Jamie Meltzer’s True Conviction explores a quasi-detective agency in Dallas (seemingly run out of the the Hickory House BBQ restaurant) founded by three men who were wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit. Granted $80,000 for each year of wrongful imprisonment by the government, they take on select cases that resemble their own circumstances where either the punishment does not fit the crime or the physical evidence contradicts the testimony given. The justice system should backstop flawed cases but often does not, and in one case, we learn a convict was given a public defender who showed up in court drunk and could not locate a witness in the room.
Led by Christopher Scott, exonerated after spending 13 years in prison for a crime he did not commit once the actual killer confessed, the agency takes on similar cases as Scott balances his obligations to his once estranged family. He...
Led by Christopher Scott, exonerated after spending 13 years in prison for a crime he did not commit once the actual killer confessed, the agency takes on similar cases as Scott balances his obligations to his once estranged family. He...
- 5/4/2017
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
Employing an outsider to disarm subjects deep in Bubba Texas, Booger Red turns to writer/director/actor/provocateur Onur Tukel as its conduit into this world, asking the absurd questions at the heart of a scandal that involves swingers, foster parents and a “sex kindergarten.” Inspired by Michael Hall’s 2009 Texas Monthly article, director Berndt Mader (Five Time Champion) constructs his own documentary/narrative hybrid with Tukel as a reporter named Onur Tukel (although not as himself) in his most restrained role yet.
Playing an Austin-based investigate reporter, he’s dispatched to the small town of Mineola, Texas where the neighborhood swinger’s club is conveniently located across from the town’s newspaper. It’s here where the mysterious Booger Red apparently brought kids he trained in his “sex kindergarten” to perform — an allegation made by a profiteering set of foster parents.
Rather curiously, Mader has insisted many real players...
Playing an Austin-based investigate reporter, he’s dispatched to the small town of Mineola, Texas where the neighborhood swinger’s club is conveniently located across from the town’s newspaper. It’s here where the mysterious Booger Red apparently brought kids he trained in his “sex kindergarten” to perform — an allegation made by a profiteering set of foster parents.
Rather curiously, Mader has insisted many real players...
- 5/12/2016
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
The Sundance Institute is including a touch of Cannes this week as the likes of Pippa Bianco (her short Share was the 2015 winner of Cannes Cinefondation), Alistair Banks Griffin (Two Gates of Sleep premiered in Directors’ Fortnight in 2010), and the Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza tandem (from Critics’ Week Grand Prize in 2013 for Salvo) are among the dozen selected projects for the 2016 January Screenwriters Lab. The immersive, five-day writers’ workshop takes place just prior to the festival at the Sundance Resort in Utah, January 15-20. Look for several of these projects to one day break into not only Sundance, but other major film fests. Here are the selected people & projects:
The projects and fellows selected for the 2016 January Screenwriters Lab are:
Bull (U.S.A.) / Annie Silverstein (Co-writer/Director) and Johnny McAllister (Co-writer)
In a near-abandoned subdivision west of Houston, a wayward teen runs headlong into her equally willful and unforgiving neighbor,...
The projects and fellows selected for the 2016 January Screenwriters Lab are:
Bull (U.S.A.) / Annie Silverstein (Co-writer/Director) and Johnny McAllister (Co-writer)
In a near-abandoned subdivision west of Houston, a wayward teen runs headlong into her equally willful and unforgiving neighbor,...
- 1/11/2016
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Artistic Director Urszula Śniegowska has created a family here of great cineastes and cinephiles. Included is the Austin posse with David Gordon Green receiving the double-barreled Indie Star Award and the European debut of his latest film, "Our Brand is Crisis" with the formidable Sandra Bullock in her ballsiest role ever playing the political strategist, James Carville, as she dictates the terms to her candidate for the President of Bolivia played by my new heartthrob, the Portuguese actor, Joaquim de Almeida. David says he may star in the next film he will direct which will be in Portuguese.
I'm betting on David Gordon Green becoming heir to the throne now occupied by Clint Eastwood as Warner Bros. creates its new brand. Warner Bros. also supplied the Clint Eastwood prints and virtual prints for the Eastwood retrospective. His masterpiece "The Unforgiven" was shown in 35mm. The evolution of Dgg since the Sundance debut (and his own first feature) of " George Washington" in 2000 shows his skill directing both indie and major genres.
The family in the Austin posse includes the grand director Berndt Mader ("Winnebago Man") of "Booger Red" (exec produced by Dgg) with his producer, Irish transplant and immigrant Johnny McAllister who co-wrote with Berndt, and Onur Tukel, the "Turkish Woody Allen" whose own directed and produced " Summer of Blood" debuted at Tribeca last year and was a huge hit at the Champs Elysees Film Festival (this year June 7-14), the sister of Aff who share their child Us in Progress. "Booger Red" is a hybrid documentary/narrative about a veteran reporter who searches for the truth behind the largest purported child sex ring in Texas history. On his journey through the bowels of East Texas, he's forced to confront his own history with abuse while he discovers that the allegations at the root of his investigation might have never happened.
At one of the nightly bar gatherings (which last til 4 am!), Dgg credited Onur for keeping the independent film scene in Austin alive.
Second to receive the double-barreled Indie Star Award with Dgg was Hal Hartley whose humble acceptance of the prize touched us all. He thanked the audience, a new generation for its "fresh" questions, a great pleasure for him after 25 years of doing Q&As. And he thanked the festival for putting on the most complete retrospective of his film ever held.
The Audience Award of Us$10,000 went to the Spectrum film "Dope" by Rick Famuyiwa , one of the freshest films to show in Sundance this year; a delightful, sweet romp with young talents De'aundre Bonds, Kiersey Clemons and Tony Revolori as they follow the orders of dope dealer Rakim Mayers, through the streets of Inglewood California.
The Audience Award of Us$5,000 went to the American Doc film "Transfatty Lives" by Patrick O'Brian. The Awards were funded by festival sponsor, Bny Mellon, wealth management and investments banker to the world. Started by Alexander Hamilton in 1784, Bny Mellon is one of the longest-lasting financial institutions in the world.
Festival Director Roman Gutek has created a great and lasting bond between film artists in U.S. and in Poland. He has also created Europe's largest international film festival, New Horizons, held here in Wroclaw July 25-31 which this year will have a special section of America as depicted by European filmmakers. In addition he has created Europe's largest arthouse multiplex, the New Horizons Theater where these two festivals are held.
I'm betting on David Gordon Green becoming heir to the throne now occupied by Clint Eastwood as Warner Bros. creates its new brand. Warner Bros. also supplied the Clint Eastwood prints and virtual prints for the Eastwood retrospective. His masterpiece "The Unforgiven" was shown in 35mm. The evolution of Dgg since the Sundance debut (and his own first feature) of " George Washington" in 2000 shows his skill directing both indie and major genres.
The family in the Austin posse includes the grand director Berndt Mader ("Winnebago Man") of "Booger Red" (exec produced by Dgg) with his producer, Irish transplant and immigrant Johnny McAllister who co-wrote with Berndt, and Onur Tukel, the "Turkish Woody Allen" whose own directed and produced " Summer of Blood" debuted at Tribeca last year and was a huge hit at the Champs Elysees Film Festival (this year June 7-14), the sister of Aff who share their child Us in Progress. "Booger Red" is a hybrid documentary/narrative about a veteran reporter who searches for the truth behind the largest purported child sex ring in Texas history. On his journey through the bowels of East Texas, he's forced to confront his own history with abuse while he discovers that the allegations at the root of his investigation might have never happened.
At one of the nightly bar gatherings (which last til 4 am!), Dgg credited Onur for keeping the independent film scene in Austin alive.
Second to receive the double-barreled Indie Star Award with Dgg was Hal Hartley whose humble acceptance of the prize touched us all. He thanked the audience, a new generation for its "fresh" questions, a great pleasure for him after 25 years of doing Q&As. And he thanked the festival for putting on the most complete retrospective of his film ever held.
The Audience Award of Us$10,000 went to the Spectrum film "Dope" by Rick Famuyiwa , one of the freshest films to show in Sundance this year; a delightful, sweet romp with young talents De'aundre Bonds, Kiersey Clemons and Tony Revolori as they follow the orders of dope dealer Rakim Mayers, through the streets of Inglewood California.
The Audience Award of Us$5,000 went to the American Doc film "Transfatty Lives" by Patrick O'Brian. The Awards were funded by festival sponsor, Bny Mellon, wealth management and investments banker to the world. Started by Alexander Hamilton in 1784, Bny Mellon is one of the longest-lasting financial institutions in the world.
Festival Director Roman Gutek has created a great and lasting bond between film artists in U.S. and in Poland. He has also created Europe's largest international film festival, New Horizons, held here in Wroclaw July 25-31 which this year will have a special section of America as depicted by European filmmakers. In addition he has created Europe's largest arthouse multiplex, the New Horizons Theater where these two festivals are held.
- 10/28/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Round-up of news from the sixth American Film Festival and Us in Progress showcase.
Shaz Bennett’s Alaska Is A Drag was the big winner at the fifth edition of the Us In Progress showcase during Wroclaw’s sixth American Film Festival (Oct 20-25).
The strand’s jury awarded post-production services worth up to $40,000 to the project. This will include colour correction from Chimney Poland, a score composed by Maciej Zielinski from Soundflower Studios, and a final sound mix from Toya Studios, as well as an offer to acquire TV rights from Ale Kino+.
The film, which is writer-director Bennett’s feature version of her 2012 short of the same name, was produced by her 4248 Productions with Melanie Miller’s Fishbowl Films.
The cast of the $700,000 project includes Matt Dallas, Jason Scott Lee, Margaret Cho, newcomer Martin L. Washington Jr. and Christopher O’Shea.
Daniel Grove, an executive producer on acclaimed horror A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,picked...
Shaz Bennett’s Alaska Is A Drag was the big winner at the fifth edition of the Us In Progress showcase during Wroclaw’s sixth American Film Festival (Oct 20-25).
The strand’s jury awarded post-production services worth up to $40,000 to the project. This will include colour correction from Chimney Poland, a score composed by Maciej Zielinski from Soundflower Studios, and a final sound mix from Toya Studios, as well as an offer to acquire TV rights from Ale Kino+.
The film, which is writer-director Bennett’s feature version of her 2012 short of the same name, was produced by her 4248 Productions with Melanie Miller’s Fishbowl Films.
The cast of the $700,000 project includes Matt Dallas, Jason Scott Lee, Margaret Cho, newcomer Martin L. Washington Jr. and Christopher O’Shea.
Daniel Grove, an executive producer on acclaimed horror A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,picked...
- 10/26/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
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