February 2002

"It’s torture, but it's torture that I love," explains Kurt St. Thomas, perhaps summing up a feeling shared by independent filmmakers everywhere. St. Thomas and partner Mike Gioscia make up Corporate Sucker films, and recently spoke with NewEnglandFilm.com about their second feature film currently in post- production, "The Red Right Hand."

It’s obvious to say that a film festival that has a demonic-looking, vibrating bunny as their award, definitely has issues when it comes to normalcy. Celebrating an alternative vision in Boston, the Boston Underground Film Festival, abbreviated to BUFF for those involved with the festival, has now entered its fourth year. 

"When God created the world, I believe this is what He imagined," the post-it note read. It arrived in the mail, a harbinger of hope, stuck to a stack of photographs taken in New York City after a showing of Sandi Simcha DuBowski’s movie, "Trembling Before G-d."

Laundromats are a gathering point in a city, where the oddest assortments of people come together in pursuit of cleanliness. Even in ultra-rich Westport, Connecticut, you never know what to expect. "How Clean Is My Laundry" -- written, directed by, and starring Jarret Liotta -- focuses on the life of one devoted Washing Well employee, a young man whose relationship with his hometown is a touch strained.

You see the title "producer" in every main title sequence and listed several times in the credits, but do you really know what it means to be a producer? Jon Palfreman, founder of The Palfreman Film Group and Richard Moos founder of Cathartic Filmworks are here to explain the role of a producer, how to become a producer, and how a producer gets the job done.

Geoffrey Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales" is the basis for Bagelfish Productions first film "G-spots?"  A post-modern interpretation of "The Wife of Bath’s Tale," "G-Spots?" is the story of an errant knight who gets sentenced to death by guillotine after deflowering a virgin. Having committed society’s greatest of crimes, the knight is about to be put to death before he is given an offer to commute his sentence. Given a last chance by the queen, the knight is given one year to solve a riddle, read more...

Once again this January, thousands of festival-goers from around the world descended upon the tiny town of Park City in the middle of the Wasatch Mountains to view everything from documentaries and dramatic features to experimental shorts. Sundance, Slamdance, Slamdunk, and Tromadance Film Festivals all screened films from New England filmmakers as part of their 2002 line-ups in chilly Park City, Utah last month. Here’s a look at some of the New England films that competed at the 2002 Park City festivals.

When it comes to fame and fortune, film directors don’t immediately spring to mind as among the shortchanged (unlike, say, screenwriters). Robert Kesten, founder of Connecticut’s Director’s View Film Festival (February 15-18, 2002), sees things a little differently. "Outside of New York," he explains, "the contribution of directors often goes unrecognized by the public. The average person thinks of film as entertainment, but that’s to ignore the most important aspect of film, that it’s a medium that’s capable read more...

Chip Hourihan’s "Glissando" opens in a desiccated town in Arizona, where a middle-aged man (Ned Van Zandt) has come to identify the body of his father, found in a dumpster behind a motel. The young woman his father lived with gives him a shoebox full of photos and other memorabilia that evokes a colorful store of memories.