June 2001

Cambridge filmmaker Errol Morris sits down in his office and opens a can of Coke. To his right, propped up on a stool, is a tape recorder. With such masterpieces as "Gates of Heaven," "The Thin Blue Line," and "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control," Morris has established himself as the most exciting and innovative documentarian in America. Recently, he has turned his attention to the small screen with his television series "First Person." He speaks slowly and deliberately, read more...

Margie Reedy, host of NECN's Newslight; Robert Patton-Spruill, Filmshack executive; Lucia Small, outgoing president of WIFV/NE.

The 3rd Annual Women in Film and Video/New England Gala took place on Thursday May 24th at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. Not only was this a night of celebrating the importance of women in the film industry, it also marked the 20th Anniversary of the organization. Attendees included writers, producers, editors, and actors, bringing together women in all areas of the industry. In the past, Image Awards were given out to honor women who make contributions to the local film community.

Screenings

The Boston Jewish Film Festival is co-presenting a film with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) called "Brother Born Again." The film screens on June 3, 2001 at the MFA with director Julia Pimsleur present. For more information please contact the Boston Jewish Film Festival at 617-244-9899, email info@bjff.org, or visit their Web site at http://www.bjff.org. 

If you’ve watched a day of television, or gone to the movies in the last couple of years, you have seen the effects of Adobe After Effects. Now Version 5 has been released, and it’s the perfect time to upgrade from a previous version or to try it for the first time.

If you never go to another film festival, or if you’ve never experienced a festival at all, hop on a boat, take a bus, fill the tank up with gas, but make your way to this New England original. The Third Annual Provincetown International Film Festival kicks off its five-day line up of films and festivities on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 in Provincetown, Massachusetts -- America's oldest art colony.

These words from assistant director Jack Bradley were among the first I heard on the set, leaving no doubt what kind of film was being made today. Immediately, a young man dressed in black popped out from behind a doorway and firmly wrapped his hands around a pretty blonde woman's neck.

The man was Ciaran Crawford (pronounced Karen), local actor and lead strangler in the new, somewhat unique film production, "The Strangler's Wife," being shot this day in an old home in Dorchester.

For anyone who’s ever had the pleasure of meeting Claire Andrade-Watkins, they would warn you to fasten your seat belts and PAY ATTENTION! Claire is a cyclone of positive energy, attitude and purpose, sweeping you up in her enthusiasm. Her vision is clear: to document, preserve and distribute cultural media from Africa, the Caribbean and the United States, with an emphasis on Cape Verdean-American and Cape Verdean history.

"...so I said 'I don't just get naked for anybody.'" Hey wait, you say that sentence didn't begin at the beginning? Funny, that's what I said when I decided to look at the first copy of my finished film (YES!) only to discover the dub house had CUT OFF the first few seconds of the picture (NO!). Instead of fading in, it just cut in abruptly. The entire film needed to be redubbed, relabeled, and reshrinkwrapped. This, in addition to a few other technical issues surrounding this phase, basically pushed shipping the final film off by about the longest month of my life.

Just when you think you’ve sat through your last Tarantino-inspired crook manifesto, you find another one aimed straight at you. Marc Powers’ "Green," set and filmed entirely in the Boston area, is the latest entry, complete with bickering, two-bit crooks, episodes of altered consciousness, and -- of course -- a few guns here and there.

Let’s say you have a $100 million budget for your movie and you need to make the world’s most famous ocean liner steam across the screen. Or let’s say you have a somewhat lower budget -- like $1,000, and you need to make the world’s most famous ocean liner steam across the screen.

Solution? Psunami, of course.

On Sunday, June 3rd, filmmaker Julia Pimsleur brings her intimate documentary, "Brother Born Again," to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Over 10 years ago, Pimsleur’s only brother, Marc, joined a born again Christian community in a remote part of Alaska. The Pimsleurs had grown up in an intellectual, secular Jewish household in Manhattan, and Marc’s choice to join a fundamentalist Christian faith shocked both his mother and his sister. For nearly a decade, there was no communication between Marc and his family, who read more...

If you like exploring new territory, research may be just the job for you. A good researcher is an integral part of any production team. Yet, when was the last time you watched an outstanding film and said to yourself afterwards, "That was an incredible piece of work -- I wonder who researched it"? I would venture to guess that for most people this is not the first question that comes to mind. It is obvious that a producer, director, and editor play significant roles in shaping a film, which is why they tend to read more...