Category: INDIEWIRE/SYDNEYSBUZZ (page 1 of 5)

Tribeca Film Festival: A Conversation with Acclaimed Writer/Director Andrea Arnold (for INDIEWIRE)

April 27, 2016 / sucity / Comments Off

Andrea Arnold

Tribeca Film Festival: A Conversation with Acclaimed Writer/Director Andrea Arnold

by Susan Kouguell

At the Tribeca Talks series at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, filmmaker Ira Sachs (“Love is Strange”) interviewed U.K. writer and director Andrea Arnoldabout writing, filmmaking, and surrendering.

In 2005 Arnold’s short film, Wasp, earned an Academy Award. She also received two BAFTA awards and two jury prizes at Cannes, as well as a multitude of festival accolades for her films, “Milk,” “Dog,” “Red Road,” “Fish Tank” and “Wuthering Heights.” On television she has directed two episodes of “Transparent.” Arnold’s latest film, “American Honey” starring Shia LaBeouf and Riley Keough (recently acquired by A24) about a crew of teens who sell magazines across the Midwest is her first to be filmed in the U.S. “American Honey” is one of just three films from female directors in the 2016 Cannes Film Festival’s main competition and one of two from the U.K.

“American Honey”

On Filmmaking

In Andrea Arnold’s films many of the actors are non-actors and they employ street casting.

Sachs: The shooting process has surprises, dangers, and risks.

Arnold: I love that. It brings life. I don’t like knowing everything that’s going to happen on the shoot.

Sachs: What frightens you in filmmaking?

Arnold: I like the obstacles. In the last one (‘American Honey’), I think I pushed it. It was very tough, there were days I had scenes with loads of non-actors, and there were a few days I really pushed it. What are you frightened of?

Sachs: I’m burdened by everything.

Arnold: The money?

Sachs: Yes, the money. It’s fear and fearlessness. You navigate between the two; I don’t panic in it.

Arnold: I remember before starting the film, I was taking a lot of risks that definitely entered my head. I try not to let the money stop me, you worry too much then you don’t push it. I do feel responsible for the money.

Sachs: Do you think your
filmmaking has changed?

Arnold: I feel like the last
film I made was the most me I’ve ever been. I trusted myself totally, the most
I’ve ever done. In that way it has changed.

Fish Tank About Screenwriting

Sachs: How do your ideas
for film begins?

Arnold: Usually what starts
driving me is an image I have that won’t go away. For ‘Fish Tank’ I had
an image of a girl pissing on the floor in someone’s house, it wasn’t her
house. And I thought ‘What is this girl doing?’ and then I start thinking about
what that means and who she is, where she comes from, why she’s doing that, and
so I start a mind map.

Surrendering

Arnold: Sometimes when
you’re filmmaking things don’t always go the way you were expecting. You know, I have such a beautiful
vision in my head in my head before the shoot, and then we get there and of
course it’s different.

On Improvising

Sachs: With your
screenplays, does the dialogue or the action ever change when you’re
shooting? Is there any
improvisation? How concerned are
you with preserving what you’ve written?

Arnold: I always have this
romantic idea about improvising but then we go on set and there’s no time to
get the same coverage. I think it’s sometimes valuable when you have scenes
that might not be working. And this last film (‘American Honey’) we did more
than normal. I let them put in some of their own words but it’s definitely my
story but they did do it in their own kind of way.

Sachs: I never liked
improvisation. I want it restrained.

Using Film

Arnold: We did start with
film, but it was way too difficult; we had to keep changing magazines. I like
film a lot. Somebody said the other day, which I thought was a very good
way of describing it; “When you see a shot of a man in an empty room, on video,
you think someone has left the room, and when you see it on film, you think
someone is about to come in.” There’s nothing like film.

On Rehearsing

Sachs: Do you give actors
the whole script? Rehearse?

Arnold: I haven’t rehearsed
in a long time. I don’t like to rehearse. In ‘Fish Tank’ I gave them pages once
a week and they learned it bit by bit. On this last one, ‘American Honey’ I
gave them pages every day — they didn’t know what was coming!

Final Words

Sachs: Advice for first-time directors?

Arnold: Be yourself. There’s
only one of you. Be unique, trust that.

READ MORE HERE

A CONVERSATION WITH KARYN KUSAMA – Athena Film Festival for INDIEWIRE

March 1, 2016 / sucity / Comments Off

Karyn Kusama

By Susan Kouguell

At the 2016 Athena Film Festival held at Barnard College in New York City, writer and director Karyn Kusama presented a Master Class in directing. Offering honest and often humorous anecdotes about working and surviving in the film industry, (it took her ten years after graduating from NYU film school to find representation), Kusama shared insightful advice to the audience of screenwriters and filmmakers.

Kusama wrote and directed her first feature film, “Girlfight,” in 1999, which won the Director’s Prize and shared the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. In 2004, Karyn directed the science fiction love story “Aeon Flux” for Paramount Pictures and her third feature, comedy-horror film “Jennifer’s Body,” written by Diablo Cody, was released by Twentieth Century Fox. Her latest feature, “The Invitation,” won the Grand Prize at the Sitges Film Festival, among other awards, and will be released in March 2016 by Drafthouse Films. Kusama’s television directing credits include “Billions” and “The Man in High Castle.”

Emphasizing the importance of being authentic and bringing something different into the room (a meeting, on a film set), Kusama stated, “Know how to say no and be specific on what you need. All these things take practice. ”

About “Girlfight”

“I was open and willing to sit with studio heads. I kept hearing the words ‘NO’ and ‘WHY’? People couldn’t wrap themselves around the story. ‘Why does this Latina need to be a boxer? Can she be a grownup white girl?’ I was more interested in the girls I rode the subway with every day. I started boxing myself in a well-known gym called Gleason’s, and saw a lot of guys who found so much family and serenity in the ring, and I thought what an incredible opportunity it was giving them. What about their sisters and girlfriends? Boxing is almost its own trope. “

I was open and willing to sit with studio heads. I kept hearing the words ‘NO’ and ‘WHY’? People couldn’t wrap themselves around the story. ‘Why does this
Latina need to be a boxer? Can she be a grownup white girl?’ I was more interested in the girls I rode the subway with every day. I started boxing myself
in a well-known gym called Gleason’s, and saw a lot of guys who found so much family and serenity in the ring, and I thought what an incredible opportunity
it was giving them. What about their sisters and girlfriends? Boxing is almost its own trope. “

The Studio’s Genre Shift for “Jennifer’s Body”

u201CJenniferu2019s Bodyu201D

“It was a horror film and a girl comedy. My pitch to the studio was: ‘It’s a horror movie about toxic female friendships and when they get too close it’s
monstrous.’ As I was shooting the film, Screen Gems Studios released a remake of “Prom Night.” It was #1 of the weekend and I got a call from the
Fox executives — they said ‘We want to be sure you understand your film is a horror film.’ If your movie is framed as a lie, people smell a rat. And I was
like — my movie is not a rat. I couldn’t communicate that; I was just the director.”

Film Marketing

The Invitation

“The notion of marketing, the expense of getting films out to the public is as big a part of the conversation itself. It’s disheartening to have to talk
about how you frame something, and how essentially you reduce something in meaning, but ultimately, the better you can be at saying, ‘This is what this
thing is. This is how it reaches people. This is who it reaches,’ — the more you can articulate that to another person, the better. It makes them feel
like they’re in good hands and also it helps you understand the thing you’re making.”

Directing for Television

“I don’t feel any sense of snobbery anymore directing for television. There’s value in all stories and in all sorts of forms. As the director, you are
executing a vision that is the vision of the show. As much as you’re given some freedoms, you’re still working in that vision. “

Getting Screenplay Feedback

“If you feel that there’s some truth to what others are saying, listen. There’s no shame in walking away from something (a script) that’s going to pull you
down to the bottom of the ocean and make you drown. Perseverance is key.”

Working in and Surviving the Film Business

“If you don’t have the stamina for it and you can’t enjoy the process itself, and can’t find an interesting challenge in what feels like getting punched in
the face routinely or having a sense of failure, then this isn’t the job for you. Because what you’re facing all the time are obstacles and people saying
“no” to you. ‘No, terrible idea. No, hasn’t been done. No it has been done.’ All of these reasons. You just have to get used to people saying “No.” It’s
part of the process. I understand that NO is part of the process. I have to learn when I want to say, ‘No not for me.’

It’s important what stories you want to tell and not about who you want to be. There’s a lot of aspirational language; look at your gut and look into your
heart about what you enjoy.

Find your creative tribe and work with others who share your sensibility.”

To learn more about the Athena Film Festival: http://athenafilmfestival.com/

READ MORE HERE

‘Getting On’ Creator, Executive Producer and Writer, Will Scheffer on the Show’s Final Season (INDIEWIRE/SYDNEYSBUZZ)

November 22, 2015 / sucity / Comments Off

HBO’S ‘Getting On’ Creator, Executive Producer and Writer, Will Scheffer on the Show’s Final Season

Mark V Olsen (left) Will Scheffer (right)

In January 2014, I spoke with Will Scheffer about his HBO series “Getting On” for this publication:

You can read that interview HERE

And now we fast forward almost two years later and the show is in its third and final season. In our interview, Scheffer looks back at his experiences with the show and talks about collaborating with his husband, Mark V Olsen – creator, executive producer and writer of “Getting On” and their other shows, including “Big Love.”

In addition to the HBO American cable channel, “Getting On” can be seen on HBO Latin America and HBO Europe and Asia, and through SKY (France, UK, Spain, and so on.)

Kouguell: With the increase of the global cable markets and increasing platforms, reaching a broader audience, how has this affected your shows?

Scheffer: It was gratifying to have read about “Getting On’s” reception in Paris (where they love the show) before the recent attacks and to know that this show speaks particularly to issues of loss and wounding and grief but in a way that enables laughter to mix with heartbreak. This season has so much more resonance to me as it is a comedy. It’s not escapist. It’s healing comedy. You can laugh and cry in the darkest of hours and to me, that’s the greatest service to provide as an artist. To allow people to experience their common humanity. Without self-importance. Experiencing and accepting the fragility of life, of being human, is a wonderful place to begin from.

“Getting On” Creators and Cast

Kouguell:Looking back at the three seasons of “Getting On,” what were some of the most poignant and/or memorable moments for you working with the actors and writers?

Scheffer: We felt that by choosing “Getting On” to adapt we were entering into “stewarding” function with our British team. We wrote all of the episodes and the first two seasons had a lot of material from the original series to adapt, but the final season was all original story. Still, we went to London and ran our ideas by the original creators and worked with them. That relationship, receiving their input bonded us in a way that was unique to most adaptations. The fact that Vicki Pepperdine and Joanna Scanlan appear in Episode 4 as their original characters and meet their American counterparts, and vice versa— felt so amazing. It’s something we’d never seen before and it speaks to the way the British show and the American show are so different but like siblings, so connected. We share the same blood. So that’s a long-winded way of saying, going to London for a week to work with “the girls’ was a high point.

It’s hard to single out moments because working with our actors was the greatest experience of my career. Watching Niecy Nash bloom, seeing Mel Rodriguez
and Alex Borstein prove how brilliant they are. Experiencing Laurie Metcalf’s genius (I mean she is a national treasure — beyond, beyond) and then all of
our guest and co-stars. Just this season alone: Harry Dean Stanton, Mary Kay Place, Francis Conroy, Rhea Perlman, June Sqibb, Kristen Johnson, Jonathan
Silverman, Jayma Mays, Daniel Stern, Rita Moreno, Grant Bowler, Janis Ian!!! Meeting Didi’s family — Marsha, Corey, Gloria and Scott — they felt like a
real family. Anne Guilbert as Birdie. Not to mention the other great women we were able to work with like Betty Buckley, Tsai Chin, Jean Smart, Irma P.
Hall, Alia Shawkat, Carrie Preston, Molly Shannon— I can’t even list them all, I know I’m forgetting people and not even mentioning the supporting cast who
were brilliant. These diverse, brilliant actors in just 18 episodes.

Kouguell:
This is the second show you have created for HBO, “Big Love” ran for 5 seasons and like “Getting On,” pushed the envelope in its examination
of timely, hot button issues. For Big Love, the show was not just about polygamy and the power of the church, at its core it was about family. In “Getting On,” some of the major topics/themes you tackle are ageism and the health care system. While “Getting On” is very funny, it also
strikes a major chord of realism. Truth is stranger than fiction.

Scheffer:
I think I mentioned already the theme of human frailty. And I just can’t stress enough how I believe it is an “undervalued” value in our society. I mean we
all get old and die. It’s not sexy but it’s part of life. And it doesn’t have to be shoved out of our consciousness or romanticized or treated
sentimentally or “importantly.” It’s life. And I wish people knew what they were missing by avoiding dealing with their fears about it. It’s like, do you
wanna deal with those fears now or do it later when it’s gonna be a real drag?

It was such a privilege for Mark and me to both be with our moms when they were dying. Sure it was hard, but it was incredibly layered and sometimes funny
and of course heartbreaking — but it was like I wanted to tell everyone: “Hey, you really should experience this, because it’s so amazing, even though it
hurts, too.”

Mark V Olsen (left) Will Scheffer (right)

Kouguell:
The main characters (with the exception of the brilliant Patsy) focus mainly on women and their relationships with their patients and with their
colleagues. There is so much talk in the industry now about the lack of women’s roles particularly in the ‘over 40’ category. What are your thoughts on
this?

Scheffer:
Yeah. Well. That’s always been the case. And I think it’s finally changing. The volatility in the business is palpable and I think that finally that really
big ugly fact about Hollywood is going to change. It has to. I know we’re going to keep writing great roles for women because, lucky for us, we’re good at
it, I think.

Kouguell:
What can we expect from this final season?

Scheffer:
Well. It’s the final season. So expect big stories, some big reveals and I’d say that I think the finale is one I will always be very proud of.

Learn more about “Getting On”:
http://www.hbo.com/getting-on

The Changemakers: Tactics for Equality and Diversity in Film and Television (INDIEWIRE/SYDNEYSBUZZ)

October 29, 2015 / sucity / Comments Off

The Changemakers:

Tactics for Equality and Diversity in Film and Television

By Susan Kouguell

Panel discussion at the 2015 Produced By New York Conference

President of Global Grind Civil Rights Organizer Michael Skolnik, Founder, Duly Noted, Inc.; Project Greenlight, Dear White People Effie T. Brown, Founder & CEO of MACRO Charles King, President of Gamechanger Films Mynette Louie, Television writer Pete Nowalk, Founder & President of LTW Lindsey Taylor Wood

Getty Images: President of Global Grind Civil Rights Organizer Michael Skolnik, Founder, Duly Noted, Inc.; Project Greenlight, Dear White People Effie T. Brown, Founder & CEO of MACRO Charles King, President of Gamechanger Films Mynette Louie, Television writer Pete Nowalk, Founder & President of LTW Lindsey Taylor Wood

In the lively and informative morning panel The Changemakers: Tactics for Equality and Diversity in Film and Television at the Produced By Conference at the Time Warner Center in New York, the conversation focused on the importance of taking action and concrete ideas to ensure that more people of color and women find opportunities in all levels of the film and television industry.

The speakers:

Effie T. Brown
Founder, Duly Noted, Inc.; “Project Greenlight,” “Dear White People.”

Charles D. King
Founder & CEO, MACRO

Mynette Louie
President, Gamechanger Films

Pete Nowalk
“How to Get Away with Murder”

Lindsey Taylor Wood
Founder & President, LTW

Moderator Michael Skolnik (President, Global Grind Civil Rights Organizer) opened with several statistics from the 2015 UCLA report on diversity from the Bunch Center: HERE

The report looked at 175 films, and 1,015 television shows over two years.

Lead actors: 75 % men, 25 % women
Directors: 94 % men, 6 % women
Writers: 87% men, 13% women
Television show creators: 71% men, 29% women
Lead actors: 83% white, 17% people of color
Directors: 82% white, 18 % people of color
Writers: 88% white, 12% people of color
Show creators 94 % white, 6 % people of color
Cable television show creators: 89 % white, 11% people of color

And perhaps what drew the loudest audience gasp from Skolnik’s last statistic:
CEO and chairs of the 18 studios: 94 % white and 100% men.

Skolnik : The good news is, if there is good news, is that the audience is demanding much more of us, and certainly on television there has been an explosion of diverse audiences on and off screen.

Skolnick asked the panel about some proud moments in their career.

Brown: In ‘Project Greenlight’ you are actually able to see an inclusive crew that looks like America. So, people watching in Middle America, for example, could see that they have a voice and place in film.

READ MORE HERE

The Writers Lab (INDIEWIRE/SYDNEYSBUZZ)

October 26, 2015 / sucity / Comments Off

The first ever Writers Lab, a program targeting female screenwriters over 40, took place at Wiawaka on Lake George, New York from September 18-20, 2015.

Elizabeth Kaiden

The first ever Writers Lab, a program targeting female screenwriters over 40, took place at Wiawaka on Lake George, New York from September 18-20, 2015.

The group of mentors included Caroline Kaplan (“Boyhood,” “Time Out of Mind,” “Personal Velocity”), Kirsten Smith (“Legally Blonde,” “Ten Things I Hate About You”), Jessica Bendinger (“Bring It On,” “Aquamarine”), Mary Jane Skalski (“Win Win,” “The Station Agent”),Gina Prince-Bythewood (“Secret Life of Bees,” “Beyond the Lights”),Lydia Dean-Pilcher (“The Lunchbox,” The Reluctant Fundamentalist”), Meg LeFauve (“Inside Out,” “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys”), and Darnell Martin (“Cadillac Records” and “I Like It Like That”).

Launched by New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT) and IRIS, a collective of women filmmakers dedicated to championing the female voice in narrative film, was funded in part by Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep, and with the collaboration of the Writers Guild of America East.

Motivated by its screenwriting members who were frustrated with the paucity of development opportunities, IRIS founders Elizabeth Kaiden, Kyle Ann Stoke, and Nitza Wilson approached NYWIFT to support a screenwriting Lab exclusively for this demographic and The Writers Lab came into being.

I spoke with IRIS cofounder Elizabeth Kaiden to follow up about the first Writers Lab.

Kouguell: How many screenplays were submitted for consideration?

Kaiden: There were approximately 3,500 screenplays submitted. The selected participants were Sarah Bird (“Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen), Vanessa Carmichael (“The American”). Tracy Charlton (“Raised Up”), Kellen Hertz (“Ashburn”), Anna Hozian (“Anchor Baby”), Lyralen Kaye (“St John the Divine in Iowa”), Jan Kimbrough (“The Glastonbury Cow Party”), Billie Jo Mason (“The Cargo”), Peres Owino (“Basketweaver”), Gretchen Somerfeld (“Face Value”), Janet Stilson (“Jaguar Trail”), and Kim Turner (“It Goes Like This”).

Kouguell:
What were some highlights from the three-day Lab?

Kaiden:
Highlights included the chemistry, warmth and enthusiasm of the group, the bucolic setting in which serious and thoughtful individual meetings between
writers and mentors took place, the outstanding, locally sourced, group meals presented by Wiawaka chef Meg, and evening conversations around a bonfire.
Oh, and the weather was fabulous.

Kouguell:
What is the next step for these writers selected for the Lab?

Kaiden:
Writers are all revising their work and communicating with each other. They will use the feedback, resources, references, and friendships they took away
from the Lab to further develop their scripts and their opportunities.

Kouguell:
In addition to the one-on-one meetings, what other events took place?

Kaiden: There were three panel discussions in which the mentors addressed specific craft issues and general industry insight, informal conversations, group meals,
as well as small, directed group conversations led by NYWIFT Board President Alexis Alexanian to address the challenges writers face in navigating the film
world.

Gina Prince-Bythewood

Kouguell:
What do you feel were some of the most positive outcomes from the weekend in Lake George?

Kaiden:
The most exciting outcome of this venture, for me, is uncovering and bringing to public attention the field of women screenwriters, particularly its
enormous breadth and depth. The most positive outcomes of the weekend Lab, for me, include the sense of empowerment I believe the Lab gave the writers to
continue their work and develop their projects, and the supportive community of writers we all discovered, which can only further our goals of ensuring
that more of their stories will reach audiences.

Kouguell:
Will the Writers Lab take place again next year?

Kaiden:
YES.

Kouguell:
Anything else you’d like to add?

Kaiden:
We were excited and delighted by the energy and enthusiasm at the Lab. It felt like an important event. It WAS an important event. We discussed and debated
issues of theme, tone, craft, structure, character, as well as production, representation, and target markets. The mentors were unbelievably focused,
supportive and encouraging. Serious work was done. The writers left feeling, I think, that their voices had been heard, and that they should all continue
to tell their stories. I think you will be hearing more from these writers and about these projects. And, although that would have been enough, everyone
had a blast.

Following Up The Writers Lab for Female Screenwriters Over 40

A Conversation with the SUFFRAGETTE team (INDIEWIRE/SYDNEYSBUZZ)

October 15, 2015 / sucity / Comments Off

A Conversation
with the ‘Suffragette’ Team

by Susan Kouguell

Faye Ward (producer), Alison Owen (producer), Abi Morgan (screenwriter), Sarah Gavron (director)

At a private screening at the Director Guild of America Theatre in New York City on October 10, Academy Award nominee Alison Owen (producer), Golden Globe Award nominee Faye Ward (producer), BAFTA Award winning director Sarah Gavron and Emmy-Award winner screenwriter Abi Morganspoke, following the screening of their new film “Suffragette.”

The four women met when working together on the 2007 film “Brick Lane,” and soon after began discussing making a film on the suffragette movement and the women’s fight to win the right to vote in Britain a century ago.

“Suffragette” centers on Maud, a working wife and mother, who is secretly recruited to join the U.K.’s growing Suffragette movement. Galvanized by the outlaw fugitive Emmeline Pankhurst, Maud becomes an activist for the cause alongside women from all walks of life. When increasingly aggressive police action forces Maud and her dedicated fellow Suffragettes underground, they engage in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with the authorities, who are shocked as the women’s civil disobedience escalates and sparks debate across the nation.

MORGAN: “ I had done a number of biopics before and it’s so hard to squeeze in a whole life –it’s so difficult; you’re trying to find a prism.”

GAVRON: “Maud, a fictional character, played by Carey Mulligan, was a composite character based on three women we read accounts on.”

MORGAN: “We wanted to capture the moment when the suffragettes move from pacifism to activism and as a result there were four of five amazing historical events, such as the Night of Broken Panes. Then we started reading about the testimonies of the working women and that’s when it profoundly changed for me.”

OWEN: “The subject of the film was less fashionable when we started out with the project six years ago. It’s a sexy subject now. As we were preparing during the past year for the release of “Suffragette,” suddenly Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Emma Watson and others were and saying, ‘I’m a feminist’ and they were making it a sexy subject — which is great.”

Family Connections

Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, a key target for the suffragettes, was the great-grandfather of star Helena Bonham Carter. The team commented on
Bonham Carter’s serious yet light-hearted remarking on having posthumous arguments with him about his negative stance on the suffragette movement.

Faye Ward (producer)

The Look of the Film

GAVRON:
“We felt the film should feel visceral and connected to today. We talked with the production designer to create a 360 set and we had two cameras rolling
all the time. The clothes were actual stock; we used clothes of the time. That was the aesthetic of the piece. We shot in 16mm in the daytime to give it
that gritty grain. We developed a reel of film from the archives and saw the close-ups of those women in the funeral; the faces at the end of our film.”

One Message of the Film

MORGAN:
“At the core of this film: Hoping to empower all women to fight for equality and to use our vote. In the UK we have a very complacent and very ambivalent
voting public and we have a dwindling youth vote. We want this film to encourage people to please use your vote.”

The Team Addresses the Suffragette Protests and How Media Attention Can Make Or Break a Movement

Sarah Gavron (director)

“We found in the archives the police surveillance operation and the police violence as well. Sexual abuse in the workplace. Issues that echoed today. It
seemed very relevant.”

OWEN:
“After 50 years of peaceful protests, the media ridiculed the women in the press for being ignored — erased. One of the things that was very poignant, was
that the suffragettes were all about getting attention; their emphasis was non loss of life. When Emily Wilding Davison throws herself in front of horse,
she did so in front of Pathé newsreels and cameras. It was a strategic move.”

(Davison stepped in front of King George V’s horse Anmer at the Epsom Derby in June of 1913, suffering fatal injuries. Her funeral, organized by the
Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) was attended by thousands of suffragettes and thousands of others, marking a turning point for the Suffragette
movement.)

Media Attention Today

For their cover, Time Out London invited the film’s stars Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep and Anne Marie-Duff to wear t-shirts with the slogan: ‘I’d
rather be a rebel than a slave’ – a partial quote taken from a 1913 speech given by Emmeline Pankhurst. This quote has sparked outrage in the U.S.

Pankhurst’s entire quote was: ‘I know that women, once convinced that they are doing what is right, that their rebellion is just, will go on, no matter
what the difficulties, no matter what the dangers, so long as there is a woman alive to hold up the flag of rebellion. I would rather be a rebel than a
slave.’

Abi Morgan (screenwriter)

THE SUFFRAGETTE TEAM:
“The original quote was intended to rouse women to stand up against oppression — it is a rallying cry, and absolutely not intended to criticize those who
have no choice but to submit to oppression or to reference the Confederacy, as some people who saw the quote and photo out of context have surmised.”

OWEN:
“We all acknowledge and are aware of how acutely sensitive that slogan was in the U.S. We need to keep having the conversation. I hope it’s about diversity
in front of and behind the camera. If it becomes a narrative about a film that is so sincerely meant to promote all women all over the world, then it’s a
misstep and unfortunate.”

WARD: “
We need more diversity in every respect in filmmaking. We need an industry that’s going to want to make that work.”

THE SUFFRAGETTE TEAM:
“Meryl Streep recently said at a press conference about the film, how female voices are hard to be heard: ‘People read ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ and less than a
fifth who rate the movies are women.’ The quartet of women chuckle: “We thought about doing ‘Equal Tomatoes.” Their tone more serious now: “Something that
reflects the diversity of our society equally and properly.”

Director Hou Hsiao-Hsien: THE ASSASIN

October 15, 2015 / sucity / Comments Off

Director Hou Hsiao-Hsien

Filmed on location in Japan and on set in Taiwan, “The Assassin” centers on the story of Yinniang, who, abducted at age 10, is now a Tang Dynasty assassin dedicated to the art of killing until memory transforms her course of action.

The Story

Hou Hsiao-Hsien: “There is a lot of information from the Tang Dynasty — tales, legends and novels. I first came across this story in college. I wanted to bring this realism into the film. The story is based on historical facts and then I fleshed out the characters.

I wanted to do this film in the wuxia genre. I wanted to draw inspiration from Samurai movies from Japan as a long tradition of this martial arts practice that would be more in line of how I see the wuxia genre; it should be based onthe realistic depiction of human capacity.”

“The Assassin”

Working with Actors

Hou Hsiao-Hsien : “I work with actors and actresses I have worked with together before; they know my style and how I work on set. They will know the script and know the mood I want to create. There is no rehearsal. They come to the set prepared. They know what the scene is about. I have to set up the lights and camera, and I set up the dolly and tracks, and then I ask them to go onto the set I created for them. Hopefully they will be inspired by this mise-en-scène, and the location. The actors immerse themselves and embody the characters. Things happen naturally. Sometimes they do take after take, and when they get too comfortable, they get mechanical and unnatural. I want to somehow change the scene for them, to really act. The long takes go with that particular way of directing.”

MICHAEL MOORE: WHERE TO INVADE NEXT (INDIEWIRE/SYDNEYSBUZZ)

October 6, 2015 / sucity / Comments Off

A Conversation with Oscar® winner Michael Moore at the New York Film Festival

Moore’s latest film, “Where to Invade Next” explores the current state of the nation.

Michael Moore and Susan Kouguell

Twenty-six years ago — (Michael Moore reminded me how long ago it was) — I was an acquisitions consultant for Warner Bros. and discovered a new documentary at the Independent Feature Film Market. I ran to the payphone (yes, pre-cell phone days) downstairs at the Anjelica Film Center and called my boss to tell her she must see it. The film was “Roger & Me.” Warner Bros. picked up the film.

Since then, Moore continued making provocative and impassioned films, including the Academy Award-winning “Bowling for Columbine,” “Sicko,” “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Moore’s latest film, “Where to Invade Next” explores the current state of the nation.

Moore: “My film is about us. I just decided to tell a story about America without shooting a single frame of the movie in the United States.”

Former Radius Founders and Co-Presidents Tom Quinn and Jason Janego are teaming with Alamo Drafthouse Founder and CEO Tim League to form the yet-to-be-named distribution label and will distribute “Where to Invade Next.”

“Where to Invade Next”

Here are highlights from the New York Film Festival press screening.

The idea for the film

“I was 19 and I just dropped out of college. I got the Eurail pass and youth hostel card and spent a couple of months going around Europe. I was in Sweden and broke a toe, and I was sent to a clinic. I went to pay the bill and there was no bill. I never heard of such a thing. And all through Europe I kept running into things like that. And I thought why can’t we do that? The idea grew organically as most of the things do in my films.”

Planning ahead

“Don’t give me too much credit for thinking this out a whole lot in advance. We don’t think it would be really cool to sit down at the lunch table with a can of Coke and see what the kids do.

The best stuff is what I don’t plan out. What my field producers do in terms of research — I have them tell me only the basics, I don’t want to know any of the research. When the Italian couple (in the film) tells me about the 15 days paid vacation, this is the first time I’ve heard it, even if the field producers know it. I don’t want to act. We don’t do a second take. If the sound guy says we didn’t get it, you can’t ask them (the subjects) to do it again. We’ve seen too many documentaries like that. It has to happen with them and me in the moment.”

No, Michael Moore is not running for office

“…to say that you have the right to regulate a woman’s uterus but not guns? It’s like, I think the only safe place for guns is in a woman’s uterus. Then
they would be regulated by our Republican congress!

I talk politically a lot, but if I really just wanted to make political speeches, I would run for office or give sermons.”

“I went to pick the flowers and not the weeds.”

A line from Moore’s film, which he further details: “Every country has a lot of problems. I didn’t go there to make a film about your countries. There are
a lot of things you’re dealing with, but that’s not my film. My film is about us, not about you. I just decided to tell a story about America without
shooting a single frame in the United States.”

About Michael Moore’s Happiness

“The difference about this film (compared to his others), some people say it’s not so angry, (that) I’m happier. I’m angrier than ever. Maybe I came up
with a more subversive way to deal with that anger with the condition of this country.”

In closing

“We’re filmmakers. We love the art of cinema and we love what it can do to move people through fiction or non-fiction.”

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Woodstock Film Festival Winners

October 6, 2015 / sucity / Comments Off

"The Babushkas of Chernobyl"

The 2015 Woodstock “Fiercely Independent” Film Festival celebrated its Sweet 16, and came to a close on October 4.

The awards went to:

Best Feature Narrative: “Oliver’s Deal” directed by Barney Elliott

Honorable Mention: “It Had to be You” directed by Sasha Gordon.

Best Feature Documentary: “Incorruptible” directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.

“Oliver’s Deal”

Honorable Mention: “The Babushkas of Chernobyl” directed by Holly Morris, co-directed by Anne Bogart.

READ MORE HERE

ROSEMARY RODRIGUEZ and SILVER SKIES (INDIEWIRE/SYDNEYSBUZZ)

October 3, 2015 / sucity / Comments Off

A Conversation With Director Rosemary Rodriguez About Her New Film ‘Silver Skies’

by Susan Kouguell

“Silver Skies,” Rosemary’s second feature, chronicles a group of seniors whose lives turn upside down when their Los Angeles apartment complex threatens to be sold out from under them.

I had the pleasure of speaking with writer and director Rosemary Rodriguezin midtown Manhattan two days before her film “Silver Skies” will have its United States premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival on Saturday October 3.

Rosemary Rodriguez wrote and directed the feature, “Acts of Worship, “which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards, including the John Cassavetes Award for Best Feature. Her episodic TV work includes “Empire,” “The Good Wife,” (where she is a regular director), “Manhattan,” “Rake,” “Elementary” and “Vegas.” She is currently directing the new Marvel series on Netflix, “Jessica Jones.”

“Silver Skies,” Rosemary’s second feature, chronicles a group of seniors whose lives turn upside down when their Los Angeles apartment complex threatens to be sold out from under them.

We began our conversation talking about the evolution of “Silver Skies.”

Rodriguez : It took about ten years. I ended up going to the MacDowell Colony with an outline for “Silver Skies” and wrote the script while I was there. Then, when I directed a “Law and Order” episode, I hit it off with (star) Dennis Farina and he loved the script. He helped to get the movie made. Fast forward almost two years later I called Dennis and told him we got the money. We picked the start date, and then he passed away two weeks later. I was devastated when he passed away. But then things fell in place. Fred Roos and Arthur Sarkissian came to the reading of the script, and they said, ‘let’s do this movie.’ The movie is dedicated to Dennis. He was my guardian angel.

Kouguell:
In “Silver Skies,” the theme of ageism is tackled straight on. The characters in this ensemble piece are threatened with the possible loss of their
homes and livelihood. You describe “Silver Skies” as very personal and inspired by your parents’ aging. The characters of Nick and Phil are inspired
by your father, who was a bookie in Boston, and the character, Eve, by your mother.

Rodriguez
: Valerie Perrine’s character always has flowers; that was my mother. I watched my parents get old when I was still young. I saw how their relationships
changed. You think logic would say life would get easier when you get older, but the emotional truth is that life still happens on its own terms. I think
seniors don’t have a voice in this world. These are people who want to have sex. They want to work. They want to spend money. Make money. Have money.

Kouguell:
You don’t shy away from thought-provoking issues, facing this generation, including the sexual assault of one female character and another main character’s
choice she made of personal survival that causes the death of her spouse.

Rodriguez
: My role model for directors is Robert Altman. His movies were a slice of life. The ironic thing about being a human being on this planet is that you have
no idea what is going to happen next. The movie is real life. You’re going on a roller coaster ride; there are parts you’re laughing because life is like
that, and then the rug gets pulled right out from under you.

The issues women go through, and with this female character with her husband abusing her, and feeling guilty over surviving, doing whatever she had to
survive, whatever way she needed to behave was maybe ‘not as a good girl’ would, and coming to terms with that. Sexual abuse to elders is real. Elder abuse
is real. I wanted to bring that issue in, as well as bring in that feminist message in there.

Kouguell:
In “Silver Skies,” the trepidation and excitement of newfound love is complicated by raw emotion as seen in one character’s
personal and financial insecurities with a recent widow.

Rodriguez

: Love doesn’t stop people at a certain age, it doesn’t stop their desires. It doesn’t matter what age we are. To work with these wonderful actors and Alex
Rocco in particular — he was just like a teenage boy when doing his scenes with Valerie Perrine, saying: “I’m used to playing killers, I’m not used to
playing lovers.”

(Alex Rocco passed away July 18of this year.)

Rodriguez
: The recent memorial for Alex was on the racetrack: “Friends of Rocco” – it was the seventh race, it was dedicated to him. I loved him dearly. I miss him
dearly. It was intended as a celebration of this wonderful man. His character reminds me of my dad. As I told my dad when it became clear he had to retire,
I told him, “You always wanted to go out a winner.”

Kouguell:
The film stars Barbara Bain, George Hamilton, Jack McGee, Valerie Perrine, Mariette Hartley, Howard Hesseman, Jack Betts, and Alex Rocco. Did they have any
input into the script?

Rodriguez
: They definitely did. They stuck to the script a lot. I’m a big collaborator; I want to hear what people have to say. In the film George Hamilton’s
character is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Jack McGee’s brother, George Hamilton’s mother, and my dad, all had Alzehimer’s and we shared our
respective experiences to further develop George’s character. In a way it was a tribute for George to his mother, for Jack to his brother, and mine to my
father.

Kouguell:
You’ve earned great success as a director on “The Good Wife.” How has directing television influenced your work as a director on “Silver Skies”?

Rodriguez
: I can work efficiently and quickly, and in television that’s some of the skill set that gets developed. My instincts are very sharp. The idea out there is
that we’re less creative working in television, but the real truth is we’re under such pressure that we can make decisions quickly, and also go with your
heart and instincts. It’s very quick and very satisfying, and of course millions of people see your work in a shorter window of time and that is opposite
of a movie.

Kouguell:
Currently, you are the 4th Vice President of the Directors Guild of America. Although there is more media attention on the low percentage of women
directors getting work in the industry, the numbers are still not rising fast enough.

Rodriguez
: The DGA works very hard and we all work hard to address the issue of diversity. It’s been a problem for many years. My involvement in the DGA is
reflective of how much the DGA cares about women directors and minority directors, and wants to get us out there. It’s a benefit to the Guild. There’s a
lot of content there now and opportunity for diversity. I want to be meeting with you in a few years when this isn’t an issue any more; where there are not
“female directors” – that there are just great storytellers and that we don’t have to separate each other.

Kouguell:
Some final words about “Silver Skies”?

Rodriguez:
The way these actors enriched my life was unexpected and so profound. These are people with 50 and 60-year careers in a tough industry. These actors showed
up and put their hearts in these characters. They’re artists. They were there for the love for what they do. They just loved the characters. They had
beautiful chemistry together. We are part of each other’s lives. I never could give back to them what they gave to me.

Su-City Pictures East, LLC

Screenplay & Film Consulting By Susan Kouguell

Category: INDIEWIRE/SYDNEYSBUZZ (page 1 of 5)