanthropy Group, Sarah has advised a range of high-profile individuals and corporate clients on their philanthropic strategies. She has worked on a variety of issues including global education for girls, poverty alleviation, domestic homelessness, youth and fitness, and sustainable agriculture. She was previously with Booz Allen Hamilton’s Strategy and Organization Practice where she worked with international organizations, developing country governments, and domestic policymakers and NGOs on a range of development issues. Sarah holds a BA in French Studies and Geography from Dartmouth College and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She speaks fluent French and is co-founder of Sadiq, a non-profit organization created to support Iraqi refugees in the Middle East.
Douglas K. Freeman, J.D., LL.M. the Senior Managing Director of First Foundation Advisors, Director of First Foundation Inc. and Director of the First Foundation Bank. First Foundation provides strategic planning and organizational management advice for business, nonprofit, foundation, and family clients. He brings to First Foundation clients his experience gained as a consultant to nearly 300 family foundations, support organizations and public charities throughout the United States. Mr. Freeman is a noted retired tax attorney and founder of the Los Angeles based law firm, Freeman, Freeman & Smiley, Llp. From 2005 through 2008, he was recognized by Worth magazine as among the 100 top attorneys in the United States. In 1999, he was featured by Bloomberg Financial as one of the nation’s leading estate planning attorneys. He is the founder of National Philanthropy Day, proclaimed by Congress and celebrated throughout the United States since 1986. Mr. Freeman serves as a director of family foundations, independent foundations, and public charities. He is the past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of California, Irvine Foundation and chairman of its $1 billion campaign. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Orange County’s Pacific Symphony and a member of the Board of Advisors of the University of Southern California Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy.
Mr. Freeman is the author of three books and over 30 articles and treatises on philanthropy and wealth planning. His new book, published in 2009, co-authored with Dr. Lee Hausner, Ph.D., is entitled “The Legacy Family… The Definitive Guide to Creating a Successful Multigenerational Family“. He is the co-author with Dr. Hausner of a leading treatise for family foundations, entitled “A Founder’s Guide to the Family Foundation“. He speaks throughout the country on behalf of professional associations, such as the Council on Foundations, the Association of Small Foundations, and the American Bar Association. He is a graduate of Stanford University (B.A. with Distinction, 1967), University of California at Los Angeles (J.D., 1970), and the University of San Diego (LL.M. in Taxation, 1984). Until retirement, Mr. Freeman was designated a Certified Specialist in Taxation under the State Bar of California.
Members of the Board of Trustees includes members like (list in progress):
Adam Lindemann – Art Collector & Advisor ; Alejandro Ramirez Magaña – CEO of Cinepolis ; Eric Goode – Founder & President of Turtle Conservancy; Esthella Provas – Art Advisor, Careyes ArtCommittee for special projects ; Eugenio Lopez – Collector, Jumex Collection; Patricia Marshall- Art Advisor, Careyes Art Committee; Piero Golia – Artist ; Serena Cattaneo Adorno – Director, Gagosian Gallery Paris, CareyesArtCommittee.
Continuing a trend of coincidences occurring for me on this incredible journey, out of the blue, at the first cocktail party held at this event, there appeared Christian Halsey Solomon, the son of a twenty-plus-year resident of Careyes, Michael Jay Solomon, whom I have known since the days when we were in our 20s when he set up McA Television in Latin America and personally bought prize winning shorts from the company where I was the acquisitions person. Years later, when I was buying feature films for Lorimar, his company Telepictures bought Lorimar. Christian and I also go way back to the days when he was 23, and I was working for the first time in independent international sales. We worked together in Milan, Italy at the Mifed film market with someone who has long since left the film scene. As if that were not enough of coincidences, my own brother Barry was the photographer for his first wedding.
Michael and Luciana had bought land here twenty years ago where they built their dream house. It is now home to Christian, his wife and two beautiful children who attend the incredible school here. Cuixmala School is a private non-profit school teaching core academic subjects in a bilingual environment while it emphasizes experiential learning about nature and the world; the students ride horses, raise their own food and have guests from every field from buddhists to biologists from the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve nearby. Christian showed me his home which was two doors down from our own Casa Oriente (next door to Seal) and he and his wife invited me back to visit and stay a while to write.
After each screening we were served delicious locally grown lunches and dinners. One wonderful night at the "ranchito", there was an art show of the old bones of animals who have died in this area where they are left out for the buzzards to pick clean. These bones, as if they were a precious as the fur and leather of beasts were decorated like Versace luxury items and showcased as art in the former stables of this former ranch. The best was the unicorn, a cow skeleton, whose short ribs look like they must have been really delicious before they were cleaned of all meat. This unicorn however, was missing its single horn. What a funny art show. The first two stalls looked like rooms where people were living, only the inhabitants were selling the furniture as art. Little stools made in traditional simple peasant style, were recreated in heavy marble. You can sit on them, or use them as little side tables. And shipping them home is not a problem.
Elegant community meals put us at the table one night where I sat next to Guillermo Arriaga, his wife, son and daughter. He was being honored with a tribute and he showed his short film The Blood of God (La Sangre de Dios) from the anthology which he produced as well, Words with Gods. Another coincidence is that he had just finished his short film Texas from Rio, I Love You, the franchise of our good friend Emmanuel Benbihy with whom we worked on Paris, Je t’aime and New York, I Love You. The Arriagas’ son and daughter are students at Mexico's private Ibero-American University’s School of Communications where Arriagas himself was a student and then a professor for twenty years and where is wife was a student of his. Coincidently that is also where he met his future partner Alejandro González Iñárritu with whom he worked on Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel, and where Marina Stavenhagen and her sisters and brothers are alumni as well as the 2013 Academy Award Winner for Cinematography, Emmanuel Lubezki.
Sr. Arriaga and I spoke quite a while - first about hunting which was not a topic I could speak much about beyond expressing surprise on hearing he was a hunter. But when we spoke about my Spanish and then about words and their derivations and meanings in Spanish and English, I became more actively interested. What I only realized afterward was that the conversation about words could have developed into the issue over words that ruptured his relationship with Iñárritu. The word for screenwriter in Spanish is objectionable to him because the word "guionista" means a tour guide or a writer of travel books and so a screenwriter accredited as “guionista” is merely a tour guide, putting up signposts for the director aka "The Auteur" in French parlance. I agree that the director alone is not the “auteur” of the film. Not only is a superbly written screenplay (which Arriagas writes often in close collaboration with his brother-in-law) an absolute necessity if a film is to have any chance to excel, but the producer who turns on the lights and turns them off and produces the money both before shooting and after shooting via distribution deals is required for a film’s success. Personally we think the producer and writer are the "Auteurs". The Auteur Theory proposed by Francois Truffaut in Cahiers de Cinema and promulgated in the U.S. by Peter Bogdanovich is merely a theory and not etched in marble. Pity about their falling out after their collaboraton on three greatest films in new Mexican cinema. But we did not get into all that.
The curator of the ArteCareyes film program, Marina Stavenhagen, also graduated from the Ibero-American University. Marina and I spoke the next day more about this event, which by its location and by design must stay small (around 300 - 400 people). Her thoughts concern creating an artist residency program, perhaps a think tank on a different topic every year such as music for film or producing along with two or three master classes, mentorships and inviting young filmmakers with shorts who can benefit from the intimate setting.
Marina Stavenhagen is a screenwriter and film developer with over 20 years of professional work in Mexico. Her work as a writer includes several short film and feature film scripts and has obtained several awards and recognitions. Marina has been a teacher, counselor and script consultant with many public and private Mexican institutions, and a jury in various national and international film festivals.
As a promoter of film, she has actively participated in the organization of exhibitions and film festivals in Mexico. She has been president of the Association of Women in Film and Television (Wift-Mexico), and was Director General of the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (Imcine). She is Member of the Board of Advisors of the Phoenix Film Ibero American Award and the Academic Council of the Bergman Cathedra, of the Unam University. For her work in promoting quality films and cultural exchange, Marina was honored by the Government of the French Republic with the Order of Arts and Letters in France.
After leaving her six year term as the head of Imcine, Marina was invited to create an interesting film program by Filippo Brignone while she returns to screenwriting.
Coincidently (again!), Marina’s sister is Andrea Stavenhagen, who was the head of the Iberoamerican Coproduction Meeting and Director of Industry at Ficg (Guadalajara Film Festival) until August 2013. She also co-directed the Morelia Lab Workshop for Young Producers in Latin America at the Morelia Film Festival and is now the San Sebastian Film Festival's new delegate for Latin America. All three of her siblings are in film, as is her husband.
Marina has invited other creative thinkers here, surprisingly my good friend Gary Meyer, Artistic Director of Telluride, Ivan Trujillo, Director of Ficg and Daniela Michel, General Director of Morelia Film Festival, with her husband, an educator, who is also renovating a jewel of an art deco theater just outside of Morelia.
Filippo took us on a tour of the land his father bought in 1968. We saw La Copa (The Cup) a folie his father built where the sun at the solar equinox beams a ray into the pyramid inside the mountain several miles away.
- 3/14/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Today I finally felt like I was hitting my stride. I found a parking place on the street this early Sunday morning and made my 8:30am screening of What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love which takes place in a special school for the mute, deaf and blind in Indonesia. A series of love stories told with a gentleness most easily summarized by one of its characters, Boys love what they see and girls love what they hear. The film is a sweet look — not always innocent — at love inside this special school, told with a narrative style and rhythm dictated by its actors being mostly blind, deaf or mute. Kiril Razlogov, Artistic Director of the Moscow Film Festival, and I had a great long talk about Russia, the new Ministry of Culture and how film fits into its political system and what is happening today with Russian films as we walked to the Glbt annual brunch at the Grub Steak (I can no longer recall who sponsors this I have been going to it for such a long time) I had thought it started at 10am but at 10:30am the line to get in was down the block and no one was going in until 11am, so we made our own party greeting those in line whom we knew. It was great to see Marie from Wolfe Releasing along with her colleague and to hear about the great response they have been getting internationally to their online movies. Kiril and she discussed Russian films and digital delivery. She is still deciding whether to go to Berlin as she is so busy at the home office. I looked for Jenny Olsen whom I always see there if no where else but she was not there yet. We visited with a few other friends and acquaintances and then Kiril and I parted ways as he went to see a film (he's concentrating on seeing the U.S. Films and I'm concentrating on international and particularly Latino and Eastern European films). I went to interview director Sebastian Silva whose Old Cats was in Sundance 2009 and The Maid which won the Dramatic Jury Award here in 2011 and whose film Crystal Fairy so impressed me this year. I will write about this wonderful interview after I have seen the second film he has here, Magic Magic, produced by Frida Torresblanco and Christine Vachon. My discussion after the interview with producer rep and publicist, Stephen Raphael of Required Viewing, who also happens to have been born in Chile, about the film's producers, Fabula, the company of Pablo and Claude Lorrain (No, Tony Manero) and the line producer who also line produced Il Futuro, the Chile-Italian coproduction film I also saw today verged on the weird for the number of coincidences and inter-relationships. The oddest coincidence was that while Stephen was awaiting his two Chilean clients to arrive at Sundance from Santiago, his luggage was lost and they discovered it had been sent mistakenly to Santiago! Between films I went to parties: UCLA / The Wrap party where I did not see Teri Schwartz, Dean of the UCLA film school or Sharon Waxman of The Wrap, Texas Party, but I was unable to squeeze in the Ida cocktail to which Laurie Ann Schag of Netflix and the the Ida Treasurer invited me as I had to run back to the Holiday Village to see The World According to Dick Cheney, a 110 minute life saga of this man who ran our government into the ground as told by himself, a man unable to think of a single fault in his own character when asked the question along with other questions about himself, all of which he could answer with a flawless alacrity – except for that one. He could only conclude that his only fault was not being able to name one. I went to see the Serbian film Circles at the urging of my friend Geno Lechner who played the wife of the protagonist. The fault of this film was in identifying characters 12 years after a horrible incident that took place among the characters which determined the story. I still do not know who was who and yet I understood the relevance of the story very much, especially because I was just in Sarajevo for the Festival and Talent Campus this summer and loved it so very much. This played out the tragedy of a man whose good deed in saving a Muslim cigarette vendor in Croatia during the Serbian Croatia War created circles of greater import like a stone which is dropped in the water. Finally, I changed my mind from seeing Wajma to going with the flow and seeing Escape from Tomorrow which is receiving lots of press because of possible copyright infringement of Walt Disney's IP. This surreal comedy of a man going insane at Disneyland or Disney World left me feeling dizzy and surreal myself. I think it is good as a work of art but without any commercial potential. I think, like the Barbie Doll enactment of the Karen Carpenter Story so many years ago, Sundance may be the only chance for anyone to see this film. With that as my finale for the evening, I drove home feeling disoriented to meet a depressed Harlan who had been unable to procure any tickets for the evening screenings. For having done a full day's work without a flaw, the evening's films and lack thereof left the two of us out of sorts. Oh well, there's always tomorrow, but I'm already undecided about whether to attend Acme PR's inaugural breakfast or go to see The Lifeguard. I've had enough docs on political issues and so will skip 99% The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film. There is always so much to do that no matter what you choose, you wonder if you should be somewhere else; that is the dilemma of these festivals with so many choices! See you tomorrow!
- 1/21/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Dada Films and its sister company, Required Viewing, have acquired U.S. theatrical distribution rights to Sarah Megan Thomas' "Backwards." The film opens on September 21, 2012. Thomas wrote, produced, and stars in the film, which also features Glenn Morshower ("24", "Transformers") and James Van Der Beek ("Dawson's Creek"). The film's subject matter is especially relevant with this year's Summer Olympics, telling the story of an Olympic hopeful, Abi (played by Thomas), who moves back home and becomes a coach after being named an alternate on the Olympic rowing team. Thomas states that her motivation for writing "Backwards", "was to create an inspirational film that shows there are lots of ways to win, even if we don't always achieve our immediate goal." While never an Olympian, Thomas was a competitive rower and athlete in her teens and twenties. Mj Peckos from Dada Films and Steven Raphael...
- 7/11/2012
- by Dema Paxton Fofang
- Indiewire
Last year in Toronto the Dominican film La Soga caused some buzz. It now has chosen its release patterns with Mj Pekos of Mitropoulos Films ♀and Steven Raphael of Required Viewing consulting on all marketing and distribution elements in its North American release which will be done, along with international sales, by 7-57 Releasing and its partner Markedia Worldwide. Its platform release in August will be simultaneous with its rollout in the Dominican Republic by Antena Latina Films and in Puerto Rico by nm3089654 autoCynthia Wiesner[/link]'s Wiesner Distribution ♀. Karina Korenblum ♀ is handling international sales for 7-57. It was produced…...
- 8/17/2010
- Sydney's Buzz
7-57 Releasing and partner Markedia Worldwide have picked up U.S. distribution and world sales rights to Josh Crook's action thriller "La Soga."
Written by Manny Perez, the film stars Perez and Denise Quinones in the Domican Republic-set tale about a cop seeking justice.
It was produced by Perez, Josh Crook and Jeff Crook. Exec producers are Patrick Pope, Jose Miguel Bonetti, Henry Mu, Celines Toribio, Jesse Scolaro, Allen Bain, Patrick R. Morris, Kate White Morris, Robert G. Morris and Michael Bassick.
A platform theatrical release in the top ten U.S. markets is set for August, along with its rollout in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
Antena Latina Films will be handling distribution in the Dominican Republic with Cynthia Wiesner of Wiesner Distribution handling Puerto Rico.
Steven Raphael of Required Viewing and Mj Peckos of Mitropoulos Films will consult on all marketing and distribution elements for the North American theatrical release.
Written by Manny Perez, the film stars Perez and Denise Quinones in the Domican Republic-set tale about a cop seeking justice.
It was produced by Perez, Josh Crook and Jeff Crook. Exec producers are Patrick Pope, Jose Miguel Bonetti, Henry Mu, Celines Toribio, Jesse Scolaro, Allen Bain, Patrick R. Morris, Kate White Morris, Robert G. Morris and Michael Bassick.
A platform theatrical release in the top ten U.S. markets is set for August, along with its rollout in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
Antena Latina Films will be handling distribution in the Dominican Republic with Cynthia Wiesner of Wiesner Distribution handling Puerto Rico.
Steven Raphael of Required Viewing and Mj Peckos of Mitropoulos Films will consult on all marketing and distribution elements for the North American theatrical release.
- 6/28/2010
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rachel Perkins’ musical Bran Nue Dae will be released in the Us in September by Freestyle Releasing.
“Based on Bran Nue Dae‘s strong box-office showing in the Australian marketplace, its uniquely charming subject matter and engaging musical score, we believe that it will find an enthusiastic audience in the Us marketplace,” said executive producer and Omnilab Media CEO Christopher Mapp.
Working with the experienced Freestyle Releasing team, we are hoping it could, in fact, achieve that rare honor of becoming a small, independent, breakout box-office hit,” he added.
According to indiewire, the distributor is planning a limited release followed by a national rollout, and Cinemarket’s Peter D. Graves, and Steven Raphael’s Required Viewing will work on the release strategy. Bankside Films is the international sales agent.
“Based on Bran Nue Dae‘s strong box-office showing in the Australian marketplace, its uniquely charming subject matter and engaging musical score, we believe that it will find an enthusiastic audience in the Us marketplace,” said executive producer and Omnilab Media CEO Christopher Mapp.
Working with the experienced Freestyle Releasing team, we are hoping it could, in fact, achieve that rare honor of becoming a small, independent, breakout box-office hit,” he added.
According to indiewire, the distributor is planning a limited release followed by a national rollout, and Cinemarket’s Peter D. Graves, and Steven Raphael’s Required Viewing will work on the release strategy. Bankside Films is the international sales agent.
- 6/23/2010
- by Miguel Gonzalez
- Encore Magazine
Freestyle Releasing will distribute the Australian musical "Bran Nue Dae," starring Geoffrey Rush, in the U.S. It will begin with a platform release in September, followed by a nationwide rollout.
Its marketing will be overseen by Cinemarket's Peter D. Graves in conjunction with specialized film veteran Steven Raphael's Required Viewing.
Based on a successful Australian stage musical, the movie, directed by Rachel Perkins, revolves around the romantic adventures of a young Aboriginal couple.
Along with Rush, it stars Jessica Mauboy (winner of the 2008 edition of "Australian Idol"), Rocky Mackenzie, Magda Szubanski and singer-songwriter Missy Higgins.
A hit at the Australian boxoffice, the indigenous musical has grossed more than $7.5 million. It had its U.S. premiere at January's Sundance Film Festival.
Financed by Omnilab Media, "Dae" was co-written by Perkins and Reg Cribb and features music by Jimmy Chi, Kuckles, Patrick Suttoo Bin Amat, Michael Manolis Mavromatis and Stephen Pigram.
Its marketing will be overseen by Cinemarket's Peter D. Graves in conjunction with specialized film veteran Steven Raphael's Required Viewing.
Based on a successful Australian stage musical, the movie, directed by Rachel Perkins, revolves around the romantic adventures of a young Aboriginal couple.
Along with Rush, it stars Jessica Mauboy (winner of the 2008 edition of "Australian Idol"), Rocky Mackenzie, Magda Szubanski and singer-songwriter Missy Higgins.
A hit at the Australian boxoffice, the indigenous musical has grossed more than $7.5 million. It had its U.S. premiere at January's Sundance Film Festival.
Financed by Omnilab Media, "Dae" was co-written by Perkins and Reg Cribb and features music by Jimmy Chi, Kuckles, Patrick Suttoo Bin Amat, Michael Manolis Mavromatis and Stephen Pigram.
- 6/22/2010
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Lance Hammer better start sharpening the pencils and stock up on clean underwear. The next couple of months will see the filmmaker do a lot of number crunching and this autumn, Hammer will bring his Diy experience onto a different platform. In short the 2008 story unfolded as such: Hammer presents Ballast at Sundance. Receives critical acclaim and the IFC pick up the distribution rights. Film goes onto Berlin and several fests after this. Add acclaim and awards. Recently, Hammer leaves IFC offer and seeks out some sort of strategy with Strand Releasing. Not much time after, the Strand deal becomes another no-deal asterix. "We're disappointed and we love the movie," admitted IFC Films' head of acquisitions Arianna Bocco." But how can you argue with an independent filmmaker who wrote, directed, produced and financed his own movie and wants to take that final step of ownership? I respect that choice.
- 7/3/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
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