Mark Claywell, Director of AMERICAN JIHADIST (IFP's Spotlight on Docs Alum), Blogs about His Slamdance Premiere

(Karin Hayes, Slamdance, stands by as Mark Claywell, director, and Jody Jenkins, co-producer, answer questions) (The filmmakers and Slamdance team).

We had a great first screening last night. Could not have gone better I believe. We were competing against the annual clothing optional Slamdance Hot Tub party and still had a full house.

I was a little nervous and jittery that no one would show up for our screening so I made it clothing optional as well. It was dark so i don't know if anyone took me up on that.,

Q and A was great fun. I was concerned about that as well considering we are pushing a lot of buttons in this film. Lots of on target questions. Very smart audience. No yelling or screaming! Looking forward to our second screening on Wednesday. Clothing optional.

A day later, here are some more reflections and details:
The Q and A mostly revolved around some of the major questions we bring up during the film... how does Isa Ali travel so easily from Bosnia to the States... (he has never been charged with a crime), We talked about the possibilities of Ali working for the US Government... (we have asked that questions of course and Ali has admitted that the CIA and FBI have tried to recruit him even while publicly calling him a terrorist.) Good to know the audience is picking up on the some of the major themes and elements of the films which deal with easy labels and stereotypes. What were once freedom fighters are now evil doers.

We also got a few inquiries about turning the film into a dramatic feature. (We optioned the rights to Ali's story so hoping to move that rock forward very soon.)

Beyond that we have had several meetings with potential distributors and online VOD/Streaming people. Not in a rush but excited about the possibilities and wading through the mine field of what the next paradigm will be....

Back at it tomorrow. Second screening at 12:30pm.

Jason Spingarn-Koff Blogs about Life 2.0's Sundance Premiere

David Courier (Documentary Programmer, Sundance Film Festival talks to director Spingarn-Coff after the premiere of Life 2.0), director Jason Springarn-Koff and producer Stephan Paternot at the premiere.
(Photos by Getty Images)

Our premiere of "Life 2.0" was sold out with 75 on the waitlist. I
was quite nervous as the lights dimmed, but after more than 3 years of
making the film, what a huge relief to finally share with a live
audience! The crowd was lively -- more laughs than I expected -- and
responded as I hoped to the dramatic ups and downs. Once the
screening was over, we had a very engaging and thoughtful Q&A --
joined by my fellow producers Andrew Lauren and Stephan Paternot, and
DP Dan Krauss and composer Justin Melland. As I take shuttles around
snowy Park City, I'm running into a surprising number of people who
have seen or heard of the film and want to chat about virtual worlds
and the implications for society. The film has people thinking and
debating, which was my greatest hope. What a tremendous honor to be
here -- one of the happiest moments of my career. -- Jason Spingarn-Koff

And They're Off! IFP Alumni (and some Staff) hit Park City

Yup, it's that time of year again. When Robert Redford dusts off his snowshoes, and the film industry get our their Airborne tabs! This year, IFP's new Interim Executive Director Joana Vicente and Milton Tabbot, Senior Director of Programming, are braving the cold, along with a couple dozen IFP alumni, who are premiere at the Dances - both Sun and Slam. And for your pleasure, they'll be blogging and posting photos right at this spot. Jason Springer-Koff, director of Life 2.0 has very generously agreed to share his big premiere experience with all of us! And we have a few other surprises in store.

IFP ANNOUNCES 2010 IFP/ROTTERDAM LAB FELLOWS

On the 10th anniversary of its partnership with the Rotterdam International Film Festival’s CineMart & Rotterdam Lab, IFP is pleased to announce its 2010 IFP/Rotterdam Lab Fellowship recipients, Jason Orans and Thomas Woodrow.

As the Rotterdam Lab’s exclusive U.S. partner organization, IFP annually selects and sponsors two emerging producers to participate in the Lab’s prestigious four-day training workshop. Running concurrently with the CineMart Co-production Market held January 30-February 3, 2010, the Lab is specifically is designed to build up the international networks and experiences of its participants.

Jason Orans’ feature film producing credits include NIGHT CATCHES US (Sundance Dramatic Competition 2010), starring Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington and Wendell Pierce; DARE (Sundance Dramatic Competition 2009), starring Emmy Rossum and Alan Cumming and GOODBYE SOLO (Venice 2008 - FIPRSCI International Critics Prize), written and directed by Ramin Bahrani. His upcoming projects include UNTILTLED RAMIN BAHRANI PROJECT.

Thomas Woodrow’s feature film credits include BASS ACKWARDS (Sundance NEXT 2010), directed by Linas Philips; TRUE ADOLESCENTS, starring Mark Duplass and Melissa Leo, and SHADOWS, directed by Milcho Manchevski, which was the highest grossing theatrical release ever in its home country, Macedonia. His upcoming projects include Craig Johnson & Mark Heyman’s THE SKELETON TWINS.

“Applications to this Fellowship were up an astounding 90% from previous years. This shows that in our current economic climate, there is a real hunger for independent producers at all budget levels to expand their networks beyond the U.S. marketplace” says Amy Dotson, Deputy Director of IFP. “Through this initiative, as well as thorough Cinemart’s yearly participation in IFP’s No Borders International Co-Production Market, we are proud to partner with Rotterdam to continue to help provide vital opportunities for talented U.S. and international producers to collaborate.”

Previous Fellows have included Paul Mezey (MARIA FULL OF GRACE), Howard Gertler (SHORTBUS), Effie Brown (ROCKET SCIENCE), Mynette Louis (MUTUAL APPRECIATION) and Anish Savjani (WENDY & LUCY).

A Year End Letter from IFP's Interim Executive Director - Happy Holidays All!

Dear IFP Member or Friend,

It has been a time of many changes in the independent film scene; both scary and exciting. Through it all, independent filmmakers of all stripes keep pushing forward, making great work that moves, inspires, and amuses countless people around the world.

It has been a year of changes at IFP as well. After 12 years at IFP's helm, Executive Director, Michelle Byrd, stepped down to pursue other ventures, and I happily stepped in, after four and half years as a Board member, as the Interim Executive Director. As I reflect on this past year, I am delighted with the way that the IFP served our community. In 2009, the IFP produced the 31st annual Independent Film Week and 19th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards, successful Script to Screen and Independent Filmmaker Conferences, and helped emerging and mid-career filmmakers through the Independent Filmmaker Labs, Fiscal Sponsorship, and Made in New York programs, among numerous others. Tom Quinn, director of The New Year Parade, writes that he "shuffled into the IFP Rough Cut Lab with a 40-minute cut and an overwhelming 180 hours of raw footage, totally green and lacking the confidence or know how to push the film forward. Throughout the Lab we were given so much amazing advice, and with it came the confidence to make the film we had set out to create. Since then the IFP staff, and everyone at Filmmaker have continued to be a tireless support system - a wind at our back and a map toward things ahead." The New Year Parade went on to win the Slamdance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize, receive uniformly stellar reviews, get a small theatrical and large DVD release, and now, is nominated for the Independent Spirit Awards "John Cassavetes Award" 2010.

On the nonfiction side of things, Independent Film Week's Spotlight on Documentaries 2008 alumni The Way We Get By (directed by Aron Gaudet and produced by Gita Pullapilly) premiered at the SXSW '09 Festival, where it took the Documentary Feature Honorable Mention. The film was selected as a special end of season presentation for PBS' P.O.V., who the filmmakers had met with while at Film Week. Also at Film Week, they met with ITVS, which ultimately provided significant funding for the project. The film had a theatrical release at New York's IFC Center and other cities via the International Film Circuit, and the DVD began self-release in November. It went on to win the IFP Fledgling Fund Grant for Documentary Outreach and has been nominated for a 2009 Cinema Eye Honors for Outstanding Achievements in Debut Feature.

IFP is the nation's oldest and largest non-profit organization of independent filmmakers. Since its start, we have supported the production of 7,000 films and provided resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers' voices that otherwise might not have been heard. IFP believes that independent films broaden the palette of cinema, seeding the global culture with new ideas, kindling awareness, and fostering activism. Through our 30-year history, we have helped projects ranging from Michael Moore's Roger and Me to Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's Half Nelson get off the ground.

In 2010, IFP will continue to support our thousands of members all over the world with year-round events, conferences, labs, networking opportunities, and resources. We couldn't do any of this without the kind and generous contributions of supporters like you.

So, give the gift of support to independent filmmakers.

MAKE A GIFT IN SUPPORT OF INDEPENDENT FILM.

Or simply join IFP now - or sign up a friend - for a year of free screenings, networking events, vendor discounts, a subscription to Filmmaker Magazine, and much more.

SIGN UP FOR A YEAR OF IFP MEMBERSHIP

Warm regards,

Joana Vicente

IFP'S 2010 INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER LABS ON THE HORIZON - Start working on your applications over the holidays!

IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs is the only program in the U.S. supporting first-time feature directors with projects at the crucial rough cut stage, before they are submitted to festivals. The Labs are a free, week-long workshop in New York offering personalized feedback and advice on all aspects of the post-production process, audience building, and distribution strategies in the digital age, followed by continued support from IFP as the project premieres in the marketplace. More than half of Lab alumni have gone on to premiere at major festivals - including Berlin, Sundance, SXSW, Toronto, and Venice, and have enjoyed theatrical releases, been broadcast nationally, or released on DVD. Recent Lab projects have included Vanessa Gould’s Between the Folds, which premiered on Independent Lens this month, and Geralyn Pezanoski’s Mine, upcoming on Independent Lens in February; Tom Quinn’s The New Year Parade and Tariq Tapa’s Zero Bridge, both recently nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards (and each a Gotham Award nominee in 2008 and 2009, respectively), and Zeina Durra’s 2009 Lab project, The Imperialists Are Still Alive!, premieres in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance 2010 next month. Lab applications will be available in January for both the Documentary and Narrative Labs which will take place in spring 2010.

Christina Beck's PERFECTION gets some love from the Adrienne Shelly Foundation

Looking through old programs from IFP's Script to Screen Conference today, I noticed that Adrienne Shelly participated in the 1996 conference devoted to the landscape for independent film and media writers. Devoted as she was to IFP's mission of advocating for and supporting independent filmmakers, it makes sense that the Adrienne Shelly foundation, the non-profit organization dedicated to the memory of writer/director/actor Adrienne Shelly, created a grant 3 years ago to support the work of female directorial alumni from the IFP's Independent Filmmaker Labs. The unrestricted, $5000 grant, called The Adrienne Shelly Director's Grant, went this year to Christina Beck’s PERFECTION, the story of Kristabelle, a woman in her thirties still living at home, who cuts herself to feel alive. She lives with her mother, who is also addicted to cutting through plastic surgery to maintain her youth. Through the help of a pot smoking young lover, a newly sober British comic and a little Chinese medicine, both women soon find that love can be more than skin deep. Pamela Cohn, at Still in Motion, reports that Beck, who she met at Independent Film Week in 2007, "will use this prize, in part, to release some developed film footage (donated by Kodak) that's been held in captivity at FotoKem in Los Angeles, where she resides."

According to the Foundation's website, "We know that Adrienne would like us to do everything possible to help young women pursue their filmmaking dreams, and to assist others in making the same leap from acting to writing and directing as Adrienne had done so successfully." IFP is delighted to be working with the Foundation to support talented female filmmakers like Christina achieve their dreams. The world needs many more of them.