The following projects and filmmakers were selected for the 2007 Producers Lab. Sponsored by Technicolor and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Lab is being taught by Ram Berman (Brick).
Basmati Blues - Monique Caulfield
Logline:
A young American scientist sent to India to promote a new kind of genetically-modified rice quickly finds herself wrestling with the real-world effects of her work and the affections of two very different local suitors.
Producer's Bio:
Monique Caulfield comes to Basmati Blues with 12 years of experience in the creative development of scripts. An entrepreneur, she is the founder of Pacific Sensuals Inc., a manufacturing and marketing firm dedicated to socially and environmentally sustainable products. Starting with $5,000 in seed money, she established distribution in nine countries, manufacturing facilities on three continents and fostered 100% annual growth and seven-figure sales. Caulfield has since sold the company and now focuses on producing films with a humorous, poignant edge. Caulfield is the recipient of Film Independent's first annual Sloan Producers Grant.
Cleave - Mike Miller
Logline:
A young artist goes looking for her estranged father at the edge of civilization, the Australian Outback, to uncover the truth about their troubled family history.
Producer's Bio:
After studying marketing at University Technology Sydney and fine art at East Sydney Art College, Mike Miller became an award winning advertising Art Director and Creative Director in Sydney (McCann Erickson, Young & Rubicam) and New York (Young & Rubicam). He left Young & Rubicam NY to start Silverlining Films in Sydney and began the next stage of his career as a writer/director/DP. Miller has consistently won awards for his work, including a Gold Lion at The Cannes Film Festival for advertising, Silver World Medals at The New York Festivals for directing, and Gold at The Australian Cinematographers Society (NSW) for cinematography. Silverlining was development partner and co-production company on the feature film The Delinquents starring Kylie Minogue and Charlie Schlatter. Mike was co-writer, DP, producer, and director on the short film OOPS which premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. OOPS successfully sold and screened worldwide including The SciFi Channel, Atom, and Canal+.
An early draft of Miller's screenplay for Cleave was a semi-finalist at the 2005 Slamdance Screenplay Competition. Miller is a Film Independent Fellow of the 2007 Screenwriters Lab. Other projects in development include a feature-length thriller, The Cobbler's Apprentice, a series of documentaries based on Chalmers Johnson's The American Empire Project, and a feature documentary, Earth, endorsed by The Royal Geographical Society.
Dear Lemon Lima, - Suzi Yoonessi
Logline:
After her narcissistic sweetheart breaks her heart, a lonely girl with a vivid imagination channels her Native roots to reclaim the spirit of the World Eskimo Indian Olympics.
Producer's Bio:
Writer/director/producer Suzi Yoonessi received the Jerome Foundation's New York Media Arts Grant for Vern (2004), which she wrote, directed, and produced. Vern was a finalist for the Roy W. Dean Foundation Grant, is in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and is being distributed by the National Film Network. Yoonessi's short film Dear Lemon Lima received a 2006 Jerome Foundation NYC Media Arts Grant, a 2007 All Roads Foundation grant, and was recognized by 2007 Film Independent Screenwriters Lab, 2006 Tribeca All Access Connects, and 2006 IFP No Borders Market. Dear Lemon Lima, is also an official selection of the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, Nantucket Film Festival, and Los Angeles Film Festival, and received the Cross-Cultural Award at the China-American Film Festival, and a Special Jury Recognition for Directing and Cinematography at the 41st Brooklyn Arts Council Film Festival.
Yoonessi associate produced the Cannes and Sundance award-winning Me And You And Everyone We Know (2005), written and directed by Miranda July for IFC Films & Film Four (UK), with frequent collaborator producer Gina Kwon. She co-produced Miranda July's Are You The Favorite Person Of Anybody (2005), directed by Miguel Arteta, which screened in the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Yoonessi received her BFA from San Francisco Art Institute, and her MFA from Columbia University where she was a recipient of the FMI Directing Fellowship.
English Rose 'Jennifer Westin
Logline:
It's September 1997 and as the world mourns Diana, teenager Polly Pent attempts to save her parents'marriage by destroying the reputation of the People's Princess, whom she thinks was a lying cheating, slut.
Producer's Bio:
Jennifer Westin has produced several short films including The Dawn Chorus, written and directed by Hope Dickson Leach, which played film festivals including Sundance, Edinburgh, and London, and won Best Student Narrative Short at the Austin Film Festival. Other producing credits include the short film Twenty Dollar Drinks, starring Sandra Bernhard and Cady Huffman and which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival; and Only a Lad, a stage musical based on music of 80's band Oingo Boingo. Westin was a finalist for the PGA Debra Hill Fellowship and the Hallmark Young Producer Award. She won the Arthur Krim Memorial Award for excellence in producing. She has an MFA in film with a concentration in producing from Columbia University.
Eva & Me - Susan Glatzer and Martha Little
Logline:
The woman who owned the car that famous bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow died in goes to Louisiana to claim it from a greedy sheriff and, in the process, rediscovers her zest for life.
Producer's Bio:
Susan Glatzer's track record of productions and acquisitions has garnered seven Academy Awards'and 19 Academy Award'nominations along with numerous awards at the Cannes, Sundance, and Venice film festivals. She has a broad knowledge of the international market and success in developing and producing commercially viable projects for the worldwide marketplace. Serving as Senior Vice President for the Motion Picture Group at Paramount Pictures from 2001-2005, Glatzer concentrated on co-productions and worldwide acquisitions. During her tenure at Paramount, she brought into the studio and nurtured young writing and directing talent such as Joe Carnahan, Jared Hess, and Mike White.
Glatzer became head of the production and acquisitions department for October Films in 1995 and the following year relocated to Los Angeles to carry out those responsibilities as well as establish and run the company's West Coast office. During her tenure at October Films and USA Films she served as Production Executive on seven films. Among the projects Glatzer has been involved with are Traffic, Napoleon Dynamite, Secrets & Lies, Narc, Breaking the Waves, and High Art. In addition, directors that Glatzer has worked with include Robert Altman, Albert Brooks, Diane Keaton, Michael Moore, and David Lynch. As a consultant, Glatzer has developed TV pitches with clients for ABC, Columbia Tri-Star Television, Lionsgate Television, HBO, Showtime, and Bravo.
Producer's Bio:
Martha Little is a writer/producer who lives in Los Angeles. She began her career producing theater and acquiring literary properties for film and television. After purchasing the rights to the story of the first all-black basketball team to win a NCAA championship, Little partnered with Bobby Newmeyer's Outlaw Productions to develop and produce Outside Shot which was set up at Warner Bros. She was also Executive Producer of Late Bloomers, which was chosen for Dramatic Competition at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up for distribution by Strand Releasing.
Little has been writing professionally since 1998 and is a member of the WGA. Her first screenplay, Eva and Me, was originally set up at October Films. A female buddy movie, this comedy set in the Depression-era South is about a woman who (with the help of her sexy cousin) finds romance and rediscovers her zest for life while stealing back her car 'the vehicle in which Bonnie and Clyde met their bloody end. Patricia Cardoso (Real Women Have Curves) is attached to direct.
Her other writing projects include a treatment for Showtime called The Cactus Curtain about George Parr, aka �The Duke of Duval,'who orchestrated the infamous Ballot Box 13 scandal and stole the 1941 Senate election for LBJ; an adaptation of the best selling novel Body and Soul by Frank Conroy for Sony Classical; and an original untitled screenplay based on the life of the English queen Boudicea with Nicole Kidman. Little is currently working on an original high-tech heist thriller entitled Spread, as well as an original romantic comedy set in a 21st century where it is no longer chic for the offspring of the very wealthy to be unemployed. The script, entitled Affluenza, is expected in the fall of 2007.
Face Value - David Baxter and Gretchen Somerfeld
Logline:
In 1942, actress Hedy Lamarr, along with composer George Antheil, patented frequency hopping, an invention which became the forerunner to most wireless communication today.
Producer's Bio:
David Baxter received his degree in psychology from the University of Michigan and worked in corporate marketing before beginning his entertainment career as assistant to documentary director Errol Morris. After moving from New York to Los Angeles, Baxter held several development positions and earned his master's degree from UCLA's Producer's Program. While there, he produced his first feature film, a romantic comedy called Shooting Lily that won the 1996 SXSW Film Festival.
After graduating from UCLA, Baxter was hired by SCTV comedian Dave Thomas to run development for Maple Palm Productions. At Maple Palm, Baxter developed and was a producer on Ambushed, a thriller starring Courtney Vance and Virginia Madsen for HBO. Baxter left Maple Palm and became a member of the WGA after selling Nuvolari, an epic racing car script that he co-wrote with Michael Wright, to 20th Century Fox.
Baxter is the recipient of the 2004 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation/Tribeca Film Institute screenwriting grant for two science themed film projects: The Broken Code, about the controversy surrounding Rosalind Franklin and
the discovery of the structure of DNA; and Face Value, about the life of actress/inventor Hedy Lamarr, whose frequency hopping patent was the basis for spread spectrum technology.
Peter Bogdanovich will direct The Broken Code early in 2008. Amy Redford has been attached to direct Face Value. Baxter is currently writing Challenger, the story of murdered racing promoter Mickey Thompson. Most recently Baxter formed Nimbus Pictures with producing partner Lisa Taback, with a mission to produce thought-provoking entertainment.
Producer's Bio:
Gretchen Somerfeld has written, produced, and directed a feature film and four shorts. All of the films have received worldwide distribution and have been shown at numerous venues -- from the American Cinematheque to the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. She graduated from NYU film school, was the winner of the Independent Filmmakers Grant from the NEA, and was the honored recipient of the Disney/DGA Directors Fellowship.
Somerfeld has worked in film and television as a script supervisor, production manager, and still photographer; she has directed theatre in New York and Los Angeles and was a member of the Writers/Directors Unit at The Actors Studio. She is the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant for her screenplay Face Value on actress/inventor Hedy Lamarr, which Amy Redford (The Guitar) will be directing in 2008. Face Value was also a selected project chosen for the Hamptons Screenwriters Lab in 2005 and her other recent screenplay, Miami Purity (adapted from the novel of the same name) has just been chosen for Film Independent's 2007 Screenwriters Lab. As a producer, she recently set up the family film Monkey Trial with Ted Field's Radar Pictures, and as executive producer has the sci-fi thriller Push (Infinity Features/Summit Entertainment) with Dakota Fanning and director Paul McGuigan currently shooting in Hong Kong.
The Gordons at the End of the World - Jason Weiss
Logline:
The nuclear plant in their town may be nearing a meltdown, but a bigger threat to the Gordon family's survival is the escalating turmoil inside their home.
Producer's Bio:
Jason Weiss is an independent producer and a principal at Embark Productions. He recently completed Humboldt County, a comedic drama starring Fairuza Balk, Peter Bogdanovich, Frances Conroy, and Brad Dourif. As the sole producer on this film, he has overseen its entire life cycle 'from script development and private equity financing through production, marketing, and sales. His previous credits include: No Excuses: A Season With The United States Disabled Ski Team, an enlightening and poignant documentary that premiered at the Montreal Film Festival and was distributed through Seventh Art Releasing; Down Dog, winner of Best Short Film at the 2005 Boulder Film Festival; and Hooked, which premiered at the 2006 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen.
Prior to his producing career, Weiss spent nine years in the software industry where he helped grow Trilogy Software from a struggling start-up to a 1200-employee powerhouse. His last role at was as Trilogy's General Manager of European Operations. Weiss received bachelor and masters degrees in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. He resides in Los Angeles, California.
Mississippi Damned - Morgan Rashida Stiff
Logline:
Three youths caught in a psychologically and physically abusive family struggle to escape familial patterns of addiction, molestation, and poverty in a small Southern town.
Producer's Bio:
Morgan Rashida Stiff graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television in 2005 after receiving her BFA from New York University in Dramatic Writing. While attending USC, she was chosen as a participant of Film Independent's Project:Involve. As a producer, Stiff has produced short and feature length documentaries, short fiction films, and promotional videos for national organizations like the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and North Carolina State University. Producing projects include Porcelain (2004), which is currently being distributed by Iron Rod Motion Pictures, Inc.; Hip Hop Homos (LOGO Networks, 2004); and the award winning Brooklyn's Bridge to Jordan (Showtime, LOGO, BET Jams, 2005). As an editor, Stiff has worked on tributes, music videos, short and feature length documentaries, and short fiction films. Editing projects include Hope's Choice (Showtime, 2004) and Save Our Future (2007). As an assistant editor, Stiff has worked on Sunday Dreamer (2006) and Resolved (winner of the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival Audience Award). Stiff recently completed producing and editing a feature documentary, One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story, with the creative talents of the critically acclaimed documentary Home of the Brave (Sundance, Court TV, 2004).
Po'Boys - Gert Basson
Logline:
An eccentric young man, desperate to save his struggling business, kidnaps the billionaire owner of a chain of super stores and learns about competition, compromise...and poetry.
Producer's Bio:
Before moving to LA., Basson successfully managed the film and TV division of a national public company M&M Ltd., based in Johannesburg, South Africa, turning it into the most profitable division in the group. After the start-up of his own production company, Rings of Stone Productions, Basson executive produced The Fourth Reich, which at the time was the most ambitious local feature film ever undertaken in the country in terms of budget and scope. The award-winning film (nominated for fourteen Vita Awards and recipient of four) is regarded as a milestone by South African film critics. Basson contributed as a writer to the success of the popular South African TV sitcom series Suburban Bliss (South African Broadcasting Corporation and Endemol) dealing with the dynamics of a black and a white family living as neighbors in the �new South Africa.'He was also commissioned to write a screenplay by director Bernard Joffe, nominated for an Oscar 'for his short film.
Basson did an extensive re-write on The Power Lakes for Talisman Films ( U.K producers of Rob Roy starring Liam Neeson). Basson is a former consultant to Next Wave Films (an Independent Film Channel/Bravo company) and championed their first digital feature film, Manic, (starring Don Cheadle) as well as the highly regarded documentary Keep The River On Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale. Basson was also involved in the initial development of notable projects such as Tsotsi (Oscar', Best Foreign Film 2006).
Basson is interested in writing, directing and producing films that will bring greater understanding and insight into the human condition. He recently completed an adaptation of an H.G. Wells short story titled Country Of The Blind, a poignant commentary on the current state of politics and religion in the world.
Point of Reference - Julien Favre and Minh Nguyen-Vo
Logline:
An immigrant with a tragic past and a marginal sense of direction is revitalized by the wonders of the global positioning system and an unexpected romantic encounter.
Producer's Bio
Julien Favre and his two partners, Luca Matrundola and Pascal Vaguelsy, are running DViant Films, an independent production company with offices in Los Angeles and Toronto. The company's first release, Night Train by Chinese filmmaker Diao Yinan, was part of the official competition at the Cannes International Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard category and is premiering in the US in November at AFIFest. DViant Films' signature project is a collection of feature films about the American Dream shot in North America by directors from around the world, including Minh Nguyen-Vo's Point of Reference, Barbara Albert's Me, Golden Globe winner and Academy Award'nominee Hany Abu-Assad's L.A. Cairo, and Cannes Award winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Utopia.
Prior to his involvement in DViant Films, Julien Favre worked as a TV development executive in France for ten years. He holds a BA in Political Sciences from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, an MBA from Ecole Superieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales, a Masters in Film & Television from Sorbonne University and an Masters of Fine Arts from the UCLA Film School.
Minh Nguyen-Vo:
Nguyen-Vo is an immigrant from Vietnam who had studied in France and now lives in the US. He grew up in a small town in Vietnam during the war. There was an American military airport on the outskirt that attracted many fighting. To escape the atrocities all around, he spent a great deal of time of his youth in the only one-room movie theater in town that his parents were managing.
After high school, Nguyen-Vo was awarded a scholarship to Universit'de Poitiers, France where he earned his Bachelor degree in Aerospace Engineering. He continued his education in the US at UCLA and graduated with a Ph.D. in applied physics. His research focused in the area of quantum electronics with application in high energy lasers and holographic memory. The passion to follow ideas from many different perspectives brought him back to his childhood fantasy of cinema. After many years spent in Los Angeles, part of Nguyen-Vo's family is moving back to Vietnam where he returns regularly to visit. This requires him to deal with the personal identity question in these two worlds by attempting to transcend it.
Buffalo Boy (2004), Nguyen-Vo's first feature project as writer-director, was in the official selections of over 60 international film festivals, including Locarno, Toronto, Rotterdam, and Pusan. It was Vietnam's official entry for the 2006 Academy Awards'and won many awards around the world, including FIPRESCI Award for best film at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, US. Nguyen-Vo is an alumnus of Film Independent's Screenwriters and Directors labs.
For more information on any of these filmmakers and their projects, please contact us at FilmmakerLabs[at]FilmIndependent.org.
