February 2003

When television first debuted to a curious world, it was considered to be merely an extension of radio, another outlet for entertainment shows. But the speed with which it became omnipresent in households around the world revealed its potential as a powerful tool in the dissemination of information, the shaping of social and cultural movements, and the influence over political systems.

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The Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFA) Film Program will present The African Film Festival on February 6-March 1, 2003. The festival includes a collection of shorts and features. For more information, visit www.mfa.org. 

Funding from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) enabled local filmmakers like Geoff Adams and Jim Walpow to complete their projects. Like other similar organizations in New England, Rhode Island offers potential grants to aspiring filmmakers from the Ocean State. The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts is a state agency, supported by appropriations from the Rhode Island General Assembly and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. RISCA provides grants, technical assistance and staff support to arts read more...

Sundance Report

Park City was packed this year. After last year’s lower attendance due to concerns over terrorism and schedule changes to accommodate the 2002 Olympics, attendance at the 2003 Sundance Festival was at a record high. An estimated 20,000 people plus descended on the tiny town to view 125 feature-length films and 60 shorts that comprised this year’s festival line-up.

Having screened at numerous festivals and garnered several awards, "The Book and the Rose" Jeffrey Bemiss’s directorial debut has been short-listed for an Academy Award nomination in the Best Live Action Short category. The 29-minute film based on the short story by Max Lucado tells the story of a young man in 1942 who becomes intrigued with a woman named Sarah when he begins reading her scribbled notes in the margins of Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina." Eventually, he tracks her to a Philadelphia address and begins a read more...

Maryanne Galvin is busy. Not only is she an award-winning documentary filmmaker, she’s a psychologist specializing in the criminal mind. How does she juggle such demanding jobs? "I have a very high metabolism," she said, laughing, "I just like to suck the marrow out of life."

"Group"

"Group," a film by Anne de Marcken and Marilyn Freeman, tracks eight women and one therapist as they struggle together through 21 weeks of group therapy. De Marcken and Freeman hashed our four drafts before tossing the script, deciding instead to work with the actors individually to create a personality and history for each character, as well as a 21-week storyline covering the time the therapy takes place. The result is a fascinating, compelling film.

When Steven Soderbergh turns to you in the edit suite and says, "It looks too good. Make it more like video," you know you're using a pretty superior video editing system. That's just what Soderbergh's "Full Frontal" collaborator Evan Schechtman, of Outpost Digital NYC, heard after using Pinnacle Systems' CineWave video output card in conjunction with Final Cut Pro 3.
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