[cinemaexp] Re: UPDATE from Most recent meeting, New Lists, and Next Meeting Date

  • From: Laurie <laurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: cinemaexp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2016 13:55:17 -0400

Thanks, Joel, for the update and all the hard work. Have a wonderful trip.
Laurie

On 10/11/2016 01:00 PM, Joel Johnson wrote:


Dear friends:

As many of you already know, Alice and I will be heading to London this Thursday and will be there until October 21^st . I wanted to update you on where we are in our process before we left. The group did meet on Wednesday, October 5^th , but it was only the Johnsons, the Sanborns, and Bob Stewart. Ken Eisen joined us at 11:00.

First of all, I want to update you one some holdover issues from our first meeting:

Clif had suggested three “foodie” movies since food-related movies have done pretty well for us in the past. “FOR GRACE” is currently available from Amazon Video. “SERGIO HERMAN: FUCKING PERFECT” doesn’t seem to have a US distributor. “BABETTE’S FEAST” won the Best Foreign-language Oscar in 1988. I know many people really love the film, although I have never seen it. When I was checking it out on IMDb, I immediately noticed that it was available through Amazon for $2.99. I felt that the two films that were so readily available for home viewing were not good choices for us and the other one simply does not seem to be available for American filmgoers.

I neglected to include this in my e-mail on 9/29/16 and it was a concern that some folks expressed. Ken does not have any DVD screeners that we could share. Most of his previewing of films is through links and streaming.

Laurie had sent me the Graves’ suggestions from the initial list I provided and the follow-up e-mail after Bill had shared the film list for the New Hampshire Film Festival in a separate e-mail. Clif shared those same suggestions in an e-mail late Wednesday morning using our shared mailing list. The reason I mention that is that the earlier e-mail from Laurie provided the impetus for much of our discussion at our meeting and you might assume that the Graves’ suggestions would not have been incorporated into our meeting discussion based on when Clif sent his message.

Specifically, we did have further discussion on the availability of “HARRY & SNOWMAN” for CINEMA EXPLORATIONS since Ken had expressed some interest in booking it. Subsequent to our Wednesday meeting he has informed me that it did not do well enough at the box office for him to want to book it for Railroad Square. Laurie’s suggestion that it also be scheduled as our lead-off film also makes sense since it appears to potentially be a crowd-pleaser and it could be shown before it becomes available on DVD on 1/17/17. Anyway, the film is available to us if we want it in the series.

We also discussed “TO KEEP THE LIGHT” which was a film being shown at the New Hampshire Film Festival. Ken indicated that it had been submitted for MIFF and they had decided to not include it. This happened even though there is a somewhat lower bar for including Maine-made films. The film does look professional and the cast does have professional actors (though none who are particularly well-known). Ken did not describe exactly in what way it was deficient, but that the other programmers had seen it and were not especially impressed. Ken then reviewed it and made the final decision. In looking at the trailer, I thought that the film was austere and appeared to be very deliberately paced. This seemed consistent with a film that was telling a story about isolation, loneliness, and harsh conditions. Anyway, we might not agree with Ken and the MIFF programmers if we were to see the film. If you check out the film’s website: http://www.tokeepthelight.com/tokeepthelight/film.html you will see that the film has been shown in quite a number of smaller film festivals and that it has received favorable reviews. Ken was going to see what they had received in reviewing the film to see if we can use that. It may also be help to receive feedback from Bill after he goes to the New Hampshire Film Festival. We could have a first-hand observation or a second-hand report as to how it worked for an audience.

We did not discuss “OLD STONE.” This is a first film by a Chinese-Canadian who immigrated to Canada at age 10. He went to graduate school for film at Columbia. The film’s trailer does look interesting, though I admit I was somewhat less enthusiastic about the references to “battling bureaucracy and legal manipulation” in its description on IMDb. There’s something about “bureaucracy” that comes across as un-cinematic and enervating. However, it opens next weekend. We will probably get some reviews to check out. It has played at some high-profile film festivals.

“STARVING THE BEAST” and “THE LOVER AND THE DESPOT” are both interesting possibilities. We did not discuss these films. Who else is interested in the stories these two films tell?

I had been interested in “THINGS TO COME,” but Ken is also somewhat interested in it. He would probably base his decision on how it does on opening and what types of reviews it may receive. Any film with Isabelle Huppert probably has a better-than-average chance of being interesting. Because it doesn’t open in NYC until 12/2 I think we should focus on other films and I have removed it (and another December opener Asghar Farhadi’s “THE SALESMAN”) from consideration and our lists. I just don’t think we can wait that long to set our line-up.

I have developed a new list (see attachment). I went through multiple US distributor websites that I have researched in the past and added a number of films that either are already in release or are expected to be released in the near future (but perhaps not in the NYC area) to the CINEMA EXPLORATIONS Possibilities List and these have been added to the CINEMA EXPLORATIONS Possibilities List on IMDb. This should be helpful in trying to evaluate them. While I suspect your enthusiasm for looking at these new additions may be somewhat measured, I am quite confident that this is likely the last time a significant number of additional films will join the list.

I have put the five films that are 2017 Best Foreign-language Film Oscar submissions in red. These are films that could—although it is probably unlikely—advance in the competition to the nine-film shortlist, to getting a nomination, and, ultimately, to winning the Oscar. Ken wishes to defer his decision on including them in the Railroad Square Cinema schedule until these decisions on which films advance are made. I haven’t heard anyone express any particular interest in those films although I think they have potentially interesting storylines and very few of these films typically get shown otherwise. Is anyone else interested in any of them?

“IXCANUL” is last year’s Best Foreign-language Oscar submission by Guatemala. It has played in many high-profile film festivals including Berlin, Telluride, Toronto, London, and several others. It has received favorable reviews. Ken has seen the film, but was not especially impressed.

“AQUARIUS” is marked in blue because Ken is considering booking it. The director also did “NEIGHBORING SOUNDS” which some of us may have seen a couple or three years ago for CINEMA EXPLORATIONS before Ken decided to book it as a Members Film. “AQUARIUS” stars Sonia Braga who has been a very big international star and is the aunt of Alice Braga. The film will be opening this coming weekend and how it does may help Ken determine whether he wants to book it.

There are six new foreign-language films on the list. I like the director of “AFTER THE STORM” who did “OUR LITTLE SISTER” that showed in this year’s MIFF. I have also enjoyed a couple of his other films. His films seem to be quite warm and humanistic. These are also of interest to me. “APOSTATE” is a comedy about a man trying to officially leave the Catholic Church. “DON’T CALL ME SON” is by the same director who did “SECOND MOTHER” that we had on last year’s list (it was Brazil’s submission). This film explores a similar theme as “LIGHT BETWEEN THE OCEANS” as a teenager discovers that he was taken from his biological parents as a very young child and as a near-adult is “reunited” with them. As you may gather from the title this doesn’t go especially well. “NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH” is a French mysterious metaphysical thriller set in Afghanistan.

We have several new documentaries in the mix. Most have potentially interesting stories. Ken did not think that the Sidney Lumet documentary would have much of a release. I suspect that it is being opened in New York to make it eligible for the Best Documentary Oscar, but that it is basically intended for showing on PBS’ “American Masters” series. This would make it pretty unlikely that we could show it—at least at a price that would fit into our customary costs.

Ken had recently looked at a documentary film called “NOTES ON BLINDNESS” and shared a link to stream it from Vimeo. Both Alice and I have watched the film. The film was constructed using audio tapes made by a theologian encountering his progressive loss of sight. Actors play the man, his wife, and their children creating visual scenarios consistent with what is being said and the actors lip-synching to the voices on the audio tapes. It is a strangely cinematic film, but not for the reasons we usually say that about a film. Typically we say a film needs to be seen in a theater because of its visual richness. This is cinematic because of the immersive nature of the disability and, in essence, for what the film doesn’t show. While it is a good film, we would not advocate for this film because we are not sure that it would attract much of an audience and it is also fairly slow and relatively low energy. It would be very easy to fall asleep watching this film. That being said if you are interested in taking a look at it, here is the link and the password: https://vimeo.com/181931956PW: noteson360.

I had found a film called “BEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS” about a young Maine woman who is dealing with autism and blindness. Ken indicated that he was arranging for a screening of this film. So I have now removed it from our lists.

English-language films are difficult for us to find for our series. Ken was somewhat incredulous that genre films like “MY DEAD BOYFRIEND,” “COME AND FIND ME,” and “A KIND OF MURDER” were included on the list. “CLOSET MONSTER” is still on the list, but since it comes out on DVD on 1/10/17 I am inclined to remove it from consideration. “MAX ROSE” is a film featuring Jerry Lewis. Reviews were not that good as it has Metacritic score of 38. “RAINBOW TIME” has an outside chance of being included in the RRSQ regular schedule and therefore is in blue. In addition to “TO KEEP THE LIGHT” which was previously discussed, there was the second New Hampshire Film Festival narrative film with a Maine link called “ALWAYS SHINE.” This film has shown at several film festivals and has received an 8.4 rating from users on IMDb. It doesn’t open until 12/2 so if Ken has any interest in it (he didn’t express any interest, but I’m not sure how much attention he paid to the list) we may not want to wait until he sees how it performs at the box office. We may get some feedback from Bill about whether this one may be suitable for us.

Ken did have some interesting input regarding possible classic films. Apparently, the matinee schedule for Railroad Square weekend shows will have all the early matinees beginning at 12 noon. This would impact all of our films, but many of our classic film choices at present are two hours or more in length—some by quite a lot. That will force us to make decisions about whether to start early and by how many minutes; and whether or not to have a post-film discussion. Ken did feel that “HOWARD’S END” was likely to be able to attract a good audience and it has been playing in NYC for several weeks. It had a very good run when it was initially released and shown at Railroad Square. It is, however, 140 minutes and that would require some accommodation. “DOWNFALL” is even longer at 156 minutes. In addition to being a definite downer and the tie-in to our current election having been over for two or three months, the film would probably need to start at 9:15 am. These factors would certainly compromise our capacity to get much of an audience. I have added a handful of films from Rialto. Unfortunately, Ken indicated that Rialto has gotten a bit pricey wanting a minimum guarantee of $450. The list does include reference to a distributor Park Circus which has offices in the US, UK, and France. Park Circus has a very extensive library of films that are very old to those that are much more contemporary. As noted on the list, Park Circus’ library does include 22 films by Sidney Lumet should we still be interested in showing something by him. However, Ken did provide some information about this company that is important to know. The company does have rights to a wide variety of films, but their rights to certain films may not extend to everywhere or, specifically, the US as we would need. Therefore even though there are 22 films by Sidney Lumet listed in their catalog, the ones that could be booked for us may be only a portion of that number or none. Ken did acknowledge, however, there may be other avenues to pursue for showing a wide variety of classic films. In the course of my perusal of the Park Circus list, I came across an old Kirk Douglas-Burt Lancaster western “GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL” (1957). MIFF has occasionally shown westerns and they are typically quite cinematic. Kirk (who turns 100 this December) and Burt were very big stars then and many of the supporting actors either were or became big stars. This particular film is 122 minutes long which puts us potentially overlapping the 12 noon start time. If you have another Kirk Douglas film or another classic film in mind altogether, we certainly should consider it.

Of course, we can decide to set up our schedule with or without a classic film. We could break down our schedule between new foreign-language narrative films, documentary films, and English-language narrative films in a variety of ways. I would recommend that everyone develop a list of 5-10 films from the list that you would like to see us consider. Hopefully that will help us limit the number under consideration by quite a few. If anyone can find out which films might be destined to hit Netflix before we get our series going, that would be helpful to know.

Works-in-progress, Short films, and Student films were on the agenda as possibilities. At present, there is no specific plan or prospect for these types of films becoming part of our series. However, there is a contact at Colby for making an inquiry for Student films. Alan was planning to contact Erin Murphy at Colby about this.

There are some things I put on the agenda (see attached) for which over the last few years we have relied on Shannon and her staff to do. I plan to specifically ask Shannon about these things as it is not expected that there will be a replacement for Shannon until December.

NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, October 25^th at 10:00 am at Railroad Square Cinema.

Joel


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