Sundance DocSource » Media

Regarding Susan Sontag

nkates — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:39:24 +0000

Director: Nancy Kates

Logline: Regarding Susan Sontag follows the life and work of the late author, critic, director and activist.

Synopsis: Susan Sontag (1933-2004) was a restless intellectual who wrote and spoke brilliantly on the important, the new, and the politically significant developments in American culture. Her 1964 essay “Notes on Camp” helped cement her reputation as a critical thinker. The essay was groundbreaking: up to that point in history, serious writers rarely wrote about popular culture. Similarly, her work on cancer and AIDS dared to confront “taboo” subjects, adding important insights in this arena that remain significant today. In a 1992 interview, Sontag summed up her career: “All my work says ‘be serious, be passionate, wake up!’”

Why should we care about Sontag, or watch a film about her? She was an enormously influential writer whose books sold millions of copies, and yet the public knows very little about her. Regarding Susan Sontag introduces Sontag to audiences unfamiliar with her work and life, while shedding new light on its subject. The goal is to make a film that shows Sontag in her complexity and her humanity, making connections between her life, her published work, and her activism.

Regarding Susan Sontag, a 90-minute documentary, reflects the boldness of Sontag’s work and the cultural import of her thought, through extraordinary archival footage and still photographs, riveting interviews, and a rich tapestry of pop culture artifacts. From her “screen tests” for Andy Warhol to her cameo in Woody Allen’s Zelig, she was interviewed, photographed, and filmed incessantly. With the publication of On Photography and other essays, she came to be known as one of the great critics of visual culture, interpreting the meaning of photography in consumer society and political discourse. The visual style of the film reflects her sophisticated understanding of the image. Regarding Susan Sontag allows viewers to look at Susan Sontag while she looks at the world. Sontag was often brilliant, frequently infuriating, and sometimes maddeningly obtuse, but she was invariably fascinating: a natural star.

Caesar’s Last Fast

rperez — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:36:22 +0000

Director: Richard Ray Perez

Caesar’s Last Fast explores the private sacrifice and spiritual conviction behind Cesar Estrada Chavez’s fight for justice and dignity for America’s farm workers, which is linked to a new generation of organizers leading the charge for farm worker’s rights today.

Cesar’s Last Fast uncovers the private sacrifice and deep spiritual conviction behind Cesar E. Chavez’s 40-year struggle for America’s farmworkers. The film is built around never-before-seen footage of Cesar’s “Fast for Life,” an act of penance for not having done enough to stop growers from spraying pesticides on farmworkers. The story of this water-only fast is the film’s dramatic arc into which the filmmakers interweave the historic events that defined Cesar’s life mission, known among the members of the movement he led as, La Causa, “The Cause.” Then, by bridging Cesar’s 20th century struggle to the present-day reality the film appraises Cesar’s legacy by immersing us in the struggle of today’s farmworkers. Many of the same conditions that inspired Cesar to organize farmworkers still exist today. These conditions are compounded by the nation’s current economic uncertainty, our political leaders’ lack of will to champion social justice policy, and the insurmountable influence corporate America has on driving our nation’s political agenda.

http://www.cesarslastfast.com
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Cesars-Last-Fast/64758711459?ref=ts

Cesar E. Chavez Foundation
http://www.chavezfoundation.org

National Farm Workers Service Center
http://www.nfwsc.org

California Rural Leal Assistance
http://www.crla.org/

Cinema Jenin

mvetter — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:34:49 +0000

Directors: Marcus Vetter and Alex Bakri

Cinema Jenin is a Fellini-esque documentary comedy taking place in the West Bank city of Jenin following a local initiative to re-open the old and only cinema in the city.

Cinema was once a staple of Palestinian cultural life. Thirty years ago, the cityscapes of the West Bank’s major towns—Nablus, Qalqilya, Tulkarm, and Jenin—were dotted with movie theaters. They all closed in 1987, during the first Intifada. Today there are almost no cinemas operating in the Palestinian controlled territories.

Cinema Jenin was one of these old movie theaters. Founded in the 1960s, it was once the largest cinema in the territories. Hundreds of people visited it each day to see the best movies made across the Arab world. Over the years, they also began screening action films, American B-movies, and even porn. The cinema closed in 1987. Today, the building is a hollow echo of the Palestinian economy in general. It is crumbling and seems just about to collapse; taking all the old stories it once contained crashing down with it. And yet, there are still hints of its glamour days for anyone to see.

Not far from the cinema, in the Jenin refugee camp lives Ismail Khatib. Ismail had his own brief moment of fame when his young son was killed by an Israeli soldier, who mistook his toy for a gun. In an unprecedented attempt to overcome the hatred that has plagued Jenin for far too long, Ismail agreed to have his son’s organs transplanted in both Palestinian and Jewish patients. His inspiring story featured in the press for several weeks, and was the subject of Marcus Vetter’s last film, A Heart from Jenin. It also led to a generous donation by the Italian government that was used to open a youth center in the refugee camp, where Ismail had spent his whole life. In recognition of his remarkable gift of life, Ismail was asked to run the youth center. The reopening of Cinema Jenin is, for him, the inevitable next step in his efforts to improve the quality of life for people living in the squalor of the camp.

Joining Ismail in his new mission is his project manager Fakhri Hamad. Fakhri was forced to shut his shoe store since he had no customers. Instead he decided to volunteer at the youth center, and has been working on the theater project ever since for no pay. For him, and for so many people like him, Cinema Jenin is a lifesaver that will one day rescue him from his economic situation. He hopes the project will succeed, and that he will succeed with it. At first glance the project seems to be going well, but the team still encounters many problems along the way. Not only must they raise enough money to pay for the renovation; they must also overcome the religious conservatives who oppose the project and where it might lead. The film follows its characters as they evolve and grow as entrepreneurs until the grand opening of the theatre when they will learn whether their efforts where successful or will they have to resume their old life in the refugee camp.

My Perestroika

Robin Hessman — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:31:53 +0000

Director: Robin Hessman

Logline: My Perestroika tells the story of the last generation of Soviet children brought up behind the Iron Curtain. Just coming of age when the USSR collapsed, they witnessed the world of their childhood crumble and change beyond recognition.

Synopsis: Tracking the lives of five childhood classmates, the film explores how Communism’s crossover children are adjusting to their post-Soviet reality in Moscow’s booming metropolis. At first glance, for today’s Russians, their lives are completely different from how they would have lived in the USSR. They are the new and invisible middle class – raising their own children in a world they couldn’t have imagined in their wildest dreams. But have those changes ultimately proved to be only superficial?

In this film, there are no talking head historians, no expert witnesses, no omniscient narrator telling viewers how to interpret events. Instead, Borya, Lyuba, Andrei, Olga and Ruslan share their personal stories. They take us on a journey through their Soviet childhoods, their youth during the country’s huge changes of Perestroika, and let us into their present-day lives. The film interweaves their contemporary world with rare home movie footage from the 70s and 80s in the USSR, along with official Soviet propaganda films that surrounded them at the time. Their memories and opinions sometimes complement each other, and sometimes contradict each other, but together they paint a complex picture of the challenges, dreams, and disillusionments of this generation in Moscow today.

The Team

Patrick Reed — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:54:51 +0000

Kenyans scramble to produce a dramatic TV soap opera series, hoping taboo storylines can bridge deep ethnic divisions, as their country teeters on the brink. Can they captivate an audience and save a nation?

Director: Patrick Reed
Producer: Peter Raymont

Kenya has long been Africa’s success story—stable and ethnically harmonious.

After the presidential election in December 2007, everything changed. Voting controversy split the country along ethnic lines. A thousand people were killed and half a million displaced, pushing Kenya toward civil war, if not genocide. Dignitaries intervened, brokering peace, and establishing a fragile power-sharing government, but the post-election fallout persists. Ethnic suspicion has replaced harmony, and the country’s consumed by collective soul-searching.

The government is setting up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but many dismiss it as hollow political theatre, posturing for the international community. An alternative local response to the post-election violence seems superficial by comparison but is potentially more impactful: produce a TV soap opera series, hoping taboo storylines can bridge ethnic divisions and help transform a nation.

Starting in December 2008, a Kenyan production company began work on a TV drama series, “The Team,” following the struggles of a fictional soccer team to overcome their ethnic differences, both on and off the pitch. There’s inherent drama behind any TV production: will deadlines be met; will it be good; will it find an audience? But here the stakes are exponentially higher: if you don’t captivate an audience, you risk further losing your country.

This will be a dramatic, character-driven, feature documentary, following characters on and off the set, exploring how lives are reflected in the soap, and vice-versa, blurring lines between art and reality. We have total access to the entire process, have completed the first shoot—capturing the dramatic casting process—will return to Kenya throughout production, and when the show airs.

All the ingredients for a compelling feature film are here: a skilled team of filmmakers; a stunning location; an unfolding process that is inherently visual and dramatic; an uncertain outcome that could have repercussions for both other conflicts and media’s potential to make a difference. A place ripe for transformation, but that’s also teetering on the brink. What can a soap opera achieve in this volatile context? Watch and see.

Project Update

Patrick Reed and his veteran crew (Chris Romeike – Cinematographer, Ao Loo – Sound Recordist) have just returned from their third and final trip to Kenya marking the completion of principal photograph on The Team. The crew was in Kenya to capture a major milestone for the soap opera. The producers of the series visited camps severely affected by post-election violence, established mobile cinemas there and invited those in camps to screen the series. Patrick and his team were on the ground to film the impact of the series on those who have been most affected by the civil unrest in Kenya over the last year and a half.

Now that production has wrapped Patrick will enter the edit suite with long time collaborator Michele Hozer (Triage: Dr James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma) to begin editing the film for completion in January 2010.

Poor Consuelo Conquers the World

Peter Friedman — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:53:41 +0000

Director: Peter Friedman
Producer: Paul Miller
Social Entrepreneur: Soap Operas for Social Change

Logline: Poor Consuelo Conquers the World tells the story of popular soap operas and telenovelas, now being used to combat the effects of poverty around the world.

It all started by accident in 1969, when a Peruvian telenovela character worked her way out of poverty using a sewing machine; and suddenly sewing machines flew off the shelves by the thousands all over Peru. That incident, combined with the social modeling theories of psychologist Albert Bandura demonstrating the power of fictional media characters to act as role models and affect behavior of viewers, inspired a brilliant Mexican director named Miguel Sabido to create popular telenovelas designed both to entertain and to address urgent social issues. His first series was a huge commercial hit and demonstrably contributed to a significant decline in birthrates in heavily overpopulated Mexico. He revised and refined his formula until it became a scientific methodology that soon spread around the world with success after success, and ultimately helped create an entire field, now known as Entertainment-Education. Sabido essentially created an affordable, exportable model for socially sustainable development, all while creating hit show after hit show. Like Sabido’s work, our documentary Poor Consuelo Conquers the World is both entertaining and solution-oriented in its approach to social change.

In the Spring of 2009 we filmed the creation of a radionovela produced by Radio Atipiri and Media Impact, in El Alto, Bolivia, one of the poorest cities in South America. Radio is cheap to produce and reaches people who can’t afford TV. The station we filmed even reaches people who can’t afford radio by simultaneously broadcasting from loudspeakers on the roof of their station! Excerpts from this footage helped Poor Consuelo win the award for Best Project Presentation for Cinema at the 2009 Sunny Side Documentary Market in La Rochelle, France. YLE-TV Finland then joined our team, with others soon to follow. Stay tuned! Development support provided by ITVS.

Sundance DocSource » Media

Regarding Susan Sontag

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Caesar’s Last Fast

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Cinema Jenin

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My Perestroika

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The Team

Project Update

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Poor Consuelo Conquers the World

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