Filmmakers Christopher Comrie and Samantha Swan know what it takes to churn out quality films on a barebones budget. Despite costing only $10,000 to produce — less than a studio feature might spend on its catering budget — “The Devil’s Tail” scored the Bronze Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Moving Image Film Festival.

Shot on location in Mexico last year, it tells the story of a man who hears his best friend has gone missing. He rushes down to save him… only to discover he may need to be saved from him instead.

“The Devil’s Tail” makes its Boston premiere at 6 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 6, at the Boston Latino International Film Festival at Cambridge College (Directions here).
**
HOW WE MADE AN INTERNATIONAL NO-BUDGET MOVIE

Guest Blog by Christopher Comrie and Samantha Swan

Here’s how you, too, can make a feature that gets on the festival circuit and wins awards – with almost no money!

• Make a schedule, and stick to it. Not just a shooting schedule; assign a date to every important milestone from the idea’s conception: first draft completed by; second draft; cast actors; secure main location; readthrough; and so on. A real, hard schedule is the most important tool for completing a movie. Without one, you’re just a hobbyist.

• Write a good script. Focus it on character and story and themes that are personally significant to you, not one that is a copy of the latest Hollywood movie. Avoid including anything that will cost you money i.e. car chases, thousands of extras, rented locations, a role for Harrison Ford, etc. You don’t have their budget, so don’t write as if you do.

• Know as many of your locations in advance, and write a script that takes full advantage of what is already there. In our case, we had a story about Americans, Canadians and Mexicans converging in Mexico. We flew down on air miles, rented a beach house for a month, and it and the grounds became our main location AND accommodation. Almost all other locations (city streets, cenotés, pyramids) were shot guerrilla style.

• Digital technology is your friend in more ways than one. When we say digital, we don’t just mean camera and editing packages. Audition on the web. We wanted actors from across North America, but couldn’t afford auditions in three different countries. Apart from actors we already worked with, we used casting websites. We posted character breakdowns online and actors emailed pictures and resumes and uploaded video auditions to our ftp site. If you find an actor who can figure out how to record their own audition and upload it to an ftp site, that’s a pretty resourceful actor and you probably want them by your side.

• Get commitments and contracts up front. All payments to be deferred UPON SALE OF FILM, of course.

• Focus on essentials, take only what you need. All our equipment fit into standard luggage. One decent HD camera, 2 mics, 1 boom pole, portable sound recorder, editing laptop , 2 hard drives, lightweight tripod, 4 clamp-on work lamps, a simple steadicam rig, 60 dv tapes. What else do you need? If you can’t make a worthwhile movie with this equipment, you’re not a filmmaker.

• Keep crew as small as possible. Easier to run-and-gun when there’s only four of you. And fewer people to house.

• Always be on lookout for opportunities: Change what look like disadvantages into advantages. Without the burden of a large crew and tons of equipment, you can change locations with little hassle. We often found better locations while en route to a location. Scorpion in your bed? Put him in the movie! (Yes, we did). Is that empty van ON FIRE?! Shoot it! (Yes we did that too.)

• In the end, it’s about character, story, performance. Storytelling. By eliminating non-essentials, this is what’s left, so that’s what you have the luxury of focusing on.

TICKETS for “The Devil’s Tail” are $8 at the door or can be purchased at www.bliff.org
To see the movie trailer, visit: www.thedevilstailmovie.com

WARNING: This film is not yet rated. It contains some nudity, sexual situations and violence.

Sara L. Rubin, the artistic director of this month’s Boston Jewish Film Festival, doesn’t consider herself a claymation fan. So what does she love so much about MARY AND MAX, the Australian claymation feature screening at the BFF on Thursday night?

GUEST BLOG by Sara L. Rubin

Somehow, filmmaker Adam Elliot has made me care about two people: Mary Daisy Dinkle, whom we meet when she is 8 years, 3 months and 3 days old; and Max Jerry Horowitz, 300 pounds in his stocking feet and one of his 8 identical track suits, a 44 year-old Jewish New Yorker who has Aspergers Syndrome before it’s even been identified by the medical community.

It’s probably the specificity of their likes and dislikes, and the places their interests come together – particularly in the matter of Max’s favorite chocolate hot-dogs, that makes them worth watching. It doesn’t hurt that they are voiced by Toni Collette, in Mary’s case, or Philip Seymour Hoffman, in Max’s. But it probably wouldn’t make a bit of difference if I didn’t know whose voices they were – or that Eric Bana’s voice is that of Damien.

Maybe it’s the way the film jumps continents: Mary lives in Australia, one of those places identified as being isolated – in this case, by distance – in Pico Iyer’s book of travel essays, “Off the Map.” And Max lives in “the greatest city in the world,” as Dave Letterman would have it – a busy, densely occupied Manhattan. Their initial frames of references are miles apart, yet their friendship is one of the strongest portrayed on the screen.

They are also generations apart. We first see Mary as that little, 8-year, 3-month and 3-day-old girl. And Max is 44, but not particularly “grown up.” During the course of the film, Mary grows up. The question for the viewer is: Does Max?

Without destroying the “story aspect” of the film, it might be useful to hear some of what the filmmaker, Oscar-winning (for best animated short film, in 2004, for his 2003 production “Harvie Krumpet”) has to say about the genesis, at least in part, of this friendship:

“[MARY AND] MAX is based on my penfriend in New York, whom I have been writing to for over twenty years. He is such an interesting person and the creation of this film will be a testimony to him and the archetypical underdog that so many audiences around the world engage with. He, like Max, has Asperger’s and I have spent a long time researching this syndrome. My aim is to not just enlighten the world to aspies [sic], but to demystify the many misconceptions others have about these people (even the so-called experts).”

“A lot of people say they often feel different; that they don’t fit in. I am one of those people. Even with all the success, acknowledgment and acceptance that has been derived from my films, I often still feel alone and not in tune with the rest of the world. I often feel sad, persecuted and unsure about things; I find the world so often unjust. I truly empathise with the lost and disregarded, marginalized and melancholic. I am drawn to these people and their stories;
I cannot help it. I find people so fascinating, from the ordinary to the truly odd. These are the people I relate to; these are the people whose stories I want to hear and want to see on the big screen.”

In any event, the real-life underpinnings of this film nonetheless create claymation figures that feel as real as anyone I could see on the street or the T every day – except this time I know their stories and care about them. I hope other viewers will, too.

**
Adam Elliot’s MARY AND MAX screens in its Massachusetts Premiere as part of The Boston Jewish Film Festival on Thursday, November 12, at 7 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Tickets are available online at www.bjff.org or at the Coolidge Box Office. Ticket prices: $12 general admission; $10 discounted for students and seniors, and members of The Boston Jewish Film Festival, the Coolidge, the MFA, the ICA, and WGBH.

The appeal of film festivals over just waiting for the DVD to hit Netflix is that you often have the opportunity to discuss the movies with the people who made them. The Boston Jewish Film Festival, which runs from Nov. 4-15, is no exception, attracting more than two dozen filmmakers from around the world.

Also gotta give the BJFF credit for reaching out to suburbanites. In addition to the city’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Coolidge Corner Theater and the Kendall Square Cinema, the festival also screens at the AMC Framingham 15, the Arlington Capitol Theatre, Danvers’ Hollywood Hits Theatre, Randolph’s Showcase Cinemas, and the West Newton Cinema.

Here’s the official press release:

**

Family to Fables; Homeland to Homesick
2009 Boston Jewish Film Festival

NEWTON, Massachusetts – The 21st annual Boston Jewish Film Festival presents a wide range of films exploring themes of “home.” These films survey families, faith, doctrinal sects, nationalities, immigration, and exile as facets of our powerful stories of “home.”

“Home is a word that acts like a Rorschach test,” said Sara L. Rubin, artistic director. “Some of our images are intensely unique and personal, some are joyous or poignant, some are archetypal remembrances – dreams of the ‘home’ for which we long. For the Jewish community especially, the term brings to mind Israel, immigration and diaspora. Our filmmakers probe these aspects and more, and our special events will engage viewers to share and scrutinize their own constructs of home.”

The Boston Jewish Film Festival presents the year’s most innovative films on Jewish themes. Films are accentuated by panel discussions; visits by directors, actors, and subjects; and musical events. The Festival program explores what it means to be Jewish – in the U.S., Israel, and around the world. Highlights for 2009, in addition to the theme of home, include films from Latin America and comedies.

The Festival is New England’s largest Jewish cultural event, with last year’s attendance at over 12,000 people. “The Fall Festival is a homecoming event for Jewish people throughout New England each Fall,” added Rubin. “We challenge, celebrate, and engage each other in a reunion that has become an annual highlight. It’s true that home is where the heart is – and the Festival is at the heart of Boston’s Jewish and film communities.”

This critically acclaimed Festival screens 40 independently produced films in 9 locations, and reflects the work of film artists from 15 countries, spoken in 14 languages. Highlights include one world premiere, five North American premieres, eight East Coast premieres, and 19 New England premieres. The Festival presents more than two dozen film artists, noted speakers, panelists, and musicians from around the world.

Films about Home
Our opening night film, Eli & Ben, is Ori Ravid’s debut feature film, preceded by a musical performance courtesy of Berklee College of Music. Handsome Lior Ashkenazi plays father and husband Ben, the city architect of the wealthy Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya. Ben’s father, a noted architect, is about to win the Israel Prize. Ben’s son, Eli, is 12. Watching the police take his father into custody changes everything for Eli. When the police question him about his father’s actions, Eli begins to feel like a double agent. Where, he wonders, is the truth?

Our mid-fest event features The Jazz Baroness, about Nica de Koenigswarter, née Rothschild. The granddaughter of Britain’s first Jewish Member of Parliament, her early life was marked by both tremendous wealth and her father’s suicide. After WWII, she left her husband, a Baron, and their five children to become the unlikely muse of jazz great Thelonius Monk. In New York, jazz musicians became her new family. The film will be introduced by Eric Jackson, host of the WGBH radio show, and the evening will include a concert by musicians from the Berklee College of Music.

Closing night features Within the Whirlwind, preceded by a special musical performance courtesy of Berklee College of Music. From the bestselling memoirs of Russian Jewish poet Evgenia Ginzburg, Oscar-winning director Marleen Gorris has crafted a sweeping, epic drama. Emily Watson portrays Ginzburg as she falls from Communist grace. Betrayed by her husband, she is forced to abandon her two children to serve her sentence of ten years hard labor in the desolate Soviet Gulag. Ulrich Tukur plays the German doctor who is as much a prisoner as she, but who rekindles her passion for life. Director Marleen Gorris will be present.

Latin American Films
On October 25, the Festival celebrated its opening gala with To Life. Beautiful Emilia, a Mexican photographer, has been invited to visit her long-estranged father in scenic Valparaiso, Chile, for his Bar Mitzvah at age 80. This bittersweet film portrays the pain and rewards that ensue when we become vulnerable enough to connect. The gala is replete with a cocktail reception, raffle, comments by the film’s screenwriter, and a seated dinner at The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School.

Camera Obscura features a precursor to the modern camera, which provided an upside-down image with perfect perspective. For homely Gertrudis, married to a wealthy landowner in a Jewish colony of Argentina in the late 1800s, a visit from an itinerant French photographer sharpens her view of herself.

Letters to Jenny introduces a girl who faces the hurdles of adolescence without her mother, who died young. Jenny’s mother, anticipating her own death, prepared three letters to help Jenny get through an unplanned pregnancy, a trip from her home in Argentina to Israel where she uncovers a long-held family secret, and the difference between infatuation and love.

Comedy
Our comedy night at the Coolidge is November 5. At 6:30 PM we show Hello Goodbye with French superstars Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant in a comedy about a couple with an empty nest in Paris who try to build a new one in the Promised Land. At 9:00 PM we show He’s My Girl where Simon’s Ashkenazi mother accepts that he’s gay, but doesn’t realize that her pretty nurse is the Arab cross-dresser who steals her son’s heart.

Panel Discussion: “Losing My Religion”
On November 8 we show Leap of Faith at 1:00 PM, about four American families who struggle with a life-altering decision to abandon their childhood Christian faith for conversion to Orthodox Judaism. At 3:15 PM we show Leaving the Fold about five people in their twenties who leave the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world. At 4:15 PM the directors of both films take part in a panel moderated by Rabbi Barbara Penzner of Temple Hillel B’nai Torah in West Roxbury.

**
For ticket sales and more information, visit http://www.bjff.org

The North End Music and Performing Arts Center (NEMPAC) will host its first annual Short Film Festival at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 22 at the Hard Rock Café Boston, 22-24 Clinton St. This event seeks to attract Boston residents, local artists, filmmakers and students.

The NEMPAC Short Film Festival’s Selection Committee reviewed over 50 films and chose the following as official selections:

1.) In the Tradition of My Family by Director Todd Davis;
2.) Motherly Instinct by Director Selena Coppock;
3.) Big Day of Fishing by Director Tim Cawley;
4.) Jack & Jill by Director Tim Svenson;
5.) I Slept with Cookie Monster by Director Kara Nasdor Jones;
6.) Dear Mr. President by Director Rene Dongo;
7.) The Audition by Director Arnon Shorr
8.) Witness Protection Program by Director Kevin Anderton.
9.) Viva! Saint Agrippina Di Mineo by Director Chris DiNunzio

Along with the film screenings, the event will include question & answer sessions with the filmmakers, cast and crew, and there will be musical performances.

Tickets for the event can be purchased at the door for $10 or in advance by calling NEMPAC at (617) 227-2270. All proceeds from tickets sales will go directly toward supporting NEMPAC’s mission of providing affordable arts-related programming to residents of the North End/Waterfront and the surrounding neighborhoods.

One of the joys of volunteering at a film festival is the opportunity to bond with other filmmakers and candidly chat “like normal people” once the official forums are over. Boston’s Dom Musacchio, who recently worked on the “Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison” documentary, shares his experience behind the scenes at the recent Camden International Film Festival and his conversations with A.J. Schnack.

Schnack pulled off a seemingly impossible feat. Getting a group of top documentary filmmakers — all used to calling their own shots — to collaborate on “Convention,” a movie about the unseen side of the 2008 Democratic Convention. Schnack’s somewhat of a renegade for believing it is OK for documentaries to entertain people instead of lecture them.

CONVENTION AT CAMDEN: A RETROSPECTIVE

By guest blogger Dom Musacchio

I met filmmakers AJ Schnack and Nathan Truesdell on a Wednesday night at Gilbert’s Publick House in Camden, ME, a classic, dimly lit watering-hole inhabited by fisherman trolling for locals. They’d settled in for a couple of pints and seemed to be enjoying the atmosphere. They were among the first out-of-towners to arrive in Camden for the 5th annual Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) - their highly-anticipated film Convention would open the festival the following night – and festival director Ben Fowlie sent me in to Gilbert’s to do his dirty work: namely, to pry the filmmakers from the bar. I told them I had come to whisk them away.

“Where are you whisking us away to?” they asked.
“A haunted old nursing home,” I replied.
“How can we say no to that?” they said, tilting their glasses.

The place I’d referred to was the unofficial festival headquarters, where Ben and I and the rest of the CIFF staffers were taking up residency for the week and hosting after-hours. (Ben and producer Leah Hurley had brought me up this year to manage CIFF’s inaugural Points North Documentary Forum, and co-habit their haunted dwelling place). Ok, the place may or may not have actually been haunted (I’m pretty sure I heard some weird stuff in the basement), but at the very least it was, in fact, an old nursing home.

AJ and Nathan ended up spending a lot of time in our kitchen, eating and drinking whatever we put in front of them and hunting for ghosts in the far corners of our strange Victorian manor. It was a good time. But let’s get back to talking about their film. Oh wait, we haven’t even started yet.

On Thursday night, “Convention” played to a packed house at the gorgeous Camden Opera House for its Northeast Premiere. The film, a chronicle of the 2008 Democratic National Convention told from the perspective of Denver’s inhabitants, was introduced by Peter Davis, director of the Oscar-winning Vietnam War documentary “Hearts and Minds” (1974). In his introduction, Davis attempted to sum up the history of documentary filmmaking in 4 and a half minutes (and ended up taking more like 12) but lent some perspective on the documentary tradition that, in one way or another, contributed to the realization of the film.

In the long line of documentaries that have tackled “political pageantry,” Davis connected the dots from Robert Drew’s “Primary” (1960), which followed JFK and Hubert Humphries on the trail of the Democratic nomination, to D.A. Pennebaker’s “War Room” (1992), an inside look at Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. Films such as these didn’t just go “behind the scenes.” They lent an unprecedented sense of intimacy to the political war machine.

While Schnack and Truesdell certainly took some cues from films such as these (Schnack gifted Truesdell with Drew’s films on Kennedy early on for inspiration), “Convention” distinguishes itself by averting its eyes from the political jockeying of key figures, and focusing instead on the periphery, through the eyes of Denver’s inhabitants, bracing themselves for the giant mess that was the onslaught of the DNC. “If people go in expecting us to have deep juicy gossip about the Obama campaign, or break some news about what went on backstage, that’s not what this film is,” Schnack put it simply. “This is not an Obama film per se.”

“Convention” is a film without an agenda. It’s a story about regular people facing the biggest moment of their lives, getting turned inside out for a moment in time, connecting to universal themes of community, crisis, conflict and resolution. It’s a film about anticipation and dread, about teamwork and things falling apart, about exhilaration and confusion, about “not knowing what you don’t know” in planning for the unforeseeable.

It’s not about politics. There’s no “message” or earnest “call-to-arms.” It doesn’t feel contrived. In simple terms, it’s cinema verité done the right way. In stark contrast to so many other docs littering the field, spewing dogma left and right, this is no small distinction.

SCHNACK: “In the films I’ve made, I’ve tried to look at things from a side angle, or a different angle, or a perspective that’s not the expectation. I’m fascinated by how things work. So I said, let’s come at this from the perspective of a) the Denver residents and b) the city, the press and the protesters. Obama will probably be in the movie, but just in cameo appearances. The moments people will recognize will just be mile-markers for the story we’re really telling.”

To capture these multiple peripheral storylines, spinning like a wheel around the hub that was the Convention, Schnack recruited the talents of an all-star documentary squad, who joined forces days before the massive gathering in Denver and fanned out across organizational boundaries to divide and conquer, with no less than 9 different filmmakers following their own characters.

SCHNACK: “I hadn’t made an ensemble piece before. When I think about ensembles, Altman is my inspiration. The way he balances lots of characters. Stylistically, what he does with dialogue and sound is really important to me. The ensemble I put together came out of people I’d hung out with at festivals, and liked, and knew they shot their own stuff. These people had to be self-sufficient.”

With funding for the project coming in at the 11th hour, Schnack and Truesdell arrived a week before the rest of their team to lay the groundwork and keep up with the Mayor’s office. There’s a great scene of the Mayor training his special assistant (Chantal Unfug) to use his scooter, with humorous results. Chantal turns out to be the film’s central character, making it her absolute imperative to ensure the “best DNC of all time.”

When the rest of the filmmakers arrived, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert (”A Lion in the House”) followed the action with the Post, one of Denver’s two daily newspapers, struggling to keep up with the media circus and out-do their rival, the Rocky Mountain News.

Laura Poitros (Oscar nominee for “My Country, My Country”) was stationed at the Convention control center with the Denver police and their giant security monitors, keeping a watchful eye on riot control.

Daniel Junge (”They Killed Sister Dorothy”) and Wayne Robins stayed with the colorful flock of protestors throughout the week, capturing the preliminary elation and expectancy in uniting to “Recreate ‘68” and their later descent into internal bickering and frustration.

David Wilson (True/False Festival co-founder) followed Kevin Scott, the “protest liaison” who had to follow the mob every step (and misstep) of the way.

Paul Taylor (”We Are Together”) stuck it out in the Pepsi Center and floated between the groups.

TRUESDELL: “Looking at the footage at the end of the day was always interesting. We’d be like, ok, let’s see what we’ve got. While we were shooting, everyone was so busy, you had no idea what was going on elsewhere. But everyone was so professional you just knew everything was going to be fine. Everyone was making their own decisions and we had complete trust in them.
We weren’t afraid to have drinks when we were done either, which was part of the process with people we worked with too. It was a laid back process, even though it was one of the most hectic projects I’ve ever been involved in.

SCHNACK: “Someone would come back at the end of the day and be like ‘We won the day’. Steven and Julia then would come back and tell us what happened with the Post. Then Wednesday, Daniel and Wayne would come back and be like ‘We definitely won with the protesters.’ There was this healthy and boisterous competitive nature at work.”

TRUESDELL: “Of course, we’d run into each other once in a while. One time, AJ and I followed Chantal into a luxury box inside the Convention. All of a sudden, David and Lauren just busted in the door with whoever they were following. David thought he’d worked some miracle to get into that box, and we were already in there.

There were more themes running together than what I had ever imagined. It was amazing, looking at everyone’s footage later and the ground we covered. I’d think, ‘Oh, we were there and we were there.’ It exceeded my expectations of what this was going to end up being.”

The collaborative process that went into producing this film parallels the interconnectivity of the group dynamics explored in the film, and the result is a finished product that is well-integrated and absorbing, whittled down from 90+ hours of material. The film is marked by a remarkable lightness and fluidity, thanks to an impressive and difficult edit, seamlessly welding together the work of independently operating docu-mercenaries. The structure of the narrative is supported by a playful score combining turn-of-the-century political brass orchestrations with classic themes from the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire, which Schnack felt were perfectly suited for the inherent “farcical” quality found in much of the footage.

SCHNACK: “A guy came up to me after the screening in Camden, and said ‘You know, I had no idea a documentary could be that entertaining.’ I was like, yeah, you should watch more of them. Documentaries can actually be entertaining!

“My first film (”Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)”) was funny, and my second film (”Kurt Cobain: About a Son”), well, I’d say, if you combined the film with “Dancer in the Dark,” half the people wouldn’t leave the theater. My last film was a very dark film. I felt like the nature of this film was farcical. People were falling down stairs, and almost wrecking scooters. Bullhorns weren’t working. People were running off in tears. There was just a farcical, almost black comedy to what was going on. It would have been counter to the material to present it any other way.”

TRUESDELL: “Watching the film now, it feels how it felt to be there. It is what we felt at the time. Its a portrait of a place and a time, with a huge party as a backdrop. The convention is really just a huge party for the Democrats. There were some political things, which were predictable, like Hillary not getting the nomination. But that wasn’t the focus. We were straying away from politics.

In the end, your base hope is always that your subjects have been portrayed correctly. That everything ‘is the way it is.’”

SCHNACK: “The non-fiction world is a liberal bastion. The protestors in the film have a lot of difficulties, and things don’t go as they planned. People are not really used to seeing progressive activists having difficulty, and in some cases, falling down.

Screening at Woodstock [Film Festival], where people obviously have a strong history of activism, people there probably weren’t really sure what to make of that side of the film. But that’s what happened. You have to portray the truth you experience, as opposed to what you might idealize certain people should be portrayed as.”

Following its most recent screening at Woodstock, the film is headed for what will obviously be a major screening at the Denver Film Festival, and the film’s subjects will have a chance to see for themselves how they come across.

I asked AJ about his broader plans for the film.

SCHNACK: “Its funny, when I made ‘About A Son,’ it took me 7 months to really figure out the distribution for the film. I’m sort of Zen about knowing it will take time to get the film out there. I don’t think about the future of the film too much at the time. Its only my third film, so I always think its presumptuous to think about that. And you think, ‘Oh, those bad editing choices will live forever.’

Each step of the journey, the films have their own life. If people are talking about the film in a decade, that would be lovely. I’m proud not only of how we made it but how it turned out.”

Regardless of how they decide to get it out there, “Convention” will have longevity as a descendant of the Drew, Pennebaker, Leacock ‘Direct Cinema’ tradition. In my estimation, it may be one of those films that will gain greater appreciation as time elapses and the film is distanced from the media’s love-affair with President Obama that tends to fog up the lens. At this point, the film may be too close to the ecstasy of the DNC and Obama’s election to be able to appreciate this as a separate document.  Time will tell.

This week, Schnack and Truesdell are filming in Branson, MO (following-up with characters for their next film, “Branson,” which was started prior to “Convention” with collaborator David Wilson). Branson, a town of 7,000 tucked inside the Bible Belt, has over forty theaters and a hundred shows that draw annual crowds in the millions. Schnack and Truesdell describe the town as “like no other place on Earth.” Homer Simpson has described it as “Vegas if Ned Flanders ran it.”

Can’t wait to see what they do with this one.

Here’s a fascinating and novel concept: Simultaneously embrace the tiniest and largest movie screens!

Brookline’s Coolidge Corner Theatre is hosting the first Online New England Film Festival and Awards Night from 7-9:30 p.m., on Thursday, Oct. 15.

More than a dozen local short films — including animation, comedy, documentary, and drama — were posted online at NewEnglandFilm.com for six weeks. And now the most popular and highly acclaimed selections will screen at the Coolidge.

Here’s a list of films and filmmakers:

Animation

Larry & Roz (Kristen Palana)
the five: fifteen (Chris Chiusano) - Pictured Above

The Other Way Out (Tristan Dyer)
The Wing (Seon Young Kil)

Comedy

Clam Pie (Guy Taylor & Dan Boylan)
Footsteps: The Buddy Chancellor Story (Colin Fowler )
Stalk Much? (Bill Baykan)

Documentary

I Covered My Eyes (Paul Turano)
Landless: The Plight of South Africa’s Informal Settlements (David Yim)
The Reality Behind Closed Doors (Curtis James Salt)
Stephen Pace: Maine Master (Richard Kane & Paul Koronkiewicz)

Drama

December Thaw (Kenneth Murphy)
Did You… (Chris Record & Corbin Record)
John (Sara’o Bery)
White Elephants (Chris Portal)

New England Women Above the Line

A Work in Progress (Sarah Ginsburg)
Carapace (Hannah Pillemer)
Penumbra (Kimberly McLaughlin)
Virginia Lee Burton: A Sense of Place (Christine Lundberg & Rawn Fulton)

The screenings and award presentations will also serve as an independent filmmaker networking event. For ticket information, click here.

Some Bostonians sniff at driving to New Hampshire as if it were Canada.

Reality: Portsmouth is a quick shot up Route 95 North and may be quicker than your normal work commute.

Guest blogger Brett Carneiro, a volunteer for the 9th annual New Hampshire Film Festival, makes his pitch here why the NHFF is well worth the drive.

By Brett Carneiro, Guest Blogger

The four-day New Hampshire Film Festival happens Oct. 15-18 in downtown Portsmouth, NH. In its ninth year, NHFF will screen more than 80 movies (most ever) and each of the nine venues for screenings, workshops and parties are within walking distance of each other – as well as some of the best restaurants and bars in New England. So, get a hotel room and have a good time!

The opening night feature “Serious Moonlight,” is directed by Cheryl Hines (“Curb Your Enthusiasm’s” favorite wife), and stars Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton and Justin Long. Hines’ directorial debut is a hysterically dark (honest) look at marriage, infidelity, trust, faith and everything in between.

The NHFF documentary selections are sure to impact this year’s audiences. I personally love “The Way We Get By,” which was written and directed by Aron Gaudet. The film follows three senior citizens (one is Gaudet’s mother) who, for the past six years, have greeted almost one million U.S. troops at Maine’s Bangor International Airport. This documentary is tremendously inspiring and exemplifies what documentary is all about (SXSW Special Jury Award for Documentary Feature.) We are honored to have it here at NHFF.

“American Violet” is a narrative feature film starring breakout actress Nicole Beharie and was based on actual events that took place in a small town in Texas in 2000. The film follows a single African American mother who battles the local court system after being wrongfully accused of being a drug dealer. This movie also stars Oscar-nominee Alfre Woodard, Emmy-winner Charles S. Dutton, Tim Blake Nelson, Will Patton and Xzibit.

It was produced by Bill Haney who also produced a documentary film being shown at this year’s NHFF titled “Accelerating America,” an insightful look at the many hurdles faced by children, parents, and educators in an inner-city school in Providence, R.I.

The list of films for this year’s lineup is exceptional and our panels and workshops will answer your questions concerning distribution, business, agents, and writing. We will also offer invaluable advice to young filmmakers or anyone else interested in the industry.
We are proud to be working with The Music Hall once again. Built in 1878, the historic theater seats 900 viewers and the old-time feel of the theatre is truly unique. As Portsmouth residents will tell you, the bathrooms alone are noteworthy!

For NHFF tickets, click here or visit www.nhfilmfestival.com.

Isn’t talking about “survival skills” a little melodramatic when you’re talking about documentary filmmaking?

Not really. Go talk to any indie filmmaker.

This Friday some of the major players in the documentary world — including reps from HBO, Sundance, PBS, and the Gucci Tribeca Fund — will share insights on the current fund-raising climate, alternative methods of distribution and the latest programming trends.

The inaugural POINTS NORTH Documentary Film Forum runs concurrently with the Camden International Film Festival in Maine. These are subjects that often are tackled at film festivals and seminars, but as local documentary aficionado Rhonda Moskowitz notes, usually you have to travel to New York or Los Angeles to get this kind of industry line-up.

It should be noted that Camden is also quite a trek from Boston, but it is a beautiful trek.

FYI: The above photo is a scene from “Snowblind,” the CIFF’s opening night film about a blind dogsled racer who is competing in the Iditarod.

The POINTS NORTH forum is free to the public. Here’s their official press release:

CAMDEN, Maine, September 21, 2009 – The Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) today announced its inaugural POINTS NORTH Documentary Film Forum, which runs concurrently with the Camden International Film Festival. CIFF will take place from October 1 - 4 throughout Camden, Rockport and Rockland, Maine. POINTS NORTH will be held on Friday, October 2 from 2 – 6 at Union Hall on the Maine Media Workshops campus.

This free event is specifically designed to benefit New England based filmmakers, providing an unparalleled opportunity to connect with top-level industry leaders including funders, broadcasters, filmmakers and producers. The forum is open to the public, offering filmmakers in the region a way to enhance their professional development.

Featuring two intensive, back-to-back session, POINTS NORTH will present an afternoon of lively discussions, in-depth examination of funding trends, first hand accounts of self-distribution, Q&A sessions and an intimate reception. The first panel, “A New World”, will explore aspects of the current funding process, trends and players. It will be followed by “The Survivor’s Guide”, discussing sustainable living in the new world of filmmaking, focusing on DIY distribution and making successful films in the current economic climate.

“I’m thrilled to be able to offer this unique opportunity to the documentary film community in New England,” said Ben Fowlie, CIFF Founder and Director. “The Points North Forum, spearheaded by Brunswick-based international documentary expert Louise Rosen, is bringing together leaders from all corners of the industry. For anyone interested in documentary production or distribution, this is an event that should not be missed” said Fowlie.

Rosen added, “Industry representatives of this caliber just don’t make it to New England very often – and we couldn’t be more honored to host them here in Maine.”

A New World: Non-fiction Film Funding, Trends and Players

This panel will begin with 5-7 minute presentations from each participant, including clips, overview of their organization - the types of projects they fund and what they look for. This will be followed by a 60 minute moderated panel discussion with Q&A on overall funding trends. Confirmed panelists to date include Patricia Finneran (Sundance Documentary Institute), Greg Rhem (HBO), Ryan Harrington (Gucci Tribeca Fund), Sara Archambault (LEF Foundation) Jalyn Henton (PBS National Program Service) with others expected to be announced in the coming weeks. This panel will be moderated by Louise Rosen (Managing Director, Louise Rosen Ltd).

The Survivor’s Guide: Filmmaker Roundtable on Sustainable Filmmaking w/ Q&A

Panel topics include DIY distribution, making a living as a documentary filmmaker and tips on filmmaking in the current economic climate, discussed by some of the leading documentary filmmakers working today. Moderated by Pamela Cohn, noted film critic, filmmaker and author, the panel includes to date, David Redmon (Mardi Gras: Made in China/Carnivalesque Films, AJ Schnack (Convention/Cinema Eye Honors), Ian Cheney (King Corn/Wicked Delicate Films) Gita Pullapilly and Aron Gaudet (The Way We Get By), Dana Rae Warren (Independent Producer, Maine resident) and Danielle Digiacomo (Independent Film Project Community Outreach Manager).

POINTS NORTH Documentary Film Forum will begin on October 2 at 2pm with introductory remarks on the current documentary landscape. The Forum will be followed by a reception from 5 – 6, open to all participants. Sponsored in part by the LEF Foundation and Maine Media Workshops, POINTS NORTH is an extension of the Camden International Film Festival.

For more information on scheduling, directions and up to date information on panelists, please visit www.camdenfilmfest.org/pointsnorth

ABOUT CIFF

Committed to supporting and generating interest in independent documentary films, the annual festival presents a snapshot of the cultural landscape through the year’s best non-fiction storytelling. The weekend also includes intimate Q&A sessions, panels, installation exhibits, musical performances and parties.

The 5th Annual Camden International Film Festival will take place October 1-4, 2009, screening over fifty films at venues in Camden, Rockport and Rockland. For more information on the festival, the full schedule, or information on passes visit www.camdenfilmfest.org.

Getting your indie film screened at the Coolidge Corner Theatre is a badge of honor, and it’s much tougher to accomplish without being under the umbrella of an established film festival.

Now, the Coolidge is opening up four opportunities a month for 5-minute shorts to be the lead-in films for their main features. They’re calling it the Coolidge Shorts Film Festival and their official announcement is excerpted below:

Brookline, MA, August 4, 2009 – The Coolidge Corner Theatre is launching a new initiative to support established, emerging, and student filmmakers internationally. The Coolidge Shorts Film Festival is a year-round program in which four short films (5 minutes and under) will be selected each month to screen before feature films. All genres will be considered including live action, animation, and experimental. This is a unique opportunity for filmmakers to showcase their work before the Coolidge’s monthly audience base of 16,000 patrons in the Greater Boston area.

“In our commitment to showcase short films created by emerging and established artists, the Coolidge proudly continues the historic role of movie houses,” says Coolidge Corner Theatre Associate Director Elizabeth Taylor-Mead. “The very earliest cinema programming in the United States appealed to mass audiences. In those early days of film exhibition audiences were treated to not only a feature film, but also ‘short subject’ films.”

“A selection of live action, animated cartoons, and/or newsreels preceded the main show - reinforcing the reputation of motion pictures as ‘the democratic art.’ Today, technology allows us to cast our net as wide as possible in search of outstanding programming and then engage our audiences in the conversation. It’s exciting for us to both honor the past and bring it with us into the future.”

To submit a short film to The Coolidge Shorts Film Festival and for more details, visit www.coolidge.org/shorts. Bi-annual submissions will occur in August and February. The first submission period runs August 10-September 25, 2009 (postmark-by date). Four films will screen each month. For questions, please email shorts@coolidge.com.

Check out today’s Herald for a preview story about the Roxbury Film Festival, which kicks off tomorrow night at the Museum of Fine Arts.  I LOVE this vintage photo of the young Richard Pryor.