Better a Year-and-a-Half Late than Never?

Okay, so it's taken a year-and-a-half, but the photos from 2007's 13th Annual Chlotrudis Awards Ceremony featuring Don McKellar and Tracy Wright are finally up on the website. Perhaps we'll even get the pictures from this year's 14th Annual Ceremony up before the calendar year ends! Take a look at the 13th Annual Ceremony here.

A Couple of Tidbits

A couple of little news stories came out recently. Earlier this year Jessica Yu won Best Documentary for her film PROTAGONIST, which was also nominated in the Best Movie category, but she already has another film in the can, this one a narrative comedy called PING PONG PLAYA. Some of us caught this one in Toronto last year, while still more of us hopefully got a peek at the IFFB this spring. Now the rest of you can enjoy this because IFC has bought the U.S. rights and plan to give the film a limited release this fall.

Outfest 2008 announced its award winners last night, and XXY, their international winner is a must see according to Bruce. The best documentary award goes to SEX POSITIVE, which Jason gave a good review to when it played the IFFB. The oustanding U.S. dramatic feature went to Tom Gustafson's WERE THE WORLD MINE, recounting an all-boys production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' Scot enjoyed WERE THE WORLD MINE, but I found it to be pretty disappointing, with a pretty bland and uninteresting protagonist. Just goes to show, your mileage may vary!

Peter Keough and Popcorn 'N Roses Report on Awards

Peter Keough, our pal from the Boston Phoenix, had some lovely things to say about our Annual Awards Ceremony earlier this week on his blog, Outside the Frame. (And no, it was not an April Fool's Joke.) Chlotrudis member TC also commented on the Awards at the IndieFilmSpotlight on his Popcorn N Roses website.

An Eerie Pre-Chlotrudis Calm

It's the day before the 14th Annual Chlotrudis Awards, and aside from waking up earlier than I'd hoped, I'm strangely calm about the whole affair. (Okay, maybe I'm still a little concerned about the two musical numbers which will have final rehearsals tomorrow afternoon before the show.) Perhaps now having done this for nine years (publicly) things just move pretty smoothly. The voting is done (for the most part) and we've got our winners. The speeches are written, the multi-media is wrapped up, and the guests will start arriving today.

I'm very excited about our Career-so-far Award winner this year. One of the joys of honoring a deserving and often under-appreciated actor or filmmaker at the Awards is in preparation for their arrival I go through their body of work and get reminded of the reasons we are honoring them in the first place. Such was the case with this year's guest, Alberta Watson. I knew Alberta Watson was a good choice for this year's award just from the several films that immediately sprang to mind when we considered her. What I discovered was those films were just a small sampling of the terrific work this actress has shared with us over the years. Alberta enjoys an extensive film and television career, and she seems like she's going to be a lot of fun as well. You can find out for yourself by joining us tomorrow night at the Ceremony.

So I hope to see many of you local readers at the Brattle Theatre tomorrow, Sunday, March 30, 5 p.m. Chlotrudis Awards is a decidedly unique experience, one that most movie buffs know not to miss. Tickets are $20/$15 for members of the Brattle or Chlotrudis. Hope to see you there!

Documentary Filmmaker and Chlotrudis Advisory Board Member A.J. Schnack Follows in Our Footsteps

Fourteen years ago, Chlotrudis President Michael Colford got tired of listening to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences dictate the apparently limited notion of what is good in film during a given year and started the Chlotrudis Awards to honor independent film. Now, for reasons not all that dissimilar, Chlotrudis Award-winning direction A.J. Schnack has followed suit, developing with IndiePix a new award for non-fiction films.

Back in late November, after the Academy announced its short list of documentaries for Awards consideration, A.J. expressed his dismay at its treatment of docs. A.J. had been reporting, sometimes controversially, over the past year plus about the quixotic and confusing rule-changing the Academy had been engaging in with regard to documentaries' requirements for award eligibility. Apparently he has had enough.

A.J. sought out online independent film distributor IndiePix, and a group of North American film festival programmers to launch a new nonfiction filmmaking awards event, set for March 18, 2008 at IFC Center in New York City. Awards will be given in eight categories including Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Filmmaking, International Feature, Debut Feature, Direction, Production, Editing, Cinematography, and Graphics and Animation. I have no idea how long this idea has been kicking around in A.J.'s head, but he clearly pulled this together so quickly that the passion and commitment from those involved is clear.

As the key organizer, A.J. held his 2007 film KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON from consideration, but the group announced its own short list yesterday:

BILLY THE KID
DEEP WATER
THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK
GHOSTS OF CITE SOLEIL
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON
INTO GREAT SILENCE
LAKE OF FIRE
MANDA BALA
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES
THE MONASTERY
NO END IN SIGHT
SICKO
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE
THE UNFORSEEN
ZOO

So welcome, A.J. to the awards milieu! It's great to see the Academy, in all of its shortcomings, inspiring yet another Awards Ceremony. Find out who Chlotrudis nominates in the Best Documentary category in just over two weeks.

Boston Society of Film Critics Pick Their 2007 Award Winners

Today the Boston Society of Film Critics announced their awards for 2007. Awards season has begun with a vengeance, with announcements for the Independent Spirit Awards, National Board of Review Awards, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association already released, and the Golden Globe nominees coming next Thursday. Here in Boston, our critics followed the lead of the NBR by selecting the Coen Brothers' NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN as their top film of the year. I guess the most surprising thing for me here is the hometown allegiance to GONE BABY GONE, and more particularly, Ben Affleck. I haven't seen the film, so I probably shouldn't comment, but I find it hard to believe (from what I've heard) that he's deserving of the Best New Filmmaker Award. Here's the complete list:

Best Picture

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Best Actor

Frank Langella for STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard for LA VIE EN ROSE

Best Supporting Actor

Javier Bardem for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Ryan for GONE BABY GONE

Best Director

Julian Schnabel for THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

Best Screenplay

Brad Bird for RATATOUILLE

Best Cinematography

Janusz Kaminski for THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

Best Documentary

CRAZY LOVE

Best Foreign-Language Film

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

Best New Filmmaker

Ben Affleck for GONE BABY GONE

Best Ensemble Cast

BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD

The Boston Society of Film Critics is a group of 18 film writers who publish in the Boston area, including several friends of Chlotrudis including Ty Burr, Peter Keough, Loren King, Wesley Morris, and Gerry Peary. I wonder if their meeting today was as fun and/or contentious as our upcoming Chlotrudis Awards Nominating Committee Meeting which will take place on Saturday, January 19.

A.J. Reacts of Documentary Shortlist

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced its Shortlist for the Oscars Documentary category yesterday, and much of the film blogging world has been reacting. A.J. Schnack, documentary filmmaker and Chlotrudis Advisory Council member, whose first feature doc, GIGANTIC: A TALE OF TWO JOHNS was the Chlotrudis Award for Best Documentary, and whose latest work, KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON is enjoying a theatrical run right now, shares his thoughts on the Academy's selections in an insightful post over at his blog, All These Wonderful Things. Check it out.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Petition to Change Thai Law

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Apicatpong "Joe" Weeasethakul's new film SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY. Apparently there's quite a story brewing around this film by the director of Buried Treasure nominee TROPICAL MALADY. After Thailand's Censorship Board demanded Joe cut four "sensitive scenes" from his film, he decided not to release the film in his home country unless the laws were changed to allow it to be screened in its intended form. Joe has started a petition of have those laws changed called the "Free Thai Cinema Movement" where he says, ""We're petitioning not only for a just decision for Syndromes and a Century, but also for a long-needed modernization of Thai legislation concerning movie censorship." GreenCine Daily reports that the movement is receiving some serious backing from political and cultural heavyweights. Chlotrudis members, especially those that voted for this year's Best Documentary winner THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED, should take a look at the petition and consider signing it. I did.

Incidentally, according to Limitless Cinema, the four "sensitive scenes" that the Thai Censorship Board demanded cut showed:

1. a young monk playing a guitar


2. a group of doctors drinking whisky in a hospital basement


3. a doctor kissing his girlfriend in a hospital locker room


4. two monks playing with a radio-controlled flying saucer

Now don't you really want to sign the petition?

Andrea Arnold's RED ROAD Leads the Advance Party

Those Danes and their rules. Most film enthusiasts are familiar with the Dogme95 collective, which has spawned some remarkable films such as Thomas Vinterberg's THE CELEBRATION; Lars Von Trier's THE IDIOTS; Søren Kragh-Jacobsen's MIFUNE; Lone Scherfig's ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS; and Susanne Bier's OPEN HEARTS. Now after a conversation with Lars Von Trier, directors Lone Scherfig and Anders Thomas Jensen (whose film ADAM'S APPLES we are going to see Monday night) have come up with a new concept called The Advance Party. The Advance Party is the banner for films incorporating the characters originated by Scherfig and Jensen after Lars von Trier had set the challenge of putting the same actors playing the same characters into different films authored by different directors. It was originated in 2002 by the Glasgow Film Office who suggested to Scottish Production Company Sigma Films that they persuade theirs partners at Zentropa (the Danish Production Company responsible for many Dogme95 films) to collaborate on a series of films by emerging directors.

The rules are as follows:

• The scripts can take their starting point in one or more characters or they may be subjected to an external drama. The characters can also participate in a form that is governed primarily by neither characters nor plot.


• The films take place in Scotland but apart from that the writers are free to place them anywhere according to geography, social setting or ethnic background. Their back-stories can be expanded, family relations can be created between them, they can be given habits good or bad, and secondary characters can be added if it is proper for the individual film.


• The interpersonal relationships of the characters differ from film to film and they may be weighted differently as major or minor characters.


• The development of the characters in each story or genre does not affect the other scripts.


• All of the characters must appear in all of the films.


• The various parts will be cast with the same actors in the same parts in all of the films.

Less technical and more character-driven than Dogme95, but still a spur to creativity by its limitations, The Advance Party first brings to mind the self-imposed structure of Chlotrudis Award multiple winner THE TRILOGY by Belgian director Lucas Belvaux, where three films, in different genres, about the same characters were filmed and released at the same time. THE TRILOGY won four Chlotrudis Awards in 1995 including Best Cast, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Movie (for which it tied with SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER... AND SPRING.)

The first of the Advance Party's films is Andrea Arnold's RED ROAD, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes last year. In RED ROAD, Jackie (Kate Dickie) works as a CCTV operator. Each day she watches over a small part of the world, protecting the people living their lives under her gaze. One day a man appears on her monitor, a man she thought she would never see again, a man she never wanted to see again. Now she has no choice, she is compelled to confront him. RED ROAD has already drawn comparisons to REAR WINDOW and Michael Haneke's Chlotrudis Awards winning CACHE.

In an interview with Filmmaker Magazine earlier this week, writer/director Arnold discusses The Advance Party, and the making of RED ROAD. Chlotrudis Board Member Bruce Kingsley caught RED ROAD earlier this year at the Miami International Film Festival, where it won Best Film. RED ROAD also features as one of its stars, Natalie Press, who was nominated for a Best Actress Chlotrudis Award for MY SUMMER OF LOVE. All of this is just to say that I'm very intrigued and getting excited about RED ROAD'S release, and it will be interesting to see where the other two participating directors (Morag Mckinnon and Mikkel Norsgaard) take these characters. It's the first time in several months that I have been intrigued and excited by an upcoming release that I'd never heard of before.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road coming to the big screen

Variety reports that Cormac McCarthy's chilling, post-apocalyptic tale, The Road will be adapted for the big screen by screenwriter Joe Penhall (who penned the movie version of Ian McEwan's Enduring Love to mixed results. Australian director Joe Hillcoat, who recently helmed multiple Chlotrudis-nominee THE PROPOSITION, will direct. That's going to be one chilling movie... I just hope they don't go the full-out zombie route. The terror of McCarthy's book comes largely from the isolation surrounding the main characters, and the potential danger of discovery. It might be difficult to successfully translate to the big screen. I can see it working in Hillcoat's hands as long as he mixes in a little restraint. It's really a character piece and a road movie; I'd hate to see it turned into a horror flick. We'll see.

Peter Keough blogs the Awards

Some Chlotrudis members know Peter Keough, film critic at the Boston Phoenix, as the good-looking, grumpy guy who claims to be working on a cure for cancer. The lucky members know that he's an opinionated, skilled film critic who has supported Chlotrudis for many years, and always livens things up when he presents an award for us. If you haven't taken a look at his blog, Outside the Frame, do so now. He has posted a wrap-up on our Awards Ceremony. Thanks, Peter!

Chlotrudis Guests Don and Tracy Open SXSW

Over at GreenCine Daily, there's a report on Opening Night at SXSW which features Reg Harkema's MONKEY WARFARE, starring this year's Chlotrudis guests Don McKellar and Tracy Wright. Chlotrudis Board members Beth Curran and Nancy Campbell caught MONKEY WARFARE in Toronto, and through Nancy and Chlotrudis member Brian Tamm's efforts, we will be lucky enough to catch this film in April at the Indepedent Film Festival of Boston. With 2006 being a slight year for Canadian films, here's hoping that 2007 yields a better batch. MONKEY WARFARE also stars Nadia Litz, who won a Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress way back in 2001 for her work in THE FIVE SENSES.

Speaking of SXSW, Chlotrudis members Ned Hinkle, Gil Cordova, and Amanda Doran are all enjoying the festival this week. Let's hope they see some terrific new films to bring to Boston!

Twitch City and an Unofficial Awards Announcement!

A few weeks ago, Scot reported to the Chlotrudis membership that our beloved Canadian TV sitcom, "Twitch City," was finally being released in the U.S. (it was finally released in Canada last fall). Now it hasn't yet appeared in Netflix, but it is available for purchase over at Amazon. We were wondering if the commentary on the U.S. version would be the same as the Canadian, and judging from the description on Amazon, it does sound like it will be. This is actually an exciting bit of news for Chlotrudis. The commentary is done by Don McKellar, this year's Chlotrudis special guest, and lead actor from the show, who calls his co-stars on the phone for assistance. When he reaches Daniel McIvor, past Chlotrudis "Body-of-Work" Award winner, the two have a rather amusing conversation while watching the debut episode. When they get to the "job wheel" scene (one that Chlotrudis members should know well) Daniel actually starts talking about coming to Boston to receive an award for his body of work, and the fact that we showed this clip. It's pretty cool and pretty funny, even though he doesn't mention us by name.

In related news, we have now confirmed our second guest for the 13th Annual Chlotrudis Awards coming up soon. This is an unofficial announcement, as a press release will follow, but I'm just so excited I couldn't contain myself any longer. She's got "cat-i-tude!" Tracy Wright will be honored at the Awards Ceremony for her "career-so-far!" Tracy is best known in the U.S. for being part of the Chlotrudis Awards-winning Ensemble Cast of ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW. She has done extensive work in Canadian film and tv, including the wacky Dizelle in the afore-mentioned "Twitch City," a major part in Don McKellar's ensemble piece, LAST NIGHT, and a lead role in the upcoming MONKEY WARFARE, co-starring McKellar and Nadia Litz. She most recently appeared off-Broadway in "A Beautiful View" at the Public Theatre, a play written and directed by Daniel McIvor (see how synchronistic this post is?) Tracy Wright makes every movie she is in better, and I can't wait to meet her. Look for the official word on the front page of this website very soon.

Chlotrudis Chats with Jeff Stanzler

by Beth Curran

His hello is a litte rough around the edges, his voice deeper than I remember. Even though he gave a direct number earlier in the week so that I could call him for the interview, and despite our subsequent emails setting up the time for the chat, I confusedly ask to speak with Jeff Stanzler, and formally introduce myself. His laugh is friendly and relaxed, and he explains the previous night’s celebrations, no doubt in honor of his film SORRY HATERS garnering two Spirit Award nominations. After a few moments I realize that he is not in New York, his home base, but in Los Angeles, and that he had amiably agreed to what is for him a 9:30 am weekend phone interview. I’m disarmed by his accommodation - out of all the things he could do during the last weekend before the craziness of award ceremonies kicks in, and he’s getting up early to talk with Chlotrudis? I guess an independent film director’s work truly is never done!

SORRY HATERS is up for three Chlotrudis Awards (Film, Actress, Original Screenplay), and after an engaging Q&A session with him at our screening of the film at the Brattle Theatre last fall, the chance to catch up with Jeff once again, post-nominations, is a welcome one. I congratulate him on both sets of nominations, and he is gracious and deprecating. My sense is that, more than anything, he is happiest that his film has given its lead, Robin Wright Penn, greater acclaim and attention. Towards that end, he is presently working to put together his next film, which would reunite him with Penn - if all goes well, Jeff hopes to begin shooting some time this year.

It’s tough for him to say more about the status of the project - as he mentions when I ask, “there’s a saying that independent films either take a very long time or a very short time to make.” SORRY HATERS was in the latter category, taking only two years from screenplay idea to completed film. The actual moviemaking process, Jeff says, was remarkably quick. “Funny enough,” he notes, “the one time where things felt stalled was afterwards - we just couldn’t find a festival where it could play.” The film eventually went on to play Toronto in fall 2005 (and later was picked by IFC Films for distribution).

Jeff’s first feature film, JUMPIN’ AT THE BONEYARD, was made in the early 90’s, the heyday of the Sundance/Miramax indie scene, and I ask him how much was different for an independent filmmaker since those times. “Something’s really changed,” he responds with muted disappointment, “in the last few years, it seems as if no one’s interested in funding a million dollar film in order to make three million. They all want the Little Miss Sunshines, ten million budgets,” in the hopes of scoring really big return. He continues, “and if you want to make something really personal, that might be potentially offensive to some, then no way - well, it’s just going to be a rough road for you.”

I follow up, asking if he had any surprises by who took offense to SORRY HATERS as well as by those who reacted positively to it. “I’ve been constantly surprised by who got it and who didn’t, there’s no set demographics of haters or lovers of this film.” He goes on to talk about examples, like the audiences of mostly blue-collar types, or folks who aren’t art-house film lovers, where “the film almost played better there than anywhere else,” or the man at an industry screening for Spirit nominees the other week who got up and walked out immediately after the film and screamed “thank you for wasting my time” over his shoulder on his way towards the lobby. “I thought I’d be able to say ‘smart people will get my film’, and yet people I know to be smart, some really didn’t like it, at all,” he says. “And I can’t be flip and say ‘the ones who hate it are rightwing Republicans’, either - it’s just not a movie where people can say ‘oh it’s one of those kinds of films’,” he continues. From his tone, it’s obvious that he has been fascinated and enlivened by his audience’s feedback, whether positive or negative.

Was this something deliberate, I ask, that you thought about when you wrote it, to have something political or ‘bigger picture’ themed that people would respond to? He talks a little bit about his writing process. “I try to concentrate only on the people in the story, because all that other stuff will cloud your mind - I mean, you know it’s kind of there, but you have to trick your mind to do it,” to see but not write any themes directly into the work. I ask him if he thinks of himself as a filmmaker who always writes and directs, or if he has thought of pursuing just one or the other craft.

“My stock answer is, I’m very much open to it, but it doesn’t ever seem to happen, so I guess I should wonder, ‘is it me’, that maybe I get so attached to a writing project that I subconsciously won’t let anybody but me direct,” he answers slowly, as if thinking aloud. “But, on a conscious level, I definitely would like the chance to direct someone else’s work, and to have someone else direct something I’ve written.” He’s also interested in exploring other mediums, particularly television. “I tend to write things that are very current. I’m a bit of a news junkie, a political junkie, and the immediacy of TV is really attractive to me. To be able to make something in response to things going on now and to see it right away, instead of, you know, six years later.” He’s already written a pilot and is trying to bring the project further along, another reason for him to be in Los Angeles now, in addition to his project with Robin Wright Penn and the upcoming Spirit Awards.

The new film he’s written, in which Penn would once again star, will this time involve no politics. A psychological thriller, Jeff describes it as “more of a modern-era story of exploitation”. His television pilot, on the other hand, is more familiar territory, set in South Dakota and exploring the dynamic between both ends of the spectrum when a radical leftist moves in among evangelical Midwesterners. Given the intriguing and surprising interactions Jeff scripted between his characters in SORRY HATERS, no doubt his take on ‘redstate meets bluestate’ will provoke unexpected and engaging reaction and conversation.

“We had a screening in San Francisco, and there was this one woman, and I think she said it best,” about some people’s reactions to the film, Jeff comments near the end of our talk. “At a certain point in the movie, she said ‘between these two people you feel like (they’ve) been in a battle, and it seems like they’re getting beyond, and then you pull the rug out from under us all the sudden, and that pisses people off, that you did that.” Jeff is looking forward to the chance to see if overseas audiences have similarly strong reactions. Already the film has Italian distribution, and he hopes that he gets the chance to catch up with Robin’s costar Abdel Kechiche at screenings in France, where Kechiche is a director (his next film will show at Cannes this spring).

A half-hour has passed quickly while we’ve talked, and I remind myself that I probably woke Jeff up - whether it’s back to bed or a shower and coffee, it’s time I let him get back to his morning. I wish him luck at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, as well as at our own awards in March - although, I joke, I’m guessing the Spirits are probably a bigger deal. “Well, I don’t know about that,” he counters, serious. “Your support has meant a lot, to us all - what your group has done, it’s great to know we’ve got a place where we were appreciated.” When his new project with Robin gets finished, “definitely we want to bring it to Boston, back to you guys.” After thanking him for those words and his time, I let him go. Here’s hoping Jeff’s next film ‘takes a very short time’ and meets with much success!