September 2003

Email news to news@newenglandfilm.com. 

The question is often asked, do you have to go to film school to be a filmmaker? Unlike many academic disciplines, a diploma or distinction at a university in film production, film studies, or screenwriting is not necessary for success in the world of cinema. Christopher Kelly Seufert is living proof of this.

The current take on the history of any art form is in ever-changing flux. The reputation of some painters, writers, filmmakers, and composers fades over time, while forgotten and obscure masters are constantly being rediscovered. The work of avant-garde American composer George Antheil has experienced a surge in the past few years, largely due to the recent premier (at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell) of the recently unearthed original version of his modernist masterpiece, the "Ballet Mecanique" (1923-24), originally read more...

Connecticut native Tom Deedy has a mission -- to make us think. Not satisfied with a career in construction and telecommunications, and always having an interest in acting, Deedy began a film career not too long ago. He says there are strong parallels between construction and filmmaking, comparing blueprints to screenplays and explaining that both require the ability to think on one's feet.

Laura Nix’s first narrative film, "The Politics of Fur," has played to rapt audiences all over the world and will finally make its Boston debut during the Boston Underground Film Festival, running September 26 - October 4. Known primarily for her dozen-plus documentaries to date (she’s a partner in Automat Pictures with Jeffrey Schwarz, whom she met while both were working on HBO’s "The Celluloid Closet"), Nix has made a brave leap into fiction -- semi-autobiographical fiction, as she reveals in the following interview.
read more...

Filmmaker Maureen Tzudiker is a Scorpio, wore 16mm film pasties in her latest movie (no word on the stock she used), and spoke to NewEnglandFilm.com from her parents’ home in Colorado where her cousin was busy setting something on fire (no one was hurt). But this is only part of the Maureen Tzudiker story: Her three-minute experimental film, "Shimmi," debuts at the Film Fest New Haven on Saturday, September 20th.

With over 20 years of filmmaking experience to his credit, Gode Davis knows a few things about documentary filmmaking, and does not hesitate to specify what he thinks works. He has written numerous scripts and several documentaries, including the recent "American Lynching" which will be featured among only 13 documentaries in the 2003 Independent Film Project (IFP) Market "No Borders" program.