April 2004

The so-called “Film Brat” generation of the middle to late 1970s has been blamed for, or credited with, many things regarding independent filmmaking—from sparking off a studio-sanctioned Golden Age (Scorsese, Coppola) to ushering in a studio-sanctioned Dark Age (Lucas, Spielberg).

Many might say the past few years have been good ones for independent filmmakers, largely because digital filmmaking has made movie production so much more accessible to budding directors everywhere. Nevertheless, obstacles facing low budget filmmakers are, and continue to be, many—filming on a tight schedule, publicity, legitimate screenings, and attracting an audience for what is probably a very personal film, all, of course, with no money, can be endlessly frustrating. And then, on top of that, there’s the issue of location permits.

When you make a film you hope it’s going to be seen by a diverse group of people, and not just by the converted,” says Black Maria Film and Video Festival director John Columbus. “We reach all kinds of people, even rural, ‘off-the-beaten-path’ audiences.”

The Sundance Film Festival hosted a record number of attendees this year. Up double from last year, 40,000 people came to watch or show films, participate in panel discussions, and network. Apart from the invariable increase in ticket sales and overall profit and general notability, the upsurge in festival-goers this year also yielded an increase in the people of color who attended, and twenty-five percent of the films in the festival were directed by filmmakers of color, another remarkable boost from last year.

Public television stations have always been dedicated to airing programs that help their communities. But after the programs have aired, how can inspired community members actually take up the cause?

There’s a phenomenon afoot that is increasingly evident this year—at Sundance, Real Screen, and beyond. Let’s call it producer fatigue; what was formerly indignation with PBS has morphed into simple dismissal. It seems so complicated, the thought goes, why work with public television at all?

After twenty years behind the lens, Orlando Bagwell is putting down his camera. But his recently Sundance-screened Citizen King is not his swan song. Rather, as the producer-director quickly interjects, King is merely his “most recent” film—and the last to emerge from his Roja Productions before the fifteen-year-old company goes on indefinite hiatus, and Bagwell takes his seat as the newly appointed program officer of Media, Arts and Culure at the Ford Foundation.

Scenarios USA, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping kids make smarter decisions about sex, announced the two winners for their “What’s The Real Deal” contests on February 6, 2004. The contests, which took place in south Texas and in Miami, encouraged kids ages twelve to twenty-two to submit stories or scripts about the problems they face at school and at home.