Distribution in fragments: the US market for Arab film

Dan Glaister in the Guardian reports on the producer of James Longley‘s beautifully visualized Iraq in Fragments, John Sinno, and his hard road distributing Arabic-language films in the U.S.. “A funny thing happened to John Sinno on his way into the US last month. Sinno was born in the Lebanon but has run a film distribution company in the US for the past 13 years, specialising in Arab films. He was returning from a conference in Vancouver and, in the boot of his car… he had a box of DVDs. Not unusual for a film distributor. Some were his company’s films, some were films given to him by film-makers and other distributors he had met in Vancouver. The US immigration official didn’t like what he saw, and pulled Sinno over. “I felt like I was in a military zone… They followed me to the bathroom and stood right behind me when I was at the urinal. It was unbelievably harsh for having a small box of DVDs.” Sinno “was travelling with a white American colleague. The colleague was waved on his way, while Sinno was held for nine hours. “They asked me where I got the DVDs from, and when I told them they didn’t believe me,” he says. “It was pretty scary. I said to them, look, I’m being racially profiled. Let’s admit it and move on.” He hesitates. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea to talk about it. We live in touchy times.” Of his work, Sinno says, “We’re the only company in the US that focuses on Arab film… We’re pretty much unique in the world. Even in the Arab world companies don’t have the range of titles that we have.” Writes Glaister, “Sinno now sees the bulk of his business through online sales and rental, notably through Amazon and Netflix. Is he fulfilling his aim to “entertain as well as bring into focus the issues that concern the status and future of the Arab world” as the company’s website states? “It’s very tough… There’s a deluge of rival material. I watch CNN and the news religiously, and it’s very depressing seeing the complex being reduced and simplified. I feel like I’m providing an alternative. Even though it’s on a small scale it’s what keeps me motivated. The drive has always been to bring Arab film to audiences in the US. But after 9/11 I felt like I exist in this day and age and I ought to stand up. I see what’s on TV, and I know this isn’t what I know.” [More, of course, at the link, including on Iraq in Fragments.]

The Cricketeer: H'wd sez keep outta the trash

David Germain of AP suggests that denying crickets a chance to chirp at rotten films before opening day might be a bad thing: “Critics are being shut out of more films as studios forgo advance screenings on [pictures] they expect reviewers to trash, figuring the movies stand a better chance of box-office success with no reviews rather than bad ones.” So far this year, 11 movies have not screened for critics before opening day,” by Mr. Germain’s count. “The practice does not sit well with critics, who either must do without or scramble to catch the movie on opening day and dash something off if their outlets want to have a review over opening weekend,” he writes, without producing quotes from reviewers. I’ll give him one: Shawn Levy at the Oregonian disagrees: “Does this sort of thing make me feel obsolete? Unnecessary? Unloved? Hell no! It’s positively liberating! Nobody expects a restaurant critic to comment on the finer points of each new McDonald’s that opens, and film critics should be treated with similar respect. If the studios know that they’re making garbage, they should drive right past the House of Criticism to the city dump and do their business.” While it’s not such a loss when the Adam Sandler production Benchwarmers isn’t previewed—auteur, Dennis Dugan be thy name—it’s more problematic when studios screen serious pictures past many publications’ deadlines, such as Universal did for most reviewers in Chicago for Spike Lee’s The Inside Man. Germain quotes Roger Ebert: “The target audience didn’t care that we hated [horror and teen] movies because they just expected us to hate them,” Ebert said. “If we reviewed them and showed clips and said they’re stupid and awful and violent, that’s a selling review for that audience. So the studio head told me, `Publicity like that can only help us.'”… Sony, the studio behind The Benchwarmers and three other films [horror entries all] not screened for critics this year, declined to comment. Executives at other distributors that decided against critic screenings—20th Century Fox, Lionsgate and Fox Searchlight—either declined to comment or did not return phone calls.” Leaving the last lines to Levy: “But one last thing: If studios want to work around me, they had best not pester me afterward looking for us to run wire service reviews of films they wouldn’t let us see. Don’t tell me that I’m not good enough to get an advance look at your product and then get cross if I refuse to slap a free ad for it on my chest.”

Full Frame surveys nine new Katrina docs

David Fellerath of Raleigh-Durham’s Independent reports on Desert Bayou, a Full Frame docfest entry that looks at what happened when victims of Katrina were wholesale, involuntarily relocated to Utah: “If 9/11 was the singular catalyzing event of this young American century, Katrina may well have been the singular paralyzing event. While the U.S. president seemed dumbstruck, blindsided and flat-footed in the face of both calamities, it’s undeniable that the 9/11 attacks stirred largely uniform reactions of sorrow, rage and calls to assistance and action… But when Katrina churned up the Gulf, confusion and demoralization resulted. It was a disaster without a savior in sight… and a shockingly inept emergency response apparatus. The most powerful culture in the planet’s history couldn’t help its own citizens, a surprising number of whom seemed to be desperately poor.” Chicago docmaker Alex LeMay got his funding in 5 days and was in New Orleans four days later. LeMay “tracks the fate of 600 African Americans who were airlifted without their knowledge or consent to the heavily white and Mormon realm of Utah. It’s one of nine Katrina documentaries [in the festival]…

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Quote of the day: Schamus' Water-boarding your potential clients is really not good for the culture

In the NY Times, Sewell Chan reports on a seething meeting wherein Mayor Bloomberg announced an intention to create an office that would publicize New York City around the world as a cultural capital, especially involving nonprofits. ““We won’t and can’t be complacent,” Bloomberg is quoted as saying before 220 officials, academics, bizzers and artists. Money quote: “James Schamus, a co-president of Focus Features and a producer of the film Brokeback Mountain, said that since 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, the tighter restrictions on entering the United States have made New York seem less hospitable to international artists. Widely reported abuses of American-held prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba and elsewhere have also taken their toll, he said. “Water-boarding your potential clients is really not good for the culture,” he said, referring to a form of torture [practiced by the U.S. at Gitmo], and he received scattered if nervous applause. [Barry] Diller seemed swayed by some of those arguments. “We’re certainly not an inviting place that greets people with a big happy smile to come into the melting pot,” he said.”

Ken Russell: there was a naked lady running round the garden

For the Guardian, Martin Wainwright reports on blazes in Ken Russell‘s parts: Russell “starred in a real-life drama [Tuesday] when he plunged into his blazing thatched cottage to rescue his wife who, unknown to him, leapt from her bath when the fire broke out and ran naked into their garden. Russell, 78, defied previous admissions of cowardice to make three attempts to reach his smoke-filled bedroom before realising that Elize, an American [whom he met via the internet] who became his fourth wife in 2001, had been found and given clothes by the couple’s gardener. “There was a naked lady running round the garden; what a pity I was not there to film it,” he said, recovering with Elize in the pub at East Boldre, Hampshire, while 80 firefighters tried unsuccessfully to save the £400,000, 16th-century building. “If it was one of my films I’d call it Hot Stuff.” [Tribute site “The Creative Fire of Ken Russell” is here. Photograph: Chris Ison/PA.]

UPDATE: I am a Correspondence Addict: Zahedi writes again

I Am A Sex Addict director and blogteur Caveh Zahedi continues his genteel tack after Mark Cuban deigned to comment on his post about the IFC/Comcast foofaraw that got his film yanked from Landmark screens, this time writing, “Dear Steven Soderbergh.”I called you on the phone once and asked if you could spare some of your short ends for a film I was making at the time. You said no, but you were nice about it. I am writing to you now to ask for another favor…” Word has it that you and Mark Cuban are good friends, and that you might be able to wield some influence in the matter. I have asked Mr. Cuban to reconsider his decision, as the whole thing has nothing to do with my film, which I spent the last fourteen years trying to make (that’s what the requested short ends were for), and which IFC Films has… picked up for distribution. Mark Cuban has been faultlessly courteous and straightforward in his replies, but he has also refused to budge. Since you yourself are a filmmaker, and someone who obviously cares quite deeply not only about the quality but also the politics of cinema, I am asking if there is anything you can do to help resolve the situation… My sense of Mark Cuban is that he’s a well-meaning and not unreasonable person, but I can’t help thinking that your eloquence in this matter would be far more persuasive than mine.

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Pre-New World: Zoller Seitz unearths original script

At The House Next Door, Matt Zoller Seitz continues his primary research into the implications of Terrence Malick‘s The New World, and he’s even got a PDF link to the original screenplay. “A wise man once said that art is a negotiation between the found and the made. That negotiation is on display in an early shooting script [which leaves] a lot of room for interpretation during production and editing, and gives the major characters, John Smith especially, some lengthy onscreen monologues that would later be converted to voice-over or excised altogether. At times it reads more like a novel, or an extended screenplay treatment with dialogue, than a typical ready-to-shoot script. The movie’s final 10 minutes, which are considered strong even by detractors, have no strict equivalent in this written version.” More comparison of page-to-screen at the link, including the observation,”Throughout, the description is written in a dense, flowing, poetic, sometimes florid style, the prose equivalent of Malick’s montage-driven Transcendentalist filmmaking.” [A commenter also provides a link to a 1995 Los Angeles magazine profile of Mr. Malick, written under the “Joe Gillis” pseudonym by, reports hold, Jeffrey Wells.]

Ebert and Laura in Madison: it's the locales that got smaller

As a couple of Madison’s movie palaces may be breathing their last, Rob Thomas of the Madison Capital Times reports on Roger Ebert and David Bordwell‘s presentation of Otto Preminger’s 1944 Laura Friday night at the Wisconsin Film Festival. “If you wanted to see the world’s most famous movie critic present one of the most famous (and strangest) film noirs in history…you had to be quick… [It was a] newly restored print direct from 20th Century Fox’s vaults. UW film Professor Emeritus David Bordwell told the audience at the tiny 180-seat Cinematheque screening room that the studio only allowed the festival to borrow the print under the condition that they not splice the reels… That meant that only a select few were able to watch “Laura” with Roger. Dozens more lined up outside in the hopes of securing last-minute “rush” tickets. “We can’t cut up the print, ergo, we’re here,” Bordwell said. ”

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Passion of the Caveh: a perverse pleasure in being rejected

I Am a Sex Addict essayist-auteur-protagonist Caveh Zahedi is working a fine trade in blunt namechecking at his own, indieWIRE-hosted blog, where earlier, he’s publicly micro-managed many of the publicity and distribution choices of IFC. IN “Dear Mr. Mark Cuban” Zahedi writes, “Apparently, Mr. Mark Cuban (the very wealthy owner of the Dallas Mavericks) has decided to pull our movie from the Landmark Theater chain (which he owns) because his TV [channel], HDNET, wasn’t able to get on Comcast (which is airing [on] Video-on-Demand… starting this Wednesday). The film was set to open this Friday at a Landmark Theater in Berkeley. Postcards have been made and sent out. Posters have been put up. Articles have been written. But he has decided to nix our screening… Well, dear Mr. Mark Cuban, I know nothing about your beef with the folks at Comcast… but I made a film which your theater has advertised as opening this Friday, and I would argue that it’s not exactly considerate to just cancel the screening (without warning) only a few days before it’s set to open. There are people who have nothing to do with your Comcast disagreement who will be adversely affected by your peremptory actions. I know you can afford it (financially speaking), but it strikes me as not exactly in keeping with the high moral standard you yourself set in the Enron movie you produced (which I thought was excellent, by the way, my congratulations on that). I sincerely hope that you will reconsider your decision. Perhaps you didn’t realize the effect that your decision would have on others who wish both you and the Dallas Mavericks nothing but the best. Yours Truly, Caveh Zahedi. In “Success Hurts,” he describes a SF Chronicle profile by Neva Chonin, which he says is “phrased in ways that make the truth just incrementally more absurd and dramatic. I’m not complaining. I actually like it. But it’s like looking into a distorting mirror at the funhouse. It’s fun, but is that really how one looks?” Here’s some of Chonin’s take: “Caveh Zahedi has suffered for his art [but] nothing, however, compares to the terror of success.

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Starbucks believes in unique culture at almost 10,000 locations

As Starbucks co-produces its first movie, Akeelah and the Bee [along with Lionsgate, the House of SAW], LA Times’ Lorenza Muñoz treks to the mountain of beans in Seattle to talk to the director of business development for Starbucks Entertainment, Nikkole Denson. “Though Denson prefers chai tea lattes, her staff drinks French-press coffee during meetings. She proudly shows off a black “coffee master” apron hanging on her desk and will eagerly discuss the difference in taste between arabica beans from Guatemala and those from Kenya. “I am as excited about the next Frappuccino flavor as I am about my next project… It’s a unique culture.” Denson is optimistic that the Starbucks culture she has so fully embraced will translate into film dollars,” the Times staff writer opines. “We have begun to be tastemakers,” [Denson] said. “We have earned our customers’ trust with the music and we are looking to earning their trust again with film. We are looking to becoming an entertainment destination… The tables have really turned and it feels great… All I had to say was ‘Starbucks’ and the doors were opened.”

Welsh like a pepper mill: mapping its movie locations

Reports News Wales, the Welsh government thinks that
the Harry Potter-Sideways movie gimmick makes a killer map after the Potter movies brought visitors to Northumbria: “The magic of the movies is set to create a… bonanza for North Wales. Tourism bosses have created a map showing the locations of films and television programmes shot in North Wales.” They hope for another 30,000 visitors and £1 million in income each year, with Tourism Partnership North Wales picking out 30 locations. It’s being included in Empire magazine, as well as here. What delights lie on the Welsh footpath? Events Executive Carole Startin says “North Wales has played host to a wonderfully eclectic mix of films and the Hollywood stardust has been sprinkled generously throughout the region… We’ve had a bit of everything, from Hollywood classics to masterpieces of slapstick like Carry on up the Khyber and Holiday on the Buses. At least two Bollywood spectaculars have been shot in the region and the enduring cult favourite, “The Prisoner,” is still attracting fans to Portmeirion…” Is that all? “The locations include Talacre beach where scenes for Backbeat, a film about the Beatles, were shot and Anglesey where Demi Moore shot Halflight [pictured] which is due to be released this year.” Plus: the second Tomb Raider picture!“ The potential is huge. We already know that… Last of the Summer Wine has been great for tourism in Holmfirth where it is filmed. “Dr Who” is now doing big things for Cardiff.”

Drink the Right Thing: Spike Lee wants to have a beer with the dead

AP reports that Spike Lee‘s new television advertising campaign, “Here’s to Beer,” includes his fond wish that he could drink with one of his dead heroes. “He’s unveiling new ads telling consumers to drink the right drink—and it’s beer.” (Naturally, “one of the ads will also star Lee.”) But Anheuser-Busch says the adverts are promoting all beer. “The idea is to take consumers away from wine, spirits and trendy cocktails that have taken [away from] beer sales in recent years. [The] ads ask a simple question: with whom would you most like to drink a beer? Spike Lee’s answer: late Brooklyn Dodger great, Jackie Robinson.” While that notion of communing with the dead and their indulgences is enough to make you cringe, the brewer’s “executive vice president for global industry development” says that it’s more than that: it reinforces the company’s message that “beer brings people together.” It’s about connection, you know. It’s about something that’s very social. It has a deeper meaning,” said Robert Lachky.” Other brewers’ reactions? “Miller Brewing Co. could take or leave the campaign, said spokesman Pete Marino.”We believe that the beer category does not have a problem, so we don’t believe there’s a category solution,” Marino said.”We are focused on really developing our individual brands,” much as Mr. Lee focuses on developing his own.

Dennis Cooper frisks Lars Trier

What pisses off novelist Dennis Cooper? While blogging about Kundera, Zappa, and Warhol, he’s got a few verbs left over for Lars Trier: “I think some of his early films are kind of interesting. The Kingdom was okay. But it literally took all my strength not to rip the fucking movie screen down at the end of Dancer in the Dark. It took all my strength not to smash my TV into garbage watching Dogville. I like artists who shake things up and piss people off and create a lot of weird energy good or bad. But to me von Trier is a condescending, ham-fisted, moralistic, cheesy, sadistic, self-satisfied filmmaker who’s infuriating not because he’s challenging or confrontational but because he’s a stupid, obvious, predictable, simpleminded bore.”

All films are useless: Arturo Ripstein

Arturo Ripstein is his usual sanguinary self on a tour of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, as recorded by Delhi Newsline’s Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan: “Ripstein’s movies are about the poor in Mexico, a theme considered ‘‘elitist’’ there. Among his works is an adap[ta]tion of Gabriel Garcia Marquez books. ‘‘People in Mexico mainly watch Hollywood movies… My films are shown to specialised audiences. It used to make me sad. I wanted to make films that would be watched because, essentially, all films are useless.’’ Useless? ‘‘I don’t believe that films have a message…’’ But why does he focus on the poor in his films? “We are a country of survivors… and cinematically, I find them a lot more interesting. I think people with ties are unattractive. The people I work with are more vital and whatever I’ve seen is absolutely fascinating… ‘I want my films to be understood, even by the limited audience. I can hope for a niche at a certain point in time. I’m not even looking at posterity.’’ Why is that? ‘‘Because works of this kind are forgotten. Even someone like Satyajit Ray would not be appreciated now. ’’ … The cigarello smoked, Ripstein is leaning back, and he doesn’t seem to be such a pessimist after all. ‘‘Life is like that,’’ he says, ‘‘frightening and terrible. But it’s worth living. It’s fun. And pessimism keeps you striving.’’ Amen.”

What would Jesus monopolize?: profiling Philip Anschutz

It’s been online for a bit, but not enough love has been shown to Justin Clark‘s Nerve profile of Crusader Philip Anschutz. Clark posits the scenario that you’re up for the next Chronicles of Narnia, advertised in the local Examiner throwaway, and showing at a Regal, Edwards or United Artists house, preceded by 20 minutes of ads, and a movie delivered via fiber-optics. “The underlying theme? Every stage of your moviegoing experience — from production to promotion to distribution to exhibition — was controlled by one man: 66-year-old religious conservative Philip Anschutz. Named Fortune’s “greediest executive” in 1999, the Denver resident is a generous supporter of anti-gay-rights legislation, intelligent design, the Bush administration and efforts to sanitize television. With a net worth of $5 billion, he is Forbes’ 34th richest American… Anschutz heads a vast media empire whose assets include the Examiner chain, 20% of the country’s movie screens, and a sizeable stake in Qwest Communications, the scandal-ridden telecom giant he formerly directed. (Anschutz was accused of helping falsely inflate Qwest profit reports, then making millions by selling his own shares in the company — a claim he ultimately settled by paying millions to charity.)” As one of the few profiles of the secretive multimillionaire, it’s worth the look-see. Writes Clark, some “fear [Anschutz’s enterprises are] all about bringing God and conservatism to Hollywood under a more secular and apolitical guise… Some have speculated that Narnia might be what Anschutz’s friend meant by the “significant” contribution the media mogul wants to make: using his wealth to buy a place for evangelicals in Hollywood.

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