Category Archives: In the Works

Cuban auto enthusiasts find their hopes for a legal car race dashed by the Pope’s visit – among other roadblocks.

One of the most visible indicators of the US sanctions against Cuba since the Revolution is the anachronistic presence of vintage 1950s cars that dot its streets. For the most part, only those with political connections and money have been able to afford newer imported cars from Europe or Asia. For most, refitted classic cars have been the only option, and, for some, a source of pride, such as the men of Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt’s film. With car racing long outlawed by Castro, they’ve held underground drag races. With recent reforms, the men grow excited about participating in the first legal race since 1959, painstakingly working on finding the right parts to give them the edge. But when a Papal visit cancels their plans, organizers find themselves caught in limbo. Continue reading →

The filmmakers behind THESE AMAZING SHADOWS explore the voice actors who dub the Hollywood superstar internationally.

In the global business of Hollywood moviemaking, a film’s international box office is key to its overall success. In most markets, audiences disdain subtitles, preferring to instead watch films dubbed into their own language. The result is the creation of a curious kind of invisible, yet audible, local star – the regular dubbing actor who serves as the comforting, native voice of famed celebrities in different countries around the world. Director Paul Mariano and producers Christine O’Malley and Kurt Norton – the filmmakers behind THESE AMAZING SHADOWS – another inside look at and celebration of filmmaking – and the rest of their team go behind the scenes and into the dubbing studios of the international film marketplace to explore the work and lives of several local actors familiar to their fellow countrymen as the voices of George Clooney.
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The story of a notorious art forger who feels compelled to donate his work to museums across the country.

Over thirty years, Mark Landis has honed his painting skills to enable him to make remarkable copies of a wide range of artwork. Unusually, rather than profit financially from his forgeries, Landis instead began contacting small museums and other institutions under assumed identities to donate his work, passing them off as rare originals. When Matthew Leininger, a museum registrar, grew suspicious of one instance of Landis’ “philanthropy,” his investigation uncovered Landis’ deception, involving more than 45 museums in nearly twenty cities, and ultimately resulted in a museum exhibition of the forgeries. Filmmakers Sam Cullman, Jennifer Grausman, and Mark Becker began telling Landis’ tale when he was exposed, and have followed him for the past several years, learning of the mental illness that drives his unorthodox behavior. Continue reading →

After decades struggling with personal demons, the filmmaker’s uncle, a Hasidic Jewish man, tries to get his life on track.

Filming over the course of several years, Paula Eiselt tells the story of her uncle Bernie (in Hebrew, Boruch), the only Hasidic member of her immediate family, and a man whose mental illness, alcoholism, and drug and sex addiction have cost him the life he has always desired. Nearly fifty, Bernie, who has never held a steady job, nor started a family, sets out to achieve these dreams of stability, make peace with his past, and remain clean and sober, while facing the challenges of addressing difficult personal issues that remain stigmatized within his Orthodox community. Exploring recovery within an insular yet ultimately comforting context, Eiselt offers a unique perspective on second chances and self-determination. Continue reading →

A look at how a critically-acclaimed underground trailer park filmmaker makes his latest feature over the course of two days.

Likened to both John Cassavetes and John Waters, Giuseppe Andrews has quietly been making rough-hewn feature films on the cheap for fifteen years, often set in and starring residents of the trailer park communities in which he was raised, with titles like DAD’S CHICKEN, WHO FLUNG POO?, AIRPLANE PILLOWS, and DOILY’S SUMMER OF FREAK OCCURRENCES. Screening at underground festivals in New York and Chicago, as well as the late Cinevegas, former child actor turned outsider auteur Andrews has self-distributed his films online, or worked with Troma to release them on DVD, garnering attention from select critics and a cult following. Like Cassavetes, Andrews’ more recent work as an actor in films like CABIN FEVER or TV series like CSI has financed his low-budget filmmaking. Director Adam Rifkin, who cast Andrews in his film DETROIT ROCK CITY, works with producer Mike Plante, filmmaker and programmer at Sundance and Cinevegas, to reveal Andrews’ creative process. Continue reading →

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The husband and wife team behind the Oscar-nominated and Sundance award-winning STREETWISE returns to that film’s most unforgettable subject.

In July 1983, renowned photojournalist Mary Ellen Mark and writer Cheryl McCall told the story of the lives of Seattle’s street kids in LIFE magazine. Affected by the teens they met, including 13-year-old prostitute Tiny, the duo returned later that year with director Martin Bell, Mark’s husband, to create a documentary film about nine youths they met. Released theatrically, STREETWISE also screened in competition at Sundance in 1985, where it won a special jury prize, and was later nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar. In the decades that followed, Mark and Bell have maintained a relationship with Tiny, filming her as she struggled with drugs and poverty and became a mother several times over. Over the next year, the filmmakers will return to Seattle to capture Tiny and her family today, using the footage from the past 30 years to supplement the story. Continue reading →