July 29, 2005
Indiefest Film Festival and Market
Various locations
Chicago

Jonesin' for indies?

Been a while since you've seen something on the silver screen other than the latest star-studded vehicle? Back away from the blockbusters and get a dose of low-budget action here. You'll see more than 50 independent films representing 10 countries.

Opening night screen features Todd Kniss' "Blood Deep," starring Jordan Belfi ("Entourage"), Femi Emiola ("ER") and Jeridan Frye ("Profiler"). Screening takes place at Landmark Century Centre Cinema at 7 p.m.

Other highlights: Dan Polier's "Debating Robert Lee," starring Dale Midkiff ("The Crow"); Gorman Bechard's "You Are Alone," starring Jessica Bohl; and Jeremy Gilley's documentary "Peace One Day."Screenings take place at Le Meridien and the Landmark Century Centre Cinema.

Price: $10 per screening. Complete schedule: indiefestchicago.com
Phone: 773-665-7600

Dead Horse Productions will premiere their first feature-length film, BLOOD DEEP, Opening Night at Chicago’s Indiefest 2005, a festival venue for independently produced feature films and shorts. Accurately depicted by Moviesonline as "Halloween meets Stand By Me," this will be a world premiere for the film that Writer/Director, Todd Kniss, hopes audiences will embrace for its deliberate pacing, and clever reveals.

Sponsored by OfficeMax, Le Meridien Chicago, EatZi's, Discmakers, Cyclone Productions, IndieWIRE, Bexel, Ticketweb, Inktip, Indieclub.com, and others, Indiefest Chicago is a burgeoning new festival for creative writers and directors of fun and innovative films. This year’s 2005 festival will included fifty films from ten around the world, including forty-nine Chicago premieres and 17 world premieres.

Get ready to scratch that film-related itch. Bored movie-goers will have a great many chances to find cinematic bliss at this year?s second annual Indiefest, a 10-day film festival that runs from July 30 to August 8. Promoted under the slogan "Vision Without Compromise," Indiefest 2004 features the visions of 53 filmmakers from 10 countries. From tales of deckchairs in the Australian sky ("Danny Deckchair") to that of an all-girl bands in 1980s Los Angeles ("Prey For Rock and Roll"), Indiefest can deliver your midsummer fix.

"Our mission is to help independent filmmakers throughout the country, to further the cause of independent films," said festival director and founder Lee Alan. "We also saw the need for a real Chicago independent film festival. With Chicago being the third largest market in the country, it didn't really have an independent film festival on a large scale. There was kind of a niche there that we thought would be good to fill."

Indiefest fills a niche in more ways than one. Alan said he opted to hold the event during the first week of August due in part to the absence of any other major festivals around the globe that could compete with Indiefest. It also seems to have nestled itself snugly in a rare period free of preeminent citywide festivals and events, giving Chicagoans a cultural opportunity that's a great many notches up from downing dogs at Wrigley Field.

But what exactly can Indiefest attendees expect to down? At $10 a pop, Indiefest's movies run the gamut of viewer preferences. Among the entries are "Ford Transit," a documentary following a Palestinian cab driver around his route in the Gaza Strip, and "Most High," the story of an addict's downward spiral in which the star lost 250 pounds during filming.

Fans of B-movie mayhem can look to Christopher Coppola's "The Creature From the Sunny Side Up Trailer Park." Unlike his more celebrated uncle (Francis), cousin (Sofia) and brother (Nicholas Cage), Coppola happily resides out of the spotlight and in the land of '50s horror send-ups, faithfully administering doses of schlocky gore to audiences with each release.

Because of the looming presence of the upcoming presidential election, coupled with the recent notoriety of films like "Fahrenheit 9/11" and and the upcoming "The Manchurian Candidate," one might expect encounter a largely political tone at Indiefest. This is not the case. "There's a lot of documentaries out there that have a lot of political connotations," said Alan, "a lot of stuff about the Bush administration and what not, but for some reason we didn't get a lot of documentaries this year."

With films playing from noon to midnight at the both the Biograph Theatre (2433 N. Lincoln) and the screening room at Le Meridien hotel (521 N. Rush) for the duration of the festival, Indiefest provides a relentless channel of independent art. If you can't get to a film's premiere, don't sweat it. Unlike other film festivals, Indiefest offers multiple showings of each film. This little wrinkle is one of many adjustments Alan made to the standard festival format.

Alan cut his teeth in the indie film business during a three-year stint working for the California's Newport Beach Film Festival. He developed a vision for his own film festival based on his experience in Newport Beach and his experience on the flip-side, as a filmmaker participating in film festivals with his own movie, "Lizzie."

"We spent years traveling with our film," Alan said, referring to himself and his wife, Jennifer, who serves as the festival's director of marketing and corporate sponsorship. "We found it was really tough to get your film out there, screened and get distribution. We're trying to provide another venue here in Chicago to help independent filmmakers get their films shown."

That venue came into being last year and was successful enough to secure the Sundance Channel, Altoids and Le Meridien hotel as sponsors for this year's festival, significantly more corporate backing than most one-year-olds can claim. Another result of last year?s success was a sharp increase in the number of films submitted, said Alan. "The quality of the films this year from last year is just unbelievable," he said. "We had some of the most amazing films."

Those judged to be the most amazing of the "amazing films" will be honored in an awards ceremony held the final night of the festival.

For more information on the films, schedule and locations, visit Indiefestchicago.com.

Author: Patrick Corcoran, Centerstage Chicago and The Red Streak

Vancouver, B.C.: Alex Massis' New York-based marketing and licencing company, The Film Source, has picked up rights for worldwide representation in all media to Barry Levy's supernatural thriller SPOOK.

Based on the memoirs of an unidentified former CIA operative, SPOOK follows a Vietnam veteran's bid to expose Canada's covert role in the South-East Asian war. His story is so sensitive, he remains anonymous for his own safety.

Levy, (Riding the Bullet, The X-Files, Chris Isaak Show) who stars in the picture alongside Rachel Cronin from the hit TV series Ed, also served as writer and producer on the project. Massis says he is developing a stable of new titles, as well as his library of old and classic titles.

Spook also stars Peter Lacroix (Stargate SG 1, Dead Man’s Gun and The X-Files), and has been an indie festival favourite winning eight awards from a variety of American Independent Film Festivals where it is receiving significant attention.

Spook’s most recent appearances at the Chicago Independent Film Festival (INDIEFEST), and the Berkeley Video & Film Festival, garnered the film the prestigious "Vision Award" and Award of Excellence, respectively.

"'Spook' was presented with the Indiefest "Vision Award" because the film epitomizes Indiefest's mission - 'vision without compromise'," says Lee Alan, director of The Chicago Indiefest, which is sponsored by The Sundance Film Festival (The Sundance Channel).

Watch the trailer: www.spookthemovie.com/trailer.htm More: www.spookthemovie.com.

INDIEFEST DISCOVERS BACHELORMAN

02-20-04
Variety.com
NEWMARK WILL FATHER 'BACHELOR

NEWMARK WILL FATHER 'BACHELOR
Click here: Variety.com - Newmark will father 'Bachelor'
By Dave McNary
Friday, Feb. 20, 2004  Volume 282, Number 40

Newmark/Echelon Entertainment Group has acquired North American distribution rights to romantic comedy "BachelorMan" from Films On Tap with plans for an April release in at least a dozen markets. Pic, toplined by David DeLuise (son of Dom DeLuise) and Missi Pyle, centers on a self-assured programming exec for a sports cable network who meets a mysterious woman after she moves in next door to him.

"BachelorMan," loosely based on characters from Rodney Lee Conover's standup act, was scripted by Conover, Jeff Hause and Dave Hines. John Putch directed and Conover, Karen Bailey and Helen Woo produced.

Pic took best picture at Chicago's IndieFest, the audience award at the Palm Beach Film Festival and the top screenplay award at the San Diego Film Festival.

Producers plan to stage "BachelorMan" contests in each major market to coincide with the film's release and stage a finale in Las Vegas later this year.

Looking for the latest news?
Bookmark the following Web address:
http://www.variety.com/latestnews

"Lizzie" director Lee Alan is launching Indiefest, the Midwest’s first film market. Lee Alan is out to help what he believes is an underserved constituency: independent filmmakers. Alan has first-hand experience. His Chicago-made digital feature “Lizzie” garnered best film awards at the 2001 New York Independent Film and Video Festival and the 2002 Hollywood Film Underground Film Festival, but he’s still struggling to find a distributor.

Alan, president of Cyclone Entertainment, is launching Indiefest Chicago, a film festival and market running this August. “Having spent the last two years traveling with my film, and having worked at the Newport Beach Film Festival years ago, I saw a lot of what festivals are doing wrong,” Alan said. “They’re not really promoting the independent filmmaker.”

Indiefest, which Alan touts as the first film market in the Midwest, is geared toward providing filmmakers and screenwriters access to distributors, producers reps, agents and other entities that can help them break into the industry.

The Screenwriter’s Project, which Cyclone has run for nine years, is being folded into Indiefest. Alan said they’ve received as many as 1,500 applicants in previous years from screenwriters competing for 25 semi-finalist and ten finalist spots.

Alan plans to include 15-20 features and 80 shorts, both narrative and documentary, in the festival. Featured filmmakers and semi-finalist screenplays will be offered booth space in the market. A limited number of additional booth spaces will be available for a fee.

“Indiefest can be a springboard for independent filmmakers and writers to advance their careers, and for Chicago it can be an enriching experience that will capture the attention of the world,” said Jennifer Alan, Indiefest marketing director and “Lizzie” producer.

“Indiefest” runs August 1-10, with the market occurring August 8-10. Entry deadline is June 1, or July 1 for late entries. Venues for screenings, market and parties will be announced soon.

Lee Alan said that Cyclone is considering self-distributing “Lizzie,” which incorporates elements of a fictional reality TV show and a teenage girl’s video journal to tell the story of that girl’s trial for murder and the events leading up to the trail.

The biggest hurdle for “Lizzie” is that the picture has not been transferred to film, and still only a limited number of theaters offer digital projection. Beyond the festival circuit, “Lizzie” has enjoyed successful showings at the Siskel Film Center, and Alan is exploring a booking at the Roxy in San Francisco, but without a distributor to cover blowup costs, theatrical exhibition opportunities are limited.

“Lizzie” was shot entirely in Chicago in late 2000 with an all-local cast and crew. Alan self-financed along with three friends for a production budget of $250,000, a figure that Alan estimates has doubled with promotional and travel expenses of the festival circuit.

Undaunted, Cyclone plans to go into production on another feature just months after Indiefest. The Alans are considering several scripts, by Lee and other writers, and are talking to potential investors from the Board of Trade as well as foreign sources. They plan to start shooting in October.

Cyclone Entertainment is also a full-service music publishing company. “We do all the clearances for our films and videos, and retain the publishing rights to music in our films.” Their current publishing focus is on local composer Felix Milik, whose band TransNova is featured on the “Lizzie” soundtrack.

See indiefestchicago.com. — by Ed M. Koziarski, edk@homesickblues.com

After a six-month search that included four open casting calls, producers Lee Alan and Jennifer Erfurth found the 18-year-old lead actress for their first feature, Lizzie, in a bar. "We didn't know anything about her, except that she looked too young to be in the bar," says Alan, who also wrote and directed the digital-video thriller. "She was talking to my friend, who's a bartender there. We said, 'Sally, who's that girl?' and she said, 'That's my daughter."

The girl is listed as "Anonymous" in the film's credits--to create mystery, says Alan. Although the most acting she'd done was a tiny part in a high school play, she turns in a disturbingly realistic performance as an outsider who spends her time doing drugs with her slacker pals, arguing with her father, cutting herself, playing tricks on her best friend, engaging in the occasional bout of autoerotic asphyxiation, and capturing it all on tape for her senior-year video diary. The film's story is told through the diary, which is introduced as evidence in the murder trial of Lizzie and her three friends, who, as the film opens, stand accused of killing her family. That footage is framed within the story of the ill-fated debut of TrialVision, a low-budget cable channel broadcasting courtroom coverage.

Lizzie was shot in August 2000 in the northwest suburbs, where Alan grew up, for around $500,000--some of which he charged on his credit card and has yet to pay off. Though the film won the jury prize for best thriller at the 2001 New York International Independent Film Festival, the actors won't see a cent unless it makes money.

Alan calls the film a "reality fiction" along the lines of Kids and The Blair Witch Project. He and Erfurth have set up a Web site (www.lizziefilm.com) that includes links to a fake TrialVision site as well as the title character's fictional home page. The narrative draws on the story of 19th-century alleged ax murderess Lizzie Borden, but it's also inspired by Columbine and other contemporary high school shootings. "People still ask me whether the film is real or not," he says, adding that it was informed by his work editing videotaped civil court depositions in the early 90s.

The video diary leaves out as much as it shows, and is meant to raise questions. "I tried to make a puzzle that doesn't necessarily have an answer," says Alan. "People are so quick to judge and so quick to point the finger at one direction or another as the cause for things. It could be the parents, the kids, sex, drugs, rock and roll, the Internet--whatever. The whole point is that it's not just one thing."

In addition to developing other scripts and planning their upcoming wedding, Alan and Erfurth oversee the long-running screenwriting contest the Screenwriter's Project. In August Alan plans to launch Indiefest, a film festival and convention in Chicago that would bring together buyers, distributors, and filmmakers in a single setting, and would be a first for the midwest. It would also be the only such U.S. marketplace to focus on independent films. But he's hoping to find a distributor for Lizzie before then. "We've got a lot of interest, but the film is not for everybody," he says. "It's definitely a little out there for mainstream theatergoers. I've had people say that every parent should see the film, and I've also had people who've said they didn't get it--what was the point?"

Alan, Erfurth, and some of the cast members will appear at the 8 PM screening of the film on Saturday, March 1, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State. Tickets are $8; call 312-846-2800.

Author: Cara Jepsen, Chicago Reader Magazine