By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

TRIBECA FILM TAKES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO SIDE BY SIDE, Keanu Reeves-Produced Documentary on the Digital Revolution and its Impact on Traditional Filmmaking

Posted Monday, February 13th, 2012 - Comments Off on TRIBECA FILM TAKES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO SIDE BY SIDE, Keanu Reeves-Produced Documentary on the Digital Revolution and its Impact on Traditional Filmmaking
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Keanu Reeves-Produced Documentary on the Digital Revolution and its Impact on Traditional Filmmaking Features Interviews with James Cameron, David Fincher, George Lucas, David Lynch, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh and Other Notable Filmmakers

Berlin/New York, NY – February 13, 2012 – Tribeca Film announced today that it has acquired North American rights to Side by Side, a provocative and illuminating journey through the technical and aesthetic implications of the transition from traditional film to digital technology.

Produced and presented by Keanu Reeves and directed by Chris Kenneally, Reeves takes you on a tour of the past and the future of filmmaking in Side by Side.  Since the invention of cinema, the standard format for recording moving images has been film. Over the past two decades, a new form of digital filmmaking has emerged, creating a groundbreaking evolution in the medium.   Reeves explores the development of cinema and the impact of digital filmmaking via in-depth interviews with Hollywood’s masters, such as Danny Boyle, James Cameron, David Fincher, George Lucas, David Lynch, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Lars Von Trier, The Wachowskis, and many more.

A summer release is planned for the film, which is having its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. In addition to Tribeca Film’s multi-platform rollout, the filmmakers plan a broadcast premiere early next year and will bring the film to college campuses and film schools to continue the conversation.

“Cinema is at a tipping point. Digital has challenged, and in some ways completely overturned, a process of making movies on photochemical film that has been a tradition for over one hundred years,” states Chris Kenneally, the director. “Side by Side is an intimate conversation between Keanu and the top professionals in the industry about this revolution and its impact.”

“Keanu Reeves has long distinguished himself with compelling and original performances, but with Side By Side he demonstrates another dimension: remarkable passion and thoughtfulness about the state of film itself,” said Nancy Schafer, EVP of Tribeca Enterprises. “Chris Kenneally has created a fantastic resource about the film medium and we are anticipating a great dialogue throughout this year as audiences experience Side by Side.”

The deal was negotiated for Tribeca Film by Nick Savva, Director of Acquisitions, and on behalf of the filmmakers by producer Justin Szlasa and attorney Marc Simon of Cowan DeBaets Abrahams & Sheppard LLP.

About Tribeca Film:

Tribeca Film is a comprehensive distribution label dedicated to acquiring and marketing independent films across multiple platforms, including video-on-demand, theatrical, digital, home video and television.  It is an initiative from Tribeca Enterprises designed to provide new platforms for how film can be experienced, while supporting filmmakers and introducing audiences to films they might not otherwise see. American Express continues its support of Tribeca and the independent film community by serving as the Founding Partner of Tribeca Film.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon