By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Academy Grants 2018 True/False Neither/Nor

TRUE/FALSE RECEIVES FUNDING FROM ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES FOR NEITHER/NOR 2018

Columbia, MO –  The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has awarded True/False $10,000 for the continuation of its Neither/Nor Series. Neither/Nor is repertory film series in which True/False turns over the programming reins to a visiting critic. Now entering its fifth year, Neither/Nor spotlights film movements that challenge traditional documentary form. In keeping with its name, Neither/Nor draws attention to film movements that have traditionally been neglected by the documentary world (for not being ‘documentary enough’) and the fiction world (for being ‘too-documentary’).

For each edition of Neither/Nor, True/False selects a film critic, who researches that year’s focus and selects a handful of works to present during True/False (March 1-4, 2018). During True/False, guests will participate in at least six free Fest screenings, alongside classroom visits and a public discussion. The series also creates a monograph, a collection of essays and interviews with the filmmakers, which helps contextualize the film selections. This monograph is available for free in various venues throughout downtown Columbia and is also posted as a free download on the True/False website.

Past subjects of Neither/Nor include a selection of Polish filmmakers who used documentary in subversive ways during the Communist era and ‘shockumentary’ filmmakers who relied on the exploitation home video market to fund provocative, political cinema about gun control and colonialism.

This series’ support from the Academy comes as a FilmWatch Grant, which also supports the Big Sky Film Institute, the Chicago International Film Festival, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, and many others. “This year, the grants will support non–profit organizations in 24 communities across the country, reach underserved high school students, support emerging and mid–career filmmakers of all ages, and will provide unique opportunities for enrichment and engagement with the cinematic community and its artists,” said Buffy Shutt, chair of the Academy’s grants committee.

Since its start in 2004, True/False has increasingly investigated the vast, vital slash between True and False by spotlighting documentaries that transcend mere reportage and incorporate the cinematic qualities of fiction filmmaking. True/False brings the Neither/Nor series back full-swing in 2018 with an announcement of the selected guest critic in late 2017.

For more information on Neither/Nor, and downloads of previous years’ monographs visit: truefalse.org/program/neither-nor

The True/False Film Fest will take place March 1-4, 2018 in downtown Columbia, Missouri. For more information, please visit truefalse.org.

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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