Bake Sale and a Movie on Wednesdays

Hey ya'll,

We're starting something new here spearheaded by Nick. Instead of Thursday bake sales, we're going to have Wednesday bake sales and a movie. It will be held in the doc center and the movies will be played throughout the day. Depending on what is brought in, snacks will be sold from $.25-$1. Last time that we had complaints about there not being enough chocolate we brought so much in that enough wasn't eaten, so help us out by letting us know what you would like OR better yet, if you're a baker, feel free to donate something to the sale. Anyway, here the schedule....

This Week is Basketball Docs:
2:00 Hoop Dreams (1984)
5:00 Year of Yao (2004)
6:30 1Love (2003)
8:00 Heart of the Game (2006)

Bring a friend and we can't wait to see you!

~Sarah








P.S.
Everyone should also check out Dave's Bearable films website (on the side bar) now that it's been updated it's wicked cool!

TrueFalse Wrap Up

Hey everyone,
Sorry that I didn't write on Saturday or Sunday. I had a great time down there and got swept up into the shorts world. I loved it. I watched one film on Friday and nine on Saturday. I love short form.

We started with the Oscar shorts. When we arrived at the venue, the door guy said there were two seats left but they were "sketchy." It was really nice of them to squeeze us in. The guy took out two folding chairs and sat us down behind two mannequins that got to sit on a couch. The films were all very good. They opened the program with La Corona a film about a beauty pageant in a woman's penitentary in Bogota, Columbia. The filmmaker, Amanda Micheli was there and she talked about the competition that happens when several documentary crews try to cover one event.

Francisco Bello, director of Salim Baba was also at the screening. His was a beautiful film about a man in India who makes a living by pushing a film projector cart through town and shows reels that he edits together from discarded films. It brings to mind the roots of cinema. Very romantic for film lovers. He suggests keeping up with BBC news if you are interested in international documentary.

I also got to see Freeheld, the Oscar winner. It started a little bumpy but it is extremely emotion. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. It deserved to win.

I got to chat with Karen, the shorts programmer and she suggested some showcases that were happening later in the day. We hit up a showcase called Working Title that had a theme of films that are about working people. I had never been to a screening that treated shorts with such respect and that passion for short doc was reflected by the fact that four filmmakers where invited to attend the festival.

The films were great and the makers were extremely friendly. I got to hang out with them for a bit and they invited Diana and I out to dinner. I think it was comforting for Oscar Perez, from Spain, to get to speak Spanish so we talked for a good couple of hours. There were all really nice and down to Earth. They also get treated very well by the festival. They get into most screenings and they get gift certificates for food and massages.

Sunday was supposed to be Taxi to the Darkside day but we decided to sleep in and treat it like a tourist day. We went around town and took pictures of our little rusty statue and we stopped in town one last time. We ended up running into some of the people from the night before and got some fancy juice with them(their's was free, we had to pay) We had apple, orange, beet, ginger juice and it was the tastiest glass of juice that I had ever had. Diana is determined to get a juicer now.

So we ended up leaving town later than expected but we had fun so it was worth it. We stopped in Mexico, MO and had some Mexican food at El Vaquero and then we finally got to see the towns that we had driven through two nights earlier.

I loved the festival overall. They treat their filmmakers very well and everyone is super-approachable. I got a chance to talk to the makers of just about every film that I saw and I even got to talk to two of their programmers. The best thing about the festival is that it manages to stay friendly even thought it is a huge festival and it gets some serious films. It's not just a festival centered around one or two films, each one seems like a can't miss.

The Q system of getting into screenings without advanced tickets sounds intimidating but if you show up before the film starts, they'll do everything they can to get you a seat. The venues are all fun and unique and the special events are entertaining and insightful. I'm really looking forward to attending the festival next year and hope that some of you all will join me.

thanks for listening,
mario

TrueFalse Day 1

Well,
Like any good doc maker, I laid out a detailed plan for the day and completely threw it out the window. I said I was going to do a bunch of things but I ended up doing a bunch of other things.

First off. I ATE OUTSIDE TODAY!!!! It was a little chilly but it was well worth it. Also, their parking meters take nickels and dimes here. This is a great town. It's very laid back. Dogs everywhere. A few Bears fans and lots of cool little shops.

We went to the box office area after lunch. All their reserve tickets where sold out except for about five films. Bigger Stronger Faster was playing at 5 but I would've missed the parade and the cookout thing. I bought the tickets because it would give us at least one guaranteed show and we went over to the Instant Soundtrack workshop. We'd decide between parade/food and a doc later.

The workshop rocked. Two completely different kinds of composers sat in front of a room full of about 50 people and they had a huge screen projecting their workspaces behind them. Wicked setup. They prefaced by mentioning that they had never met or seen each other's films and then the first guy did his presentation.

T.Griffin was the first speaker. He put together a great presentation about the work he is doing on a narrative film called New Orleans Mon Amore. Here is a trailer but the score you will hear is nothing like the stuff that her showed us. He talked a lot about the film's pallette and the process of working with a director. He also showed us a scene with the temp score, with the score that he wrote w/o the image and the score that ended up in the film. He was a logic user and you could tell that he was a real professional.

Michael 'Ionic' Furjanic was the exact opposite from T. That's not to say that he wasn't professional but he didn't have his presentation together and he spent a lot of time fumbling around. He was a pro tools guy and Diana was more impressed with Logic when the presentation was over.

Anyway, he showed us a clip from Arusi, a doc about an Iranian man that is marrying a white woman. He showed us the part of the film where the couple's parents meet for the first time. Her father's a republican and his mother brings up U.S. policy in Iran. Let's just say it's a whole lot of fun. He fumbled around with pro tools for a while and finally got a clip that had some of his work on the screen. It blew me away. It was crazy stuff with a whole lot of energy. I can't wait for the film to release.

Ion was a cool guy. I sidled into a conversation that he was having with some people and he was gracious enough to include me so I plugged the doc center and proposed the idea of him coming in to see us. I want to see The Greening of Southie, the film he is here for, but is plays at the same time as Oscar shorts so it's one or the other.

After the workshop, Diana and I decided to see Bigger, Stronger, Faster. It's a Sundance selection about steroids in America and it will be released theatrically on May 15. We had heard rumors that it was a last minute addition but the festival coordinator explained that it was added three days earlier and the filmmaker, Chris Bell, rushed out for Q and A.

Keep an eye out for this doc because it is going to blow up soon. He started it 3 years ago and couldn't have completed it at a better time. With all the allegations surrounding sports, this film is going to put a lot of things in perspective. Chris took a lot of risks in this film. The train of the film is the effect of steroid use in his family and the lies that our role models told us in our childhood. The moments between his family members are very emotional but the information around those moments is fresh, honest and unfiltered.

My favorite scene was between Chris and Rep. Henry Waxman. It is a great lesson in the manipulation of works through editing. As Rep. Waxman answered questions, he constantly turned to his assistant to check his facts and spoke in very distinct soundbytes. The fiasco ends with Waxman proclaiming that the legal drinking age is 18 for a reason. He is quickly corrected by his assistant. The raw presentation of this footage of one of the strongest opposers of steroid use gives a lot of insight into the whole steroid debate.

The QnA was quick but nice. He fielded questions about the issue but eventually talked a little about how his family feels about being included into the film. I got to chat with him for a quick second before he was swarmed by a mob. He was a really nice dude and really loved his film.

That's it for now. We skipped the Lover's Leap show so that we could get an early start tomorrow. I wish I could have gone but I'm already exhausted.

Oscar shorts or Greenie tomorrow. Then a workshop/debate and then something called the Filmmaker Fete. Wish me luck

Through Rain, Sleet and Snow - TrueFalse Day 1

Greetings from Columbia, MO
We made it here in in one piece. I left Chicago at around 7:30 and the storm hit when I pulled into Bloomington to pick up Diana, my precious fiance, at 9PM. She wanted to stay there because the snow was accumulating fast but I'm stubborn. It was ugly until we got into Springfield when the snow turned into rain. Temp was at 39 degrees for the rest of the drive. We came close to running out of gas in Pittsville, IL at around 12:30 AM but managed to roll into the only 24 gas station for....let's just say gas stations where few and far between.

Anyway, crossing into MO was cool. It was a nice 2 lane bridge. I didn't get to see the river because it was dark but we are looking forward to driving back that way. It looks like a nice little town on the MO side and there is a big marina on the IL side.

I know it's only one state over but it's a different world over here. You can see grass here. They have hills and hell of a lot more animals. I saw 2 flock of deer walking around. That can be scary because they have 70MPH speed limits here too. Actually, they really freaked me out because you know I wasn't obeying that limit either.

Driving through Mexico was pretty sweet. I think they have an Amish community there. I'm going to try and get some Mexican food there at a place called Vaqueros on the way back. It's just a hop skip and a jump away from Columbia. funny cause Diana's Columbian and I'm Mexican

So we arrived at around 2AM, about an hour after expected but I'm happy with it. We're getting ready to leave now to catch an editing master class and then there will be a parade and some kind of world tour through food by Columbia's best chefs. Then we're going to try and catch some movies and we're finishing the night at the Lover's Leap Party.

I'll catch you all later

"Here's to all doc filmmakers"

Academy Award Winner for Short Documentary - 38 min.

Freeheld - Lieutenant Laurel Hester is dying. All she wants to do is leave her pension benefits to her life partner - Stacie, so Stacie can afford to keep their house. Laurel is told no; they are not husband and wife. After spending a lifetime fighting for justice for other people, Laurel - a veteran New Jersey detective - launches a final battle for justice. Knuckle-biting, dramatic Freeheld chronicles a dying policewoman's bitter fight to provide for the love of her life.

Academy Award Winner for Feature Documentary - 106 min.

Taxi to the Dark Side - An in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, focusing on an innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed in 2002.

These are our champions for this year. Keep an eye out for screenings. I'm going to try and catch Taxi to the Dark Side at True/False Film Fest next weekend. No reserve tickets left but they have a scam system (just like us.)

-Mario

This Week at the Doc Center

Hello everyone,
We will be holding our first meeting of Viva Doc this week. Its on Thursday at 5 PM. We will be getting to know each other, talking about documentaries and trying to plan a trip to the True False Film Festival at the end of this month. It'll be fun. I hope you all can join us.

We are also continuing the Better Know a Nominee. People seemed to enjoy the crazy animation in Operation Homecoming. We will be showing that film and Sicko this week. Please drop in and check it out.

Also, don't forget that the GFSO has invited Joe Swanberg to show some of his films. He is very insightful about the film festival circuit and indie film world. He is an intellegent, young, successful filmmaker for you all to learn from and you should all attend. Here's the details.

WHAT: Joe Swanberg at Columbia College Chicago, hosted by the GFSO

WHERE: Screening Room 502, 5th floor, 1104 S. Wabash Building

WHEN: Wednesday, February 20th, at 3:00 PM

Hope to see you all there.

BETTER KNOW A NOMINEE

We are screening Oscar nominated documentaries throughout the month of February. Drop in and watch a scene or two while you eat lunch or come in and ask us to start it over for you.

This week
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience

A unique documentary about troops' experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, based on writings by soldiers, Marines, and air men. (cont.)