IFP Alumni Features in Sundance 2011

Big news for IFP alumni this week as Sundance Film Festival announces their slate. IFP is proud to have been a part of these films’ processes, from scripts and rough cuts at Independent Film Week, and through finishing and distribution with the Independent Filmmaker Labs.

IFP Alumni include US Dramatic Competition films Here, Gun Hill Road, On the Ice and Pariah. Kinyarwanda premieres in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

Premiering in the US Documentary Competition are Crime After Crime, Hot Coffee and If A Tree Falls.

Restless City (pictured) premieres in the NEXT Competition, festival favorite Incendies shows in Spotlight, and Granito and Those Amazing Shadows are in Documentary Premieres.

"I heart IFP because they were one of the first organizations to see promise in Pariah and in Dee [Rees, director] and I. We were so amazed because after the IFP Market ended in 2007, I thought, "well that's it, we're on our own again," but now looking back, that was just the beginning. Amy [Dotson] and team have been our constant champions, opening doors and giving counsel as we labored to get this film made. We're so grateful and excited to share this premiere with the IFP team." says Nekisa Cooper, producer of Pariah, which is an alumnus of Emerging Narrative 2007 and Narrative Lab 2010.

Says Kinyarwanda director Alrick Brown of his experience in the 2010 Independent Filmmaker Labs “[IFP are] goddesses on the hero’s journey. Thank you for the swords and the shields.”

Rashaad Ernesto Green, writer/director of Gun Hill Road said "Through IFP's No Borders, we met with festival programmers and industry professionals who became aware and excited about our feature film Gun Hill Road. We were able to establish relationships with many talented filmmakers and top executives that we may otherwise never have met. It was the beginning of a wonderful journey. Thank you, IFP, for the continued support. We look forward to returning the favor some day!"

You can read the full slate of projects over at Filmmaker Magazine.

IFP Alum Jasmine Dellal on the Premiere of UTOPIA IN FOUR MOVEMENTS at Sundance

BLOG – utopia: (January 25, 2010)

I’m in this snowy winter wonderland as a producer on Utopia in Four Movements a ‘live film’ by Sam Green and Dave Cerf.

This ‘live film’ thing is unusual, but it sounds pretty simple – images on screen, a director narrating with a mic, someone DJ’ing the soundtrack from his laptop, and a few musicians playing along. However, it turns out that there’s some technical stuff that has to happen for this to work out. And most festivals are more used to projecting a film (or tape) without live accompaniment so this is a bit of a challenge – but that’s why we’re in the “New Frontiers” section, and they’re really accommodating about our requests.

And today, we had our first show at the Yarrow....

But first I’ll tell you a bit about the past couple of days in Utah.

Like most indie filmmakers, our posse arrived here quite tired, yet I was ready to hit the streets (and slopes) with a giant bundle of postcards and schmooze to bring in the buyers and the press. So, Carrie Lozano (my fellow producer) and I have been doing the ‘hard work’ of attending parties, watching movies, and talking about our film....

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our condo is ebbing with 9am-9pm rehearsals. One of the advantages (and nightmares) about doing a live performance film is that you can practice up until the last minute. There’s a bit of video tweaking to tinker with... but mostly, this is the first chance for Sam and Dave to practice with the Brooklyn-based musicians – T. Griffin, Catherine MacCrae and Dennis Cronin (aka the Quavers). It’s truly thrilling to see everyone buckling down to really focused work all day and night with a simple common goal of making the best art they possibly can. But it’s terrifying too! They must have enough sleep to function, but they must also have enough hours to practice...

Anyway, by the time of today’s show, we were all quite nervous. This is live! Sam is going to stand there in front of the audience, without a script, and with a little remote control to click through still images and Quicktime movies. And we don’t want the audience to be distracted by the technicalities. This is a philosophical personal essay on utopia – many people have pitched in to make it happen, and quite a few of them are here (including Sam’s proud parents).... Sam said afterwards that he’d feared he might get hit by lightning or Tourette’s in the middle of the show. Luckily, he looked so calm that I never would have known.

I’m happy to report, that all went brilliantly. The audience laughed and stopped to have long discussions afterwards – maybe this is a jumping off point for each of us to ask ourselves what we are doing (or not) to improve the world we live in. If audiences leave having this kind of discussion, then I think the work is doing it’s job.

And as for the producer’s job – a live film can’t be pitched to the normal places. For now, we’re straddling the film and art worlds – booking shows in festivals and museum performance spaces. We filmed this show (Adrian Belic and Bennett Cerf showed up to shoot for us), so maybe we’ll have something we can show to people soon. I suspect that eventually there will be a full DVD of the work.

For now, it’s interesting to think about alternative means of distribution... Nobody knows how all our films will be distributed in the near future, but everyone agrees it’s changing. There are panels at Sundance and Slamdance about new distribution methods – and I’ve bumped into various panelists who are fascinated by a project like ours. Anything that breaks the mold is food for thought these days — fingers crossed for all of us!

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'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.

IFP Alumni Shine Among a Strong Sundance Lineup

At 3:59 pm this afternoon, one of my colleagues yelled out, "Sundance is up." Four of us, sitting in a row, frantically turned to IndieWire, where, although momentarily distracted by the fact that the photo of Howl shows the guy who plays Tripp on Gossip Girl, I perused the line-up in the Competitions of one of the world's most important film festivals. Altogether, a very strong program of lots of non-fiction and narrative indie heavyweights. However, we at IFP are most delighted to see our own alumni make such a strong showing in the line-up.

According to Rose Vincelli, IFP Program Manager and one of our master archivists, they are the following:

In the US Dramatic Competition, Blue Valentine, (Director: Derek Cianfrance; Screenwriters: Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis) won our 2006 Chrysler Prize and was previously a 2003 No Borders selection. The Imperialists Are Still Alive!, (Director and screenwriter: Zeina Durra; Producer: Vanessa Hope) is our first IFP Narrative Independent Filmmaker Lab alumni (2009) to be in Sundance competition. While Howl (Directors: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman; Screenwriters: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman)—which apparently features the guy who plays Tripp on Gossip Girl and, more importantly, James Franco - was a No Borders selection in 2008. Also in this competition is Night Catches Us, produced by Jason Orans, one of our two producers selected to attend the Rotterdam Lab this year.

In the US Documentary Competition, we have My Perestroika, (Director: Robin Hessman), which won the IFP/Anthony Radziwill documentary development grant in 2005, and
The Oath (Director: Laura Poitras), a selection of Spotlight on Docs in 2008. Finally, A Small Act (Director: Jennifer Arnold), was in Spotlight on Docs this past September.

Indcidentally, 19% of the Sundance US Competition are IFP alumni. Congrats to them all!