Hello to you on a Saturday...
I am on the road this morning to attend the National Speech and Debate Association's National Speech Tournament in Kansas City (Overland Park), Kansas. The best of the NSDA's 130,000 members will be competing for National titles in a number of speaking and debating disciplines. I am coaching an entry in Dramatic Interpretation. I'll also be working as a part of the tournament staff. Nevertheless, I still plan to continue to post on the summer six-post-a- week schedule so come on back.
Hey, and an early Happy Father's Day to all Dads including mine!
EAT, DRINK, FILM AND MEYER
Earlier this week I confirmed part of an Anne Thompson story that was primarily about the Telluride/Toronto brouhaha. However, part of that story included what seemed an almost passing mention that the TFF co-director Gary Meyer was going to have a different role from now on with the festival. And it's not as co-director.
I jumped on the story and sought comment from TFF V.P. of P.R. Shannon Goodwin Mitchell. You can see that story's development below on the "Best of the Week" portion of this post.
Meanwhile, I found a Sam Adams post from May 23rd on IndieWire that described, to some extent, the endeavor that seems to be where Meyer will now spend some of his energy.
Here's the link to the Eat, Drink, Film website:
http://eatdrinkfilms.com/
The Adams post for IndieWire is here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/new-sites-on-the-block-eat-drink-films
Now take a look at The Best of the Week below...which starts with the Gary Meyer coverage.
BEST OF THE WEEK
THOMPSON ON THE TELLURIDE-TORONTO CONUNDRUM
Anne Thompson posted on her Thompson on Hollywood site yesterday a meditation on the looming programming showdown between Telluride and Toronto film fests. The story is notable for a couple of notes. Apparently, if you have been planning to catch the shuttle flight from L.A. to T-ride...you may be out of luck. But the more interesting note occurs near the end of the article that, at least to me, implies that co-director Gary Meyer is not actually co-directing anymore.
Thompson writes:
"And other changes are in store as Bay area-based Gary Meyer is launching a new website and film festival of his own, Eat Drink Films, and leaving full time co-director oversight to Huntsinger and Luddy--Meyer, who is an astute programmer of vintage and contemporary cinema, will continue as Telluride's chief content curator."
I have an email into to Telluride staffers asking for clarification. Check Thompson's entire article here:
SOME SHUFFLING AT THE TOP
I reported here yesterday that Anne Thompson (Thompson on Hollywood) had dropped a line or two in a story she ran about the Telluride/Toronto "rivalry" for films that indicated that TFF co-director Gary Meyer will have a new/different role with the fest beginning this year. I reached out to TFF VP for P.R. Shannon Goodwin Mitchell who responded with this statement:
"Gary Meyer remains working with Telluride Film Festival as a consultant. In order to serve the changing needs of the festival and to pursue his own projects, Gary, under his new title of Senior Curator, will continue contributing on programming, scheduling and creating the Program Guide."
My thanks to Mitchell for her quick response to my query.
TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES THIS YEAR'S POSTER ARTIST
And it is Christian Marclay. Here's the press release from the TFF PR crew released yesterday afternoon.
BERKELEY, CA, June 2, 2014 – 41st Telluride Film Festival presented by National Film Preserve LTD., proudly announces visual artist Christian Marclay as its 2014 poster artist. Telluride Film Festival’s prestigious annual gathering for film industry insiders, cinema enthusiasts, filmmakers and critics takes place every Labor Day weekend in the picturesque town of Telluride, Colorado. The 41st edition of TFF will run August 29 through September 1, 2014.
Over the past 30 years, Christian Marclay has explored the fusion of fine art and audio cultures, transforming sounds and music into a visible, physical form through performance, collage, sculpture, installation, photography and video. Early examples include the series ‘Recycled Records’ (1980-86); the ‘Body Mix’ series (1991-92); Virtuoso (1999); and ‘Snapshots’, an ongoing, informal series of photographs that depict elements of sound and onomatopoeia that the artist discovers in everyday situations. Over the last decade, Marclay has created ambitious work in a variety of media including the video Guitar Drag (2000); Video Quartet (2002); Crossfire (2007); and most recently The Clock (2010) from thousands of edited fragments, from a vast range of films to create a 24-hour, single-channel video.
Christian Marclay was born in California in 1955, raised in Switzerland and now lives in New York and London. He has exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at LACMA (2011); LEEUM Samsung Museum of Art (2010); Whitney Museum of American Art (2010); Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain (2008); Cité de la Musique (2007); Moderna Museet (2006); Barbican Art Gallery (2005); Seattle Art Museum (2004); Tate Modern (2004); UCLA Hammer Museum (2003); and the SFMoMA (2001). Christian Marclay also continues to collaborate with musicians, including recent performances with Steve Beresford, Okkyung Lee, Shelley Hirsch and Otomo Yoshihide. He was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2011 Biennale di Venezia for his video work The Clock.
“I was very pleased to be invited to design the poster for the Telluride film festival,” said Christian Marclay. “I decided to celebrate celluloid at a time when the old analog medium is being replaced by digital technology. I have always been interested in outmoded formats such as vinyl records, cassette tapes, or rotary telephones. I also wanted to show how cinema is an art of collage – fragments are collected and assembled to tell a story. The filmstrip with its sprocket holes and optical sound track is instantly recognized as the universal symbol for film. I wonder what will replace it?”
“We have always been enamored with Christian’s work, particularly The Clock and its concept,” commented Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie Huntsinger. “There is such wealth in cinema’s history and Christian pulls from different elements from the past and assembles them in a wholly new arrangement. The poster is a further exploration of this work. His ideas reflect one the most important goals at TFF, which is to create and sustain an appreciation of the art and history of film.”
Marlcay joins a prestigious list of artists who have shared their talents with Telluride Film Festival. Past poster artists include Dean Tavoularis, Ed Ruscha, John Mansfield, Julian Schnabel, Dottie Attie, Doug and Mike Starn, David Lance Goines, Chuck Jones, David Salle, Alexis Smith, Jim Dine, Seymour Chwast, Frederic Amat, Francesco Clemente, Dave McKean, Gary Larson, Chip Kidd, John Canemaker, Mark Stock, Laurie Anderson, William Wegman, Ralph Eggleston, Maira Kalman and Dave Eggers.
41st Telluride Film Festival posters will be available for purchase throughout the four-day Festival or by visiting the TFF website atwww.telluridefilmfestival.org.
MR. MIKE'S WISH LIST
The first stab at a "Ten Bets" list is still almost two weeks away but that doesn't mean I don't have films that I'm wishing for, Some of them have a decent shot to make the lineup; others are "pie in the sky"...but even"pie in the sky" sometimes comes true.
Here's where I am right now:
Wish List A: (films that have a reasonable chance to be at Telluride): "Foxcatcher", "The Imitation Game", "Birdman", "Two Days, One Night".
Wish List B: (films that I'd love to see at Telluride, but chances are minuscule): "Interstellar", "Inherent Vice", "MacBeth", "Unbroken".
There will be others...What's on your wish list?
BIRDMAN TAKES FLIGHT
It was all over the Twitterverse yesterday. The first poster (above) and teaser for Alejandro G. Inarritu's "Birdman". The film stars Michael Keaton as a once famous actor whose claim to fame was playing a superhero and who is trying to recapture some of that fame (as well as prove his worth as an actor) by mounting a Broadway play.
Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Amy Ryan and Zach Galifinakis are also in the cast. Fox Searchlight has the distribution and it is set for an Oct. 17 release here in the U.S.
I also fully expect it will land in the first Ten Bets for TFF #41 later this month. I have included the teaser as well as massive coverage of its release yesterday:
Additionally, HitFix, The Playlist and Rope of Silicon all suggest what I have been suggesting which is that "Birdman" is a real Telluride possibility. Brad Brevet at Rope of Silicon goes so far as to say it's an "expectation".
HERE COMES "THE JUDGE"?
Downey Jr. and Duvall in "The Judge" via JoBlo.com
A film that has been completely off my radar is David Dobkin's "The Judge" but a brief post by Rope of Silicon yesterday about the film (Robert Downey, Jr., Robert Duvall) suggests that it may also be in the hunt for fall film fest gravitas including Telluride. Brad Brevet suggests that if Warners has some belief that it has awards potential that a play at Telluride is at least a possibility. Check the complete post here:
As it turns out, joblo.com also suggested "The Judge" was a Telluride possibility back in April:
"The Judge" also stars Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton, Melissa Leo and Leighton Meester. It's set for release on Oct. 10.
That's the Best of this Week...more on Monday from Kansas City, Kansas...home of the 2014 NSDA National Speech/Debate Tournament.
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