In our continuing series of video conversations with Special Programs' student, faculty and administrators, Tisch Undergraduate Film student Nick Brennan shares his experience at the Tisch Havana program in documentary film.
Tisch Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell has been named a member of President Obama's Arts Committee.
From The New York Times' Art Beat
President Obama has announced three new members to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the committee said on Wednesday. The three new appointees are George Stevens Jr., the founding chief executive of the American Film Institute and producer of the Kennedy Center Honors; Margo Lion, the theater producer whose Broadway credits include “Hairspray,” “Angels in America” and “Jelly’s Last Jam”; and Mary Schmidt Campbell, the chairwoman of the New York State Council on the Arts and dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Mr. Stevens and Ms. Lion will serve as co-chairs of the committee, which works with federal cultural agencies and in the private and public sectors to further the White House’s cultural objectives, and Ms. Campbell will serve as vice chairwoman. The appointments are effective immediately.
Tisch is sponsoring the Democracy Video Challenge. Your challenge: to create a video short that completes the phrase "Democracy is…" Your prize: An all-expense-paid trip to Washington, New York and Hollywood to attend gala screenings of the winning videos, gain exposure to the U.S. film and television industry and meet with creative talent, democracy advocates and government leaders.
Tribeca All Access (TAA) supports directors and screenwriters from traditionally under-represented communities in the film industry by serving as a year round networking and career development forum that provides access to industry representatives looking for new projects in development. Each year , a diverse group of emerging and established filmmakers are selected from an open call for submissions to participate in a series of workshops and panels, before pitching their narrative scripts or documentary works-in progress in a series of one-on-one business meetings with industry executives during the Tribeca Film Festival.
New York University Tisch School of the Arts offers a summer program in Amsterdam exposing students to a range of approaches to live performance and the creation of original work. But for those of you who can't wait until next summer and want to experience experimental theatre now, check out the New Island Festival at Governors Island.
The event offers a variety of performances and installations, including an improv comedy group, a silent disco, and dinner of stamppot, a hearty potato dish, and klapstuk, a veal stew, while dancers perform on your 400-foot-long wooden table.
Photo courtesy of Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times.
Inspiration for the festival comes from two similar events in the Netherlands: the Terschellings Oerol Festival, which takes place on Terschelling, an island in the north, each June; and De Parade, a traveling festival that moves around the country in summer. Read more and see a slide show at The New York Times.
It's the start of a new season, a new semester and soon, a new decade. So get ready for a barrage of best of the decade/year lists. Pitchfork has a jump start with P2K, an entire series listing the best in music from the 2000s. They recently posted their take on the top 50 music videos of the decade. It's an interesting selection, and well worth checking out.
Below is Fionn Regan "Be Good or Be Gone," coming in at number 42 on the list.
The following entry from Tisch School of the Arts film instructor Jeff Scher's blog on the New York Times perfectly captures that singular feeling of going back to school. Next week, we welcome our students back to NYU and Tisch for the start of what hopes to be another great year, but the campus is already abuzz with eager students in various orientation activities.
Welcome back!
Watch his film Summer Retreat.
Zam Salim's 10-minute film Laid Off, above,has had nearly half a million hits on YouTube, the sort of following that can impress producers. Photograph: Public Domain
Long before Bill Edwards settled into his current job as a graphic designer at the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in Wigston, Leicestershire, he harboured a dream of becoming an animator. At school in Plymouth, where he grew up, he was the best at drawing in his class. "It was the one thing I was good at," the 38-year-old recalls. "The only thing I was good at." But when he attempted to set his drawings in motion, he hit a brick wall.
"A friend and I in Plymouth did a 10-second animation that took about two days to do. Then, during my degree course at the University of Derby, I tried some hand-drawn cel animation. I did a five-second piece and it took a lifetime. My feeling then was: 'Jesus, I'm interested in this but I don't really have the patience.'"
Edwards dropped out of university and worked in a warehouse at Rolls-Royce for five years. It was only when he got his graphic design career on track, by learning the requisite software in evening classes, that animation became a realistic option: "In the past decade or so, with digital technology becoming more available, it has begun to match my patience and tolerance levels. Now I can animate a lot more quickly than I could have done 15 or 20 years ago."
Tisch Asia's own Shijie Tan's film Er Ren (For Two) has been accepted to the 66th Venice Film Festival. Inspired by true events, Er Ren is a story about relationships and their illusions. A lonely widower lives in his sparse apartment, still longing for his deceased wife. Living secretly in his house, however, there is a woman, who takes part to this life “together” with him, taking care of the home when he’s not there. When the fragile reality of this life “together” threatens to become too real for either to take, both Man and Woman must react.
The film will screen on September 8th. Visit the Venice Film Festival website for more information about the screening and for tickets.
We caught up with Shijie recently and got his thoughts on Er Ren and his experience at Tisch Asia.
Describe your film Er Ren (For Two)?
The story is about a curious relationship between a man and a woman who lives, in secret, inside his cupboard. They share a life "together"; a fragile relationship held up by the implicit denial of each other, in different ways. One of the key aims of this film was to depict this fragility aesthetically.
Continue reading "Tisch Asia's Own Shijie Tan at Venice Film Festival" »
This two-year screening cycle is intended to serve as both an exploration of the richness of the Museum’s film collection and a basic introduction to the emergence of cinema as the predominant art form of the twentieth century. The auteurist approach to film—articulated by the critics of Cahiers du Cinema in the 1950s and brought to America by Andrew Sarris—contends that, despite the collaborative nature of the medium, the director is the primary force behind the creation of a film. This exhibition takes this theory as its point of departure, charting the careers of several key figures not in order to establish a formal canon, but to develop one picture of cinematic history.
James Cameron is taking his 3-D mission beyond the multiplexes, aiming to get a toehold in American homes with 3-D TVs and Blu-Ray players in a partnership with Panasonic while tubthumping his "Avatar" pic.
The manufacturer has been named exclusive audiovisual partner for the 3-D film and will promote it along with several of its upcoming products, including its Full HD 3-D technology, in a global advertising campaign.
A truck tour showing a clip from the film on a 103-inch 3-D HDTV will be part of the promo push.
"Any attention to 3-D is good," said Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, chief technology officer of Panasonic. "A tie-in with a landmark movie sends a strong message not only to consumers but to the industry in general."
From The New York Times:
This year's New York International Fringe Festival clocks in at just over 200 low-budget productions playing at theaters throughout downtown.
Review of Posing Beauty photography exhibition at Tisch from Examiner.com:
Few people would deny that the representation of African and African American women in art has a controversial history. Jean-Paul Goude is a photographer whose book, Jungle Fever, featured on its cover a nude Grace Jones posing in a cage. That image was published in 1982, however Goude recently photographed model Amber Rose for a layout in Complex magazine that includes a re-enactment of the shot. Whether the images are demeaning or not is a question that lack a definitive answer. After all, each of the women agreed to be involved and the new photo shoot is published in a reputable magazine. Is it respectable art that pushes social boundaries, or is it merely fetishizing black women by portraying them as animals?
Posing Beauty, an exhibition sponsored by the Tisch School of the Arts Department of Photography and Imaging, explores this and other questions of race, beauty, art and the complex relationships among them.
Efo Kodjo Mawugbe from Ghana and Erin Browne from the USA have been awarded the two top prizes in the BBC World Service and British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition 2009.
Erin Browne from the USA won the English as a First Language category with her play, Trying, described by the judges as “exquisite”, “human” and “spare”.
Efo Kodjo Mawugbe from Ghana won the English as a Second Language category with his play, The Prison Graduates, described by the judges as “imaginative”, “muscular” and “hysterically funny”.
In addition, the best writers from four regions were awarded radios as prizes.
Vasil Bassa Janikashvili from Georgia received the top prize for Russia and the Caucuses for his play, On The Latch, and Anna Bennetts from Australia won for the Asia Pacific region with her play, Shift.
Meher Pestonji from India came first in the South Asia category with her play, Feeding Crows, and Csaba Székely from Romania won for the Europe region with his play, Do You Like Banana, Comrades?
From the Tribeca Film Institute:
TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE'S 2010 TRIBECA ALL ACCESS TO TAKE PLACE APRIL 19 - APRIL 26, 2010
New York, NY (August 17, 2009) - The Tribeca Film Festival announced today that the ninth Tribeca Film Festival will be held April 21 - May 2, 2010 in New York City and that the Tribeca Film Institute's Tribeca All Access (TAA) program will take place April 19 - April 26, 2010. The Festival has also announced a Call for Submissions for narrative and documentary features as well as for short film entries. TAA has announced a call for qualifying feature length scripts and documentary works-in-progress.
Deadlines to submit U.S. and International films for the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival are as follows:
September 14, 2009 - SUBMISSIONS OPEN
November 13, 2009 - EARLY DEADLINE, FEATURES & SHORTS
December 14, 2009 - OFFICIAL DEADLINE, ALL FEATURES AND SHORTS COMPLETED IN 2009
January 11, 2010 - LATE DEADLINE, FEATURES STILL IN POST-PRODUCTION AND COMPLETED AFTER OFFICIAL DEADLINE
Starting September 14, 2009, submission forms and complete information regarding eligibility for the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival will be available at www.tribecafilm.com/festival. Questions regarding submissions may be directed to entries@tribecafilmfestival.org or by calling 212.941.2305.
Deadlines for U.S.-based filmmakers to submit for the 2010 Tribeca All Access program are:
September 14, 2009 - SUBMISSIONS OPEN
October 26, 2009 - EARLY DEADLINE
December 14, 2009 - FINAL DEADLINE
Internationally-based filmmakers should apply through one of TAA's partner organizations (UK Film Council, ScreenAustralia, or the Canadian Film Centre).
Submission forms and complete information regarding eligibility for the 2010 Tribeca All Access program will be available at www.tribecafilminstitute.org starting September 14, 2009. Questions regarding submissions may be directed to allaccess@tribecafilminstitute.org or by calling 212.274.8080 ext. 27.
About Tribeca Film Festival:
Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2001 following the attacks on the World Trade Center, New York City to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of the lower Manhattan district through an annual celebration of film, music and culture. The Festival's mission is to help filmmakers reach the broadest possible audience, enable the international film community and general public to experience the power of cinema and promote New York City as a major filmmaking center. Tribeca Film Festival is well known for being a diverse international film festival that supports emerging and established directors. The Tribeca Festival has screened over 1100 films from over 80 countries since its first festival in 2002. Since its founding, it has attracted an international audience of more than 2.3 million attendees and has generated an estimated $600 million in economic activity for New York City.
About Tribeca All Access:
Tribeca All Access (TAA), a year round program of the Tribeca Film Institute, fosters and nurtures relationships between film industry executives and filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities. TAA is a recognized talent pool within the industry and an unrivaled opportunity for participating filmmakers to advance their careers. During the annual Tribeca Film Festival, TAA hosts a diverse group of emerging and established filmmakers who are selected to participate in a series of workshops and panels and given the opportunity to pitch their narrative scripts or documentary works-in-progress in a series of one-on-one business meetings with industry executives. Year round, the program supports alumni through TAA OnTrack, which offers free use of digital filmmaking and editing equipment; promotional support for completed films; hosted presentation screenings, educational panels and workshops; and fellowships. Since its founding in May 2004, Tribeca All Access has supported the careers of more than 155 filmmakers and facilitated over 2,430 one-on-one business meetings.
From The New York Times:
ABOARD THE WATERPOD, in New York Harbor — “One, two, three: Heave! One, two, three: Heave!” Perched nearly 20 feet high at the top of a metal dome on this listing barge, Alison Ward, an artist, was acting as a foreman, supervising as a half-dozen volunteers struggled to pull a heavy vinyl cover over the structure. It was just past 10 a.m. on a blazing Sunday in July, and the public was due to start coming aboard soon — too soon, Ms. Ward felt.
“How long until we’re descended upon?” she called to her crew. For a draining hour she and the others had worked the tarp, stitched together from discarded billboards, up and over the structure, which for the moment resembled a Buckminster Fuller-designed jungle gym.
From The Hollywood Reporter:
The Chicago Tribune reports that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has donated $1.2 million in grants to arts organizations nationwide.
Warren Beatty, Rose McGowan, Eva Longoria Parker, and Dylan McDermott were among the stars who joined association president Philip Berk at the Beverly Hills Hotel to present grants to twenty-nine film schools and nonprofit groups.
“I always behave badly at events for the Hollywood Foreign Press because they’re more fun than everything else,” Beatty said as he accepted a $350,000 grant to help the Film Foundation preserve and restore historic films.
IFP, the nation's oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers, announced today the line-up of its Project Forum of the 31st Annual Independent Film Week taking place in NYC September 19 - 24.
Additionally, it announced the expansion of its strategic relationship with the Sundance Institute; and new partnerships with B-Side, the four-year-old tech company which runs websites that handle ticketing and mine audience response data for 250-plus fests in North America, and The Good Pitch, a forum produced by Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation which brings together inspiring social-purpose film projects and a group of expert participants from charities, foundations, brands, government and media to form powerful alliances around groundbreaking films.
Get excited, kids! Some great stuff at this year's New York Film Festival.
The 47th Annual New York Film Festival Returns to the Fully Renovated Alice Tully Hall
September 25 - October 11, 2009
The 47th edition of the New York Film Festival will open with the U.S. premiere of Alain Resnais's Wild Grass (Les herbes folles) and close with Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces. This year's Centerpiece will be Lee Daniels' Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. In addition this year's festival will include two Masterworks series from China and India.
The 8th Berlinale Talent Campus will take place from February, 13 – 18, 2010.
The Berlinale Talent Campus is a creative academy and networking platform for 350 up-and-coming filmmakers from all over the world.
The Berlinale Talent Campus lasts for six days and offers a huge variety of different programme elements for DIRECTORS • SCREENWRITERS • ACTORS • CINEMATOGRAPHERS • PRODUCERS • EDITORS • SOUND DESIGNERS • COMPOSERS • PRODUCTION DESIGNERS • FILM CRITICS and VISUAL ARTISTS
Focus Campus #8:
"CINEMA NEEDS TALENT: LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE"
'Stick with your friends' has proven to be a valuable advice for many in their filmmaking career. For filmmakers around the world, it’s never been a better time to join forces: teaming up with the right people to inspire and support you remains an essential element of improving your work. Developing one’s personal craftsmanship on the one hand, and to benefit from other people’s fortes on the other is the true sense of collaborative filmmaking. It’s about finding the most exalting people to work with, daring to ask the vital questions in order to exceed your own limits, and having the greatest time of your life when making film. Keep it simple, make it grand!
More information and application at www.berlinale-talentcampus.de
From The New York Times
"Now that the Broadway producer Rocco Landesman is officially chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts — he was confirmed on Friday — his straight-talking style, Missouri roots and affinity for baseball and country music are expected to give him a leg up with many legislators."
This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Tisch Special Programs in the Arts News & Information category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
Certificates and Non-credit Courses is the next category.
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
