Looks like crime doesn’t pay! Casey Anthony Files For Bankruptcy Via RadarOnline reports: The filing in the Middle District of Florida Bankruptcy Court came on the same day two of her convictions for lying to law enforcement officials during their investigation into the death of her daughter, Caylee, were thrown out. In 2011, Anthony was found not guilty of murdering her two year-old daughter in a trial that riveted the country. Responding to the bankruptcy filing, the attorney representing Zenaida Gonzalez in her defamation case against Anthony called it nothing more than a delay tactic. But, said Matt Morgan, “we are not deterred and will stay the course.” Anthony’s Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filing listed $1,084 in personal property and $792,119.23 in liabilities. And she provided a fascinating list of nearly 100 people and companies who have claims or possible claims against her. They include her former attorney Jose Baez for $500,000, the IRS in the amount of $68,540 and the Orange County (FL) Sheriff’s Office for $145,660.21. Her own parents are listed without a specific amount. “This is the next step towards closure for me,” Anthony told CBS affiliate KPHO. Of the now-stalled Gonzalez trial, she said, “These are the things holding me back. This is the key for me to move forward.” Charles Greene, the civil attorney defending Anthony in the Gonzalez lawsuit, told the station “Casey hoped the case would be over in January. This has been an ongoing battle for close to five years. Emotionally and physically, she can’t go on for another year. She needs a clean slate from a financial perspective.” The goal of the bankruptcy is to give Casey a fresh start financially, said Greene, who added she has no financial windfall projects pending. “There are no contracts, no movie or book deals,” he said. Karma is a beyotch and she doesn’t pay well either!
Sebastián Silva’s Crystal Fairy was the first film I caught at the Sundance Film Festival , and by the time I left Park City, I still hadn’t seen a performance that measured up to Gaby Hoffmann’s stunning, ego-free portrayal of that movie’s title character. Hoffmann first appears onscreen dancing with goofy abandon and spouting New Agey talk that leave little doubt she will be the butt of the movie’s jokes for the next hour and a half. But then she steals the show by literally and emotionally stripping herself naked over the course of the film, revealing her character to be much more complex, damaged and vulnerable than those first scenes suggest. At the film’s Sundance premiere, Silva said that his movie, which is based on a real-life encounter, is “about the birth of compassion in someone’s life.” Although it’s actor Michael Cera , in the lead male role, who undergoes that emotional transformation, Hoffmann plays the part of catalyst with such heartbreaking authenticity that I couldn’t help but take that roller-coaster ride, too. Hoffmann’s performance is all the more remarkable when you consider that Crystal Fairy was almost entirely improvised and shot in 12 days in Chile while Silva was waiting for production to start on another movie he brought to Sundance, Magic Magic . A New York native, Hoffmann, 31, has quite a bit of experience with iconoclastic personalities. She is the daughter of Warhol superstar Viva and grew up in Manhattan’s fabled Chelsea Hotel. In the interview below, she talks about the non-conformist surroundings of her childhood, filming Crystal Fairy while tripping on mescaline, and how her experience on the set reaffirmed her commitment to acting after 10 years of soul-searching, following performances in Field of Dreams , Sleepless in Seattle , You Can Count on Me and The Man Without A Face . Movieline: You told me earlier that you were overwhelmed by Sundance audiences’ response to Crystal Fairy and your performance. What kind of feedback have you been getting? Gaby Hoffmann: People really love the movie and the character — the [smiles] titular character I created which is kind of a first experience for me — at least as an adult. I mean, I made a lot of movies that people loved when I was a kid, but I didn’t have any real relationship to them. I had fun making them, I loved the people I worked with, but I wasn’t conscious of anything I was doing, you know? I didn’t even realize that I was interested in film until I was in college, and since then, I’ve had a very uncertain and sort of lost decade. And this is one of the first things I’ve worked on since I decided I really wanted to keep exploring acting as the person I am now. How did you come to be cast as Crystal Fairy? I had seen The Maid here at Sundance a few years ago. I was here for 24 hours. I wanted to get the fuck out of here the second I got here. My boyfriend at the time and I drove here from L.A. to support a friend’s film. We saw it and were about to drive back when I said, ‘This is really stupid. We’re both filmmakers. We should see a movie.’ So I flipped through the book, and I picked out The Maid. I knew nothing about Sebastián. I’d never heard of him, but we went to see the The Maid, and it was a really important moment for me. I’d been questioning my interest in acting, and I thought, God, if people are making movies like this, I want to keep making movies . I’ve also wanted to write and direct movies as well as act in them, so it was what needed at that moment. Maybe one out of every 50 films I see does that to me. The rest make me think, What the fuck are we all trying so hard to do this for? Anyway, when Sebastián took part in the Q&A, I just — he’s the most charming, lovable man in the world and I fell in love with him. But I didn’t meet him. Cut to a year later. I got a call from my agent. Once again, I was at the point of thinking, I don’t even know if I want to act. I had been exploring other things. I was getting into cooking and thought I wanted to be a chef. I spent my 20s doing what I think people do when they’re teens, feeling out what I really wanted out of life. Just wait until you hit middle age. Oh, good. I hope it happens over and over and over again. It’s difficult but wonderful. So I was having another moment of like, Oh, God, I don’t even really know if I want this, when I got a call from my agent saying: “You’re fluent in French, right?” I’m not, but I should be. I’d just been engaged to a Frenchman, so everyone thought I should have gotten that much out of it. But something clicked, and I said, “Why?” The trail led back to Sebastián. He was making a web series for HBO called The Boring Life of Jacqueline . And I’m like, “You don’t understand. This man made the best movie of the last decade. Get me in the room.” I really do think that The Maid is one of the best films of the last decade, by the way. So I got in the room, and somehow convinced Sebastian to hire me even though I’m not fluent in French. And we made the series together. Michael [Cera], who’s also a huge fan of The Maid, is in it, too. He has a cameo. So that’s where we all met. We shot in New York and Sebastian and I became good friends. And then? A year later Sebastián called and said, “You want to get on a plane to Chile and play this woman in Crystal Fairy where you take a road trip through the desert with Michael Cera and take mescaline and there’s no script and you have to leave in four days?” And I said, “Are you kidding? You know, I’ll parachute myself there. Whatever you want.” And that’s what we did, but even though I trust Seb as a filmmaker and as a person, we had little preparation time and none of us had done improv. I really had no idea if we’d pulled it off until I got here and saw the movie with a thousand people. And it has been really cool. You really did pull it off. I’ve never had this experience of communing with people in this way. To have woken up one morning in Chile and thought, I really want Crystal Fairy to have these elements. I want these things to come across to the audience about who she is. And then, all these months later, to have people come up to me on the street here, like 60-year-old men, and say, “She was all of those things” — I’ve never had this experience as an actress. Is Crystal Fairy entirely your creation, or did Sebastián give you some direction? There were biographical things about her that he told me. You know, he’d actually had this experience with this woman, so, I don’t want to reveal too much, but elements of the character, like the story she tells at the end, are factual. But, for me, it was more about taking those facts and making her dynamic instead of one-dimensional and cliché, which she could easily have been. You had never improvised a performance before, right? I did this weird James Toback movie [ Black and White ] that was improvised, but I barely participated because I wasn’t – because it was a James Toback movie and because the Wu-Tang Clan was getting us stoned without our knowledge. But, no, nothing to this extent, and certainly nothing that I wanted so much to make work. Crystal Fairy was one of the first movies I did after I recommitted to the idea of acting. Like two months before Sebastián called I had this moment with my then boyfriend on the edge of a mountain cliff where he said, “This is driving you crazy. You have to figure out if you want to do this or not.” I had spent 10 years painfully struggling with this ambivalence and really not doing anything about it. And I thought, “Okay, I’m gonna just spend a year committed to the idea of exploring it.” So, I wanted to succeed for Sebastián and for the film, but this was also one of my first opportunities to see how I felt about myself as an actor and if I enjoyed the work. How long did you have to figure out how you were going to portray Crystal Fairy? I think it was like a week before I got on the plane to Chile that Sebastián told me who she was. And that was like a four-minute conversation. He was in Chile. I was on another movie set. And all he did was say, “Go buy some books about 2012 [Ed.Note: more specifically, about the end of the Mayan calendar] and get on the plane.” So I did. We spent a week in Santiago in pre-production. And I say pre-production in quotes because we were all living at Sebastián’s parents’ house. Sebastián wasn’t living there, but the brothers and Michael Cera and I were. Tt was the house where The Maid was shot, and the boys would sit out back playing guitar and singing songs on this beautiful patio and the music would stream in through the open doors. And Sebastián and I would sit at a desk and I would draw Crystal Fairy’s weird drawings in her book. So, those are your drawings in the film? Yeah, I made that whole book. And read this book about 2012, and I talked to Seb about Crystal Fairy. I would tell him, “Never let me go too far. Don’t let me try to make her so funny that I lose sight of who this person really was. She was a huge influence in his life. He had a very emotional experience with her. Did you and Michael Cera discuss how you would interact in the film or were you both just reacting to each other? We didn’t really discuss much. I mean there was an outline and every scene had some moment that led us to the next place, that gave the movie its narrative arc. And I remember being very concerned and voicing again and again that, you know, let’s make sure the scene’s not just about that one thing. We have to also be having a moment together and a conversation and let’s let it go. So, we did discuss that to some extent, but we didn’t do any real improv crap. We didn’t do any rehearsals in character. The boys had been living together for months because Michael had been in Chile learning Spanish for Magic Magic, so they had a whole thing which worked perfectly because I was really the outsider. And I just had a real easy time with them. Those boys, the Silva boys, they’re magical. That whole family is, as is Michael Cera. So it was pretty easy to slip in and find the adventure on film. And we had the opportunity to shoot everything because we were doing digital. It was like we improv’d the improv, if you know what I mean. You grew up in the Chelsea Hotel, which, I imagine, was full of characters like Crystal Fairy. Did you use anything that you encountered during your childhood in your performance? I definitely grew up around a lot of characters. I’m trying to figure out how to say this articulately, but I also spent 10 years before making that movie going to college and really struggling with myself and experiencing a lot of depression and having a real breakdown of ego – which I never even thought about before then. My mother is the sort of a person who has no boundaries and no filter. She also has a big ego but it’s a very unique one. And I grew up with lots of artists in an environment where conformity and the norm were totally not what anybody was after. So, while the character of Crystal Fairy is not me at all, elements of who she is are very comfortable territory for me. I wasn’t exactly drawing on specific people but rather the world I grew up in, which was a world about individuality and expression and people being themselves at any cost. I don’t really see the point to living any other way. How would describe Crystal Fairy to someone who hasn’t seen the movie? I think she’s living with a lot of fear. You don’t really realize this until the end of the movie, but she’s having a post-traumatic stress moment, and I think she’s created an alter ego to escape a wound that she never processed. So she’s actually putting on a character. At the end, she sort of reveals who she really is and why she’s on this trip, which, I think, is one of escape. I found your performance remarkably ego-free. I never felt like, hey, that’s an actor up there playing Crystal Fairy. In all honesty, I don’t really know how to act in any other way. I’ve never studied acting. So, when I have a piece of material in front of me that is not well written, I don’t think I’m very good because I’m not a trained actor. I can’t really come around the back. I have to have an entry point that feels real. It doesn’t mean the character has to be like me, but I have to find something in the role that I can make feel natural. Otherwise, I don’t really know how to pull it off. It’s limiting. There’s a lot of work I don’t think I can do. If the writing is there and the intention is there, and the filmmakers are after something that is honest and real, I think I can go anywhere. I’m not afraid of revealing anything. But I don’t know if I’m good at acting. You said earlier in the conversation that doing Mescaline was part of the plan. What’s like to act while tripping? Yeah. I really wanted to do it. I’m not a method actor at all, but I like taking mushrooms and I’m comfortable with it. I knew that whatever happened it would work. But people were uncertain if it was too much. First, we thought well, let’s all do it one day off camera and see how it goes and how we feel about it. And then we’ll decide if we want to shoot like that. But we didn’t have that day. We lost that day actually because we broke our Epic camera and it was the only Epic in Chile. So I was the guinea pig. In the movie, the boys are all together when they trip, so it was like, “Okay, should we try it with four people at once or should we try it with one person?” And I said, “Let’s do my day first,” because I just knew it would be okay. My dose was weak, so I had to take a second one even though it was so revolting, but I really loved it. I was totally present in the experience of the making of the movie, and I felt like it was subtle enough that I could step in and out of it. So you are tripping on camera? Yes. Yes. Yes. And I felt like it was a tool that I could choose to pick up and use when I wanted. I never felt like, “Oh my God, I’m tripping and I have to make a movie.” I felt like I could totally step out of it and be like, “Okay, Sebastián, what’s going on? What do we need to do?” And then I could step back into it and just go with it. And, you know, there’s like hours and hours of footage that you don’t see because it was like a 10-hour trip and we were in that desert the whole time. It was great, but it was subtle. So, thanks to your experience with Crystal Fairy, you are rededicated to making a career of acting? This is one of many experiences I’ve had this whole year that, yeah, has led me to a place where I know that I want to keep going. A month ago I was like trying to get hired as a bartender. You also said you were thinking of becoming a chef. Did you study a particular cuisine? You know, I never really thought I was gonna be a chef. I just started really loving cooking, and I was spending a lot of time being very domestic and escaping from the world. I went to the American Academy in Rome to do this program that Alice Waters set up there called the Rome Sustainable Food Project. It was a three-month internship where you’re cooking traditional Roman cuisine. I love that food, but I love everything. And I definitely don’t want to be a chef. More on Crystal Fairy : SUNDANCE: Mother Pus Bucket! Michael Cera’s Not Sure He’d Take A ‘Ghostbusters 3’ Gig Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Kim Kardashian is standing up for her mother… by positively going off on her former stepmother! In its latest issue, In Touch Weekly asserts that Kris Jenner is abusive , using Robert Kardashian’s journal to report Jenner has kicked her daughter and even threatened to kill Kim. Now, in response to Robert’s widow, Ellen, allegedly providing this supposed evidence to the tabloid, Kardashian has taken to Twitter in anger and in defense. First, she addresses Ellen. “So my dad’s ex is selling ridiculous stories again to tabloids!” Kim wrote this morning. “Do not believe it! Sad when people need $ & get desperate… “10 yrs since dad passed &this woman he married 4 2 wks before he died needs 2 get a job instead of trying 2 destroy families w fake stories.” Then, to make sure she officially shot down talk of Jenner as anything but loving and supportive, Kim added: “PS that story that my mom beat me & threatened to kill me hahahhahaha! I’d beat her! JK truly laughable! #NOTTRUE.” Perhaps not the funniest or most appropriate punchline, but point made. UPDATE: Adds Khloe Kardashian , also Tweeting to Ellen: “You have no right to even mention our names especially my mothers! We don’t know you!!! How dare you spread such lies! You are a disgrace.”
A real-life controversy is giving Lifetime’s Army Wives a run for its scandalous money. Ashley Broadway and wife Heather Mack – a lieutenant colonel stationed at Fort Bragg – were married in November, a few months after the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” But Broadway has been denied membership in a base club for officers’ spouses, with many believing this ban is solely due to her sexual preference. Broadway was told by a representative from the Association of Bragg Officers’ Spouses last week that her application was turned down because she does not possess a military spouse identification card. HOWEVER, this is a brand new rule, according to Babette Maxwell, founder and executive director of Military Spouse Magazine . It was only enacted after Broadway asked to join the club. The club’s bylaws, obtained by NBC News, make it clear this organization accepts “spouses of all commissioned and warrant officers,” even mentioning that the group “will not seek to deprive individuals of their civil rights.” There is no reference in the bylaws to an identification card. Said a tear-filled Broadway of the rejection: “I was really hurt by the denial. Living for years under ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,’ I couldn’t be a part of the military family. After ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,’ I thought, wow, I can finally be part of something, finally give back to the military community in ways other than just writing a check. So it was a blow. A real blow. Here, I thought things were progressing. I was knocked back down.” Broadway and Mack have a two-year old son and the latter is eight months pregnant with their second child. Yesterday, the spouse club wrote on its website: “Our constitution and Bylaws are currently being reviewed. Thank you for your patience during this process. We will have them posted as soon as possible.”
Oksana Grigorieva (remember her?!) feels she was hosed by her own lawyers in her infamous feud with Mel Gibson, ending up in a terrible custody agreement. She’s now suing them. In court papers, Oksana accuses Ron Litz and Daniel Horowitz of negligently advising her to sign off on a bad deal back in 2011. Why was the deal so bad? Allegdly, it forbids her from pursuing any future legal action against Mel regarding their child without jeopardizing the settlement she made with the actor. Gibson agreed to pay Oksana Grigorieva $750,000, plus provide a house for her and support their daughter Lucia until Lucia turns 18. Not a bad deal, right? Not according to Oksana, who says she was also advised by lawyers to sign a legal document that divested her of all ownership rights to her house. Oksana is demanding unspecified damages. In response, Horowitz tells TMZ , “Why can’t she just live her life normally and have a good life, raise the kid, live in the house, make music, be happy?” “Why does she always have to be in a struggle?” “Especially with people who care about her?” Good question.
The Sundance Film Festival opens Thursday with a new crop of anticipated American indies – some of which will define the cinematic year. Last year’s narrative winner Beasts of the Southern Wild received a slew of Oscar nominations this year along with other titles. Which ones will emerge this year. Over the next week, M.L. will give a snapshot of the filmmakers themselves in their own words along with trailers. The first five filmmakers profiled today include Lynn Shelton’s Touchy Feely (U.S. Dramatic Competition), David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (U.S. Dramatic Competition), directors Aaron Aites, Audrey Ewell, Nina Krstic, Lucian Reade’s 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (U.S. Documentary Competition), Bastian Guenther’s Houston (World Dramatic Competition) and Stacie Passon’s Concussion (U.S. Dramatic Competition). Touchy Feely by director Lynn Shelton – [U.S. Dramatic Competition] Synopsis What happens when a family’s delicate psychic balance suddenly unravels? Abby is a free-spirited massage therapist. Her brother, Paul, an emotional zombie, owns a flagging dental practice, where he enlists the assistance of his equally emotionally stunted daughter, Jenny. Suddenly, transformation touches everyone. Abby develops an uncontrollable aversion to bodily contact, which seriously hinders her chosen profession and the passionate love life she once shared with her boyfriend. Meanwhile, rumors of Paul’s “healing touch” begin to miraculously invigorate his practice. As Abby navigates through an identity crisis, her brother discovers a whole new side of himself. Boasting superb performances from an ensemble cast that includes Rosemarie DeWitt, Josh Pais, Ellen Page, Scoot McNairy, Allison Janney, Ron Livingston, and newcomer Tomo Nakayama, Touchy Feely is about learning to live in your own skin—literally and figuratively. Written and directed by talented Sundance alumnus Lynn Shelton (Humpday, Your Sister’s Sister), Touchy Feely bristles with originality, coupled with Shelton’s trademark sensitivity to the foibles of human nature. [Courtesy of Sundance] Comments by Lynn Shelton: Touchy Feely quick pitch: Touchy Feely has an ensemble cast and multiple story-lines. At its center is a brother and sister: Abby (Rosemarie DeWitt), a free spirited massage therapist who can’t do her job after developing a mysterious aversion to touching skin, and Paul (Josh Pais), an emotionally stunted dentist who’s dying practice is suddenly invigorated when his waiting room fills with folks seeking out his “healing touch”. …and why it’s worth checking out at Sundance and beyond: I think it’s honest and emotional and funny and goes to some unexpected places. Plus, take a look at the cast list. Some quick anecdotes on how it all came together: 1. Our already short prep period became quite a bit shorter when Rosemarie DeWitt got cast in Promised Land which was shooting exactly when we were hoping to. In order to keep her in our film, we moved our schedule up by three weeks. 2. The dentist office, one of our key locations, eluded us until the eleventh, nail-biting, hour. I had nearly given up in despair, when, as if by magic, I discovered through casual conversation that the father of the very nice town car driver who took me to the airport one day, had JUST retired from dentistry at the age of 92. They turned out to be the most wonderful friends to the production. It was pure serendipity. 3. The biggest challenge for me of making this film was cutting together all the story-lines in the edit room. It was like an advanced-level jigsaw puzzle. Some background on the cast… Josh Pais and Rosemarie DeWitt functioned as muses for me; I wrote their roles specifically for them. The rest of the cast fell into place with relative ease once the script was finished. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints by director David Lowery – [U.S. Dramatic Competition] Synopsis: Bob Muldoon and Ruth Guthrie, an impassioned young outlaw couple on an extended crime spree, are finally apprehended by lawmen after a shootout in the Texas hills. Although Ruth wounds a local officer, Bob takes the blame. But four years later, Bob escapes from prison and sets out to find Ruth and their daughter, born during his incarceration. The barren landscapes of David Lowery’s poetic feature evoke the mythology of westerns and saturate the dramatic space with fatalism and an aching sense of loss. Aided by powerfully restrained performances by Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, and Ben Foster, Lowery incorporates an unnerving tension into the film, teetering it at the edge of violence. The beautiful, irreconcilable dilemma of the story is that Ruth—compelled by the responsibilities of motherhood and her evolving relationship with the deputy she shot—remains haunted by her intense feelings for Bob. Each of them longs for some form of peace. Ironically, it’s Bob, the unrepentant criminal trapped in the romantic image of a bygone past, who is driven by an almost righteous sense of clarity. Following in the footsteps of Badlands and Bonnie and Clyde, Lowery’s humanism transcends the genre. [Courtesy of Sundance] Comments by David Lowery: Ain’t Them Bodies Saints quick pitch: Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is a classic tale of an outlaw who breaks out of prison and sets out to reunite with his family. …and why it’s worth checking out at Sundance and beyond: It’s looking like the temperature in Park City next week is going to have a high of 12, so escaping into the heat of the Texas summer – at least on screen – might be a cozy respite! Some quick anecdotes on how it all came together: That Texas summer was one of the challenges; the movie was originally set during the winter, but for scheduling reasons I rewrote the script to take place in summer. I figured that we might as well own it and make the heat an integral part of the film. It eventually became so integral that we had a few crew cases of heat exhaustion on set. Pausing in the middle of a hectic shoot day for medics to assist our fallen comrades was troubling for multiple reasons. But everyone endured and in the end, all the sweat and dirt looks amazing on film, and the summer is almost a character in the movie – burnt grass blowing in the wind, birdsongs in the morning and those amazing summer sunsets that you only get in Texas. 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film by directors Aaron Aites, Audrey Ewell, Nina Krstic, Lucian Reade [U.S. Documentary Competition] Synopsis: In 2011, seemingly overnight, Occupy captured the imagination of our nation—and the world. The sweeping story of the birth of a movement, 99%—The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film follows a disparate group of activists who converge on lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park to build a society organized by nonhierarchical decision-making structures. Inspired by the idea that wealth and political power are dangerously concentrated, grassroots groups from Minneapolis to Mississippi to Oakland soon follow suit, converging to focus on issues crucial to their own communities. After confrontations, expulsions, and mass arrests, the movement finds itself at a crossroad. What’s next? Designed in part as an experiment modeled on Occupy’s process, the film employs multiple cameras around the country to capture the kinetic, immediate experience on the ground, peppered with a comprehensive range of viewpoints from activists, experts, and detractors. In an era of hopelessness and resignation, this film is a reminder that another world order is still possible. Comments by Audrey Ewell: 99%: The Occupy Wall Street quick pitch: Mainstream news coverage of Occupy Wall Street left most people with a pretty inaccurate idea of what really happened. We went behind the scenes and took a hard look at one of the most tumultuous movements in contemporary American life. 99% connects the dots on who these people were, what they were doing, and why; this film will give you a whole new understanding of what was really happening in the cultural and economic environment, and why it compelled people all over the country to take to the streets. And then we look at what could be coming next. …and why it’s worth checking out at Sundance and beyond: This film gets into the lives of real people who are struggling to deal with the issues the movement propelled into the spotlight. It’s both affecting and enlightening. What’s great about 99% is that you will walk away truly understanding how all of the issues are connected. How a single mom in Minneapolis struggling with foreclosure is connected to the pension crisis faced by teachers and firefighters, and how the deregulation of banks and corporations (that led to the junk mortgage market crash) is directly linked to laws that govern lobbying and campaign finance. All of that is 100% connected and this film uses the stories of real Americans to cover the big interconnected picture in a way that has never quite been done before. It peels back the curtain and reveals who has the power in America, how they maintain it (including coordinated suppression of protest by DHS, local police forces and government), and the consequences for real people. Some quick anecdotes on how it all came together: Just two or three? Well, this film had unique challenges due to its experimental production process. Audrey Ewell (the founder of the film) was liaising with our shooters and co-directors all over the country, keeping it all coordinated and making sure we were getting material that could blended into one story. Various co-directors were responsible for various threads in the film. At one point, one of the co-directors in NY wanted to interview someone who was in Oakland, CA. Our Philadelphia co-producer had a connection to this woman, so he put us in touch, and the NY co-director and Audrey researched and wrote questions for her, and then a shooter in the Bay Area filmed the interview by proxy. And after all that, the NY co-director quit the film as it was too big a commitment for her, and all of that work got scrapped because her thread was subsequently cut. On a film like this, people came and people went, and because it was designed to be a parallel (but unaffiliated) experiment that mirrored and tested the processes of the movement, this was just the sort of thing that we’d invited in. So while it was frustrating and time-consuming, we’d decided to embrace the process and see where it would take us. What we found was that not all of the movement’s processes worked for us, and we had to adjust as we went along in order to satisfy the needs of a real-world, goal-oriented process with deadlines. And in our case, what that meant was scrapping any ideas about consensus, and instead implementing a strict hierarchy, with the more experienced filmmakers leading the process. Only then was production of the film possible. Houston by director Bastian Guenther – [World Dramatic Competition] Synopsis: Clemens Trunschka is not doing so well. With spotty employment and a shaky marriage, he’s pretty much lost any claim to being a “functional alcoholic.” The more accurate term for him would probably be “lousy drunk.” So when an opportunity arises to help a German company recruit an American candidate as its CEO, Trunschka seizes the chance to get… [Courtesy of Sundance] Comments by Bastian Guenther The Houston quick pitch: Clemens Trunschka is a corporate headhunter and an alcoholic. Drinking increasingly isolates him from his life and leads him away from reality. On the hunt for a top CEO in Houston, Texas, his addiction takes him on a haunting journey into his own darkness. …and why it’s worth checking out at Sundance and beyond: I hope that, like a good short story, the film lives on in the viewer’s imagination after leaving the theatre. It gives no answers and is certainly not didactic, but I hope it provokes some critical thoughts about how we live today. If so then the film achieved a lot beyond being 107 minutes of entertainment. We get wrapped up and lost in systems of our own creation that are organized around short-term goals and short-term satisfactions. On the individual level, this comes in the form of rampant consumerism or addiction, and on the societal level, in extreme capitalism and global corporations. These systems do not offer enduring solutions or meaning. They divide and conquer. So the film shows this and the isolation that comes with our modern way of life. Some quick anecdotes on how it all came together: I remember that during our shoot, Garret Dillahunt was shooting the TV show, Raising Hope , in which he stars. This ran all week in LA, then he would fly into Houston to shoot with us for the weekend and return late Sunday night to be on the set in LA early Monday morning. For 6 straight weeks, he worked every single day. I truly appreciate his dedication to our film. One day we shot a complicated scene in which some of the crew stood on a rooftop of a skyscraper in downtown Houston holding a fishing rod with a line that was attached to another fishing rod held by another crew member on the street below. To complicate matters, we were shooting this from another skyscraper across the street. Bad cell phone and walkie talkie reception did not help. But it was an exciting and fun moment, and I love how it turned out on screen. In general it was a challenge to shoot a feature film outside of my home country. The film sets work differently in Germany and the U.S. Each provides unique challenges. However, the experience was deeply gratifying, and I definitely want to continue making films in both countries. And background on the cast: I sent the script to Ulrich Tukur’s agent. After a while she called back and told us that he loved it. So we met several times, talked about the character, the story, and what it meant to me. Pretty soon we agreed on doing this project together. Our casting agent in LA, JC Cantu, showed me a lot of excellent actors for the role of Wagner. But when I had a Skype conversation with Garret Dillahunt, that JC organized, I knew that I found the right actor. We didn’t read any lines. We just talked about the film and the character. This was one of those rare moments where I knew immediately that I had found the right person. Our casting agent for Texas, Beth Sepko, did a fantastic job of finding stellar actors from the region for various other roles. Insight on the clip: Each of the two clips consists of one continuous shot in the film. They capture the pace and the style of the film. This was important to me. The clips should ignite viewers’ curiosity but also render in that short amount of time the condition of the main character. Concussion by director Stacie Passon – [U.S. Dramatic Competition] Synopsis: Abby is a fortysomething, wealthy, married, lesbian housewife who—after getting smacked in the head by her son’s baseball—walks around every corner of her suburban life to confront a mounting desire for something else. She takes on a new project and purchases a pied-à-terre in Manhattan. Walking around the city streets reminds Abby what it feels like to be sexy, and her pent-up libido shakes off its inhibitions. Her desire is not a take-home item for the minivan ride back home, so Abby inaugurates a double life that draws her deeply into a world of prostitution for women. In an auspicious debut effort, director Stacie Passon draws out a pitch-perfect performance from her lead actor, Robin Weigert, as a sexy, shut-down family woman stretching to bloom again. Palpably sensual and deliciously contained, Concussion is a keen observation of the complicated contours of midlife crisis. [Courtesy of Sundance] Comments by Stacie Passon: “Grateful to Sundance”: Firsts are always very fun, but with it I know there will be a lot of scrutiny. Will these films stand up? Will they move people and make them think? Sundance has been very brave here, but also I know they have a ton of confidence in the films in competition. They’ve been wonderful and supportive of Concussion in a so many ways already. We are grateful and lucky to have their support. Here’s to Technology and non-traditional distribution: I’m really encouraged. I mean, Sundance said that there where a many features made by women this year. Technology is making it easier to make films. Access to distribution platforms makes it easier to monetize films. I think as more and more women find these non-trad ways to get the work seen, we’ll see our numbers rise dramatically. The other thing is that women historically have had a hard time making more than two or three features, and many of the films at Cannes are not by new filmmakers. So women drop off huge in that category. For most of the women at Sundance in competition, this is a first or second feature. So it’s not only Sundance’s willingness to embrace women, it’s really about embracing new voices as well.
Mariah Carey has shared adorable photos of her daughter Monroe putting on mommy’s makeup. Mariah Carey Shows More Photos Of Dem Babies Via RadarOnline reports : In Instagram pictures released on the pop diva’s Twitter account on Friday, little Monroe, 1 1/2, is shown sweeping a makeup brush over Mariah’s face. And a delighted Mariah captioned the moment of mother/daughter bonding: “Beauty school hour 01 lol.” As usual, Monroe — whose dad, Nick Cannon, and twin brother, Moroccan, were understandably not seen in the girls’ day photos — had an outfit to die for, dressed up in stylish polka dots with a bow in her hair and a tiny gold bracelet on her right wrist. Mariah wore a blissful expression with her eyes closed as her precious little girl appeared to be trying to powder the singer’s face with the makeup brush. Fans have already tweeted their delight about the photos, with one follower declaring, “This is my new screen saver.” It’s clear that Mariah, whose American Idol judging debut will be seen this Wednesday and Thursday on FOX, will have a new makeup artist behind the scenes to help her look her best!
Must be nice to be Blue Ivy Carter . This baby has a million-dollar suite at the Barclay’s Center, a $400,000 beach house , and now she has a Barbie that cost $80K. Via The Sun UK: Beyoncé Knowles and hubby Jay-Z splashed out $80,000 on a diamond-encrusted Barbie for their daughter’s first birthday. The customized doll for little Blue Ivy includes 160 of the gems, plus white gold jewelry. The mega-rich singers also threw a lavish princess-themed party for close family and pals to mark her special day. The bash in New York included $96,000 of white and pink roses as decorations and a cake costing $2,000. Another $33,000 went on accessories and toys for Blue Ivy’s young guests, including jewellery sets, princess costumes and playhouses. Adults were given elaborate goodie bags including concert tickets and personalised gold pens with Blue Ivy and each guest’s name engraved on them. Destiny’s Child star Beyoncé, 31, and rapper Jay-Z, 43, were declared the world’s highest-paid celeb couple last year after raking in $78million in 12 months. They spent weeks planning the celebrations for their daughter, who turned one last Monday. A source said: “Nothing’s been too big or expensive for their little princess. They wanted her first birthday to set the tone for the rest of her life. “They work hard for their money and the first thing they want to spend it on is their baby girl. Getty Images
Yandy Smith Supports Her Boyfriend Despite Child Sex Allegations It looks like Love and Hip Hop New York newcomer Mendeeces’ 15 minutes of fame might be up before we even cared it even started. The New York native, who was introduced on the show last week as LHH cast member Yandy Smith’s baby daddy, is reportedly set to stand trial later this month for allegations that committed “inappropriate sexual acts” with a 15-year-old girl 2 years ago. via North Jersey News Jury selection began Wednesday in Hackensack for the trial of a hip-hop reality TV reality star accused of “touching” an underage girl in Lodi two years ago. Mandeecees Harris, a 34-year-old actor on the VH1 reality show “Love and Hip-Hop,” is charged with performing various sexual acts with a 15-year-old girl and inappropriately touching her at his former home in Lodi. Bergen County prosecutors allege that Harris asked for and received “mouth” sex from the girl and “touched” her on various occasions between September 2009 and April 2010. He was arrested later that year and charged with aggravated sexual assault, criminal sexual contact and child endangerment. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. And to top it all off, the unconfirmed world on the street is that the teenage girl in question is the daughter of his first babymama…..also know as…..his son’s sister. SMDH!! Mona might want to do better background checks the next time she picks new cast members. Hit the flip to check out Yandy’s subliminal 2 cents in the midst of this messiness…
