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July 1999

Woods Hole Features "Everybody Does It"

By Keith Wagner
Vermont filmmaker Nora Jacobson's film "My Mother's Early Lovers" will be part of this year's Woods Hole Film Festival.

This Cape Cod fest stays true to its mission of featuring first-time indie filmmakers, like Marcella Hoekstra.

Imagine this: Immediately following college you decide to make a feature-length film. You wait tables to make time during the day to write the script. You scrimp and save every penny you earn for production costs. The film is what drives you--you eat, drink, and sleep it. After three years of stop and go, you have two completed reels in your hands. You spend another year shopping your film around to dozens of festivals, until you finally get the call: your entry has been accepted.

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Inside the Olive Jar

By Tiffany Patrick
A still from the Olive Jar web site.

Go behind-the-scenes of one of Boston's premier animation studios.

Remember the early days of MTV, with its dozens of claymation ID spots? Did you ever wonder who comes up with that stuff and think, "Wouldn't it be great to do that?" Welcome to the Olive Jar Studios. Located in Boston, Olive Jar is a premier animation studio specializing in all things animated. Beyond standard two-dimensional and three-dimensional animation techniques, Olive Jar blends mixed media, CG (Computer Generated), stop-motion, cel, drawn, cut-out, pixilation, and live action, making it a read more...

Blackside, Inc.

By Alia-Anor Akaeze
Blackside, Inc. Founder Henry Hampton.

A production company with standards and style.

Let's say you're the head of a fledgling indie production company. You've got lots of great film ideas, plenty of passion, and some kind of a plan for realizing your dreams thanks to the involvement of some enthusiastic friends and a credit card or two. Maybe you've even got a project in the can. In other words, you're viable, but only just so. Then, someone you really respect gives you the Internet address of a production company that once upon a time walked more than a mile in your shoes. And maybe, because you're read more...

The Anti-Sundance Kid: Filmmaker Bret Stern

By Mary Phillips-Sandy
r2pc

Dreaming of Sundance status? This is the film for you!

Bret Stern's movie "Road to Park City" is a hilarious spoof about a hapless young filmmaker who's desperate to get his film to you-know-where. Ironically, Bret himself is neither hapless nor desperate. Read on.

MPS: Did you submit "Road to Park City" to Sundance?

STERN: No, we finished after Sundance.

MPS: Are you going to submit it this year?

STERN: Sure. Why not?

MPS: How autobiographical is it?

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Little Girl Lost

By Gentry Menzel
A still from "Home Before Dark".

A review of "Home Before Dark"

It is 1963 in Maureen Foley's "Home Before Dark," and Nora (Stephanie Castellarin) is an adolescent girl forced to grow up quickly. Her mother (Patricia Kalember) has withdrawn from the world, having never recovered emotionally from a car wreck which took the lives of three of Nora's siblings. Nora helps her father (Brian Delate) with her younger brother and sister, but she's really still a girl, not able to cope with these added responsibilities. When her mother is hospitalized after a suicide attempt, Nora is thrust headlong into the adult world.

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Industry News

By Lindsey Walker
The Picture Start Film Series began with "Captive Audience" by Mike Gioscia and Kurt St. Thomas.

The dish on local films & industry-related news.

Got a scoop? Email all news to news@newenglandfilm.com

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On Avid

By Holly Madden
Senior editor Andrew Satinoff (seated) and president/owner Matthew Gore in Post Modern Editorial's new Avid Symphony suite.

Avid breaks the format and price barriers with two new products.

1999 is proving to be a banner year for Tewksbury, MA-based AVID technology. In March, the company received an Academy Award in the Science and Technology category for its Film Composer for Editing. Then came the industry-wide buzz around its stellar showing at the 1999 National Association of Broadcasters in April. The company introduced a range of new and newly improved technology at the event, including the Avid ShowBiz Producer and the Avid Symphony Version 2.0, two breakthrough editing products at opposite ends of the price spectrum.

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Film Festival Celebrates Paul Robeson

By Gina Harris
Taken at Robeson's 60th Birthday. Photo by Syd Harris, Chicago, 1958

In May, a film series at the African Meeting House of the Museum of Afro American History in Boston featured the Robeson legacy.

For his steadfast commitment to his social conscience, the actor Paul Robeson was pushed off America's cultural stage during the McCarthy era and into its wings. For a generation, his memory was obscured and his achievements nearly forgotten. But the centennial of his 1898 birth sparked renewed interest in his filmography and new fans.

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Rare Treat

By Julie Wolf
Stuart Acher’s film “Bobby Loves Mangos” was also featured at last year's Boston Film Festival.

A review of "Bobby Loves Mangos"

To be screened at the Woods Hole Film Festival...

Director Stuart Acher and screenwriter Jeremy Catalino do in 20 minutes what some filmmakers don't accomplish in years. Their short film "Bobby Loves Mangos"--mystery, comedy, drama, even commentary on domestic strife--excels in every category it jumps into.

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Documentary Educational Resources

By Lorre Fritchy
DER works with a number of local filmmakers, such as Nick Kurzon on "Sight Unseen."

DER Director Cynthia Close shares the organization's mission, collaborations with local filmmakers & the state of the doc.

LF: What is unique about what the people at Documentary Educational Resources do?

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