June 2007

Women in Film & Video/New England (WIFV/NE) held its fifth annual screenwriting competition last month, awarding Quincy writer, Mary Conroy, first place honors for her screenplay, The Other War. Over 90 entries were submitted from all over the country. The award marks Conroy’s inaugural first place standing in a national competition.

On thousands of college campuses across the country and the world, students diligently write, shoot, and edit films. Often, the next step is to take these films onto the film festival circuit, but student filmmakers have trouble getting exposure at tremendously competitive fests such as Sundance, Slamdance, Telluride, and many others.  

Steve Stuart has so many different projects, interviewing him felt like beating Darwin to the Galapagos Islands. At first daunting, it ultimately became an extraordinary expedition into the heart and soul of a very creative individual. Hopefully the following interview with NewEnglandFilm.com will help define the inspirational filmmaker, Steve Stuart Baldwin.

McKevin: Would you like to be called Steve Stuart or Steve Baldwin?

Hit screenwriter Claudia Grazioso made her way from New Haven, Connecticut to Hollywood, but the real transition started at a little movie store back home, Best Video on Whitney Avenue.  It was run by a guy named Hank Paper, and she claims it was when she truly got interested in movies.  Every Friday and Saturday she would go in, so much that she claims she was becoming a bit of a “reclusive film geek.”  “In fact, I was in there so consistently on the weekends that one Saturday when I returned my Friday night read more...

What's Happening

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and fellow state legislators announced notable changes to the current production tax credit legislation.  The legislation will remove the cap on tax credit and raise the percentage of the employment credit to 25 percent. The bill also expands the definition of motion picture to include "digital media project" and lowers the eligibility read more...

Like liquor can turn a soft drink hard, so, too, can a few wrong choices twist fate. Paul Carafotes’ new short film Club Soda is a fable about his own beginnings as a fledgling actor. In the film, the main character, also an aspiring actor, breaks into the bar where he works and steals money. As luck would have it, a supernatural power intervenes and forces the youngster to make tough decisions that could make or break his future.