THE OBENSON REPORT

From AP News:

Barack Obama and Bill Clinton ended their mutual silent treatment Monday, with the Democratic presidential candidate reaching out and asking his former Democratic nemesis to help him win the White House.

In their first conversation since the end of the heated primary, former President Clinton agreed to campaign for the candidate he portrayed as inexperienced for a presidential run. Obama had said Bill Clinton's harsh criticisms led him to wonder which Clinton he was running against sometimes.

The 20-minute conversation was the latest step in bringing together the two warring camps. While Hillary Rodham Clinton has been publicly behind Obama, hard feelings remained between the former Democratic president and the candidate hoping to become the next one.

The rest HERE.

As I said once before, If there ever was an oxymoron, it would "Black Republican."

The National Black Republican Association (NBRA) has launched the most personalized attacks of the presidential campaign to date aimed at none other than Barack Obama.

Who are they targeting with the ads? African Americans, who else - their fellow brothers and sisters? Have they won YOU over with their rhetoric?

The film stars, Kathy Bates! Yes, Kathy Bates, Mrs Misery herself and an Oscar winner, in a Tyler Perry movie. It also stars Oscar nominee Alfre Woodard, Sanaa Lathan, and Taraji P Henson amongst an all-star cast. With acting talent like this, how bad could this really be? I guess we'll find out in about 2 months.

The synopsis: Wealthy socialite Charlotte Cartwright (Kathy Bates) and her dear friend Alice Pratt (Alfre Woodard), a working class woman of high ideals, have enjoyed a lasting friendship throughout many years. Suddenly, their lives become mired in turmoil as their adult children's extramarital affairs, unethical business practices and a dark paternity secret threaten to derail family fortunes and unravel the lives of all involved. Alice's self-centered newlywed daughter Andrea (Sanaa Lathan) is betraying her trusting husband Chris (Rockmond Dunbar) by engaging in a torrid affair with her boss and mothers best friends son William (Cole Hauser). While cheating on his wife Jillian (Kadee Strickland) with a string of ongoing dalliances with his mistress Andrea, William's true focus is to replace the COO of his mothers lucrative construction corporation. Meanwhile, Alice's other daughter Pam (Taraji Henson), a kind but no nonsense woman married to a hard working construction worker (Tyler Perry), tries to steer the family in a more positive direction. While paternity secrets, marital infidelity, greed and unsavory business dealings threaten to derail both families, Charlotte and Alice decide to take a breather from it all by making a cross-country road trip in which they rediscover themselves and possibly find a way to save their families from ruin.

Whoa, slow down there easy rider... a Tyler Perry road movie? This I've got to see... actually not really, but I'm sure it'll do well with or without my $12.

Here's the poster for The Family That Preys (click for an enlarged view):

Well, it looks like I'll have to get over my digital video snobbery and dive in head first into the rapidly filling pool of DV-produced feature-length films.

Of course I'm being facetious, but it'll help if you read THIS POST first to make sense of my first sentence!

I say that I'll have to get passed my DV snobbery because the film I mentioned in the above post, Prince Of Broadway, won the coveted Target Filmmaker Award, which is the top narrative feature prize at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival. Congrats to the director, Sean Baker! I was already interested in seeing the film, and this award win certainly moves it a few notches higher on my list of anticipated films, although I'm guessing it may not get a theatrical run until early next year. As far as I know, it is still without a distributor, but with a win like this, along with many others that are likely to come, I'm hopeful someone will pick it up - maybe IFC Films :o)

indieWIRE interviewed Sean Baker a few days ago. Here's a snippet:

indieWIRE: Please elaborate on your approach to making the film...
SEAN BAKER: Financial constraints dictated that this feature be shot on HD instead of film. I am comfortable shooting HD myself plus it allowed us to have minimal equipment on set. I intentionally complied a skeleton crew so that the non-professionals acting in the film wouldn't be intimidated by a large group of people. It was key that the crew be a comfortable, close knit family in which everyone could contribute ideas and actors had the room to experiment freely. I feel that dialogue always sounds the most natural when an actor has not memorized it. So, improvisation was not only encouraged but necessary because the shooting script was complete in plot only.... a beat sheet was given to the actors and dialogue was intentionally left out of the script so that we could develop it on set.

Sounds very much like my approach to filmmaking. You can read the entire interview HERE.

See the film's trailer HERE.

Read indieWIRE blogger Matt Dentler's review of the film HERE, where he calls it a "must see."

Sujewa is based in the Washington DC area, but he spent part of his weekend here in New York City shooting and directing on-camera interviews with film bloggers working in New York. I was lucky enough to be one of 3 bloggers he interviewed for his documentary yesterday. The other 2 were Brandon Harris who blogs at Cinema Echo Chamber, and Brian Geldin who blogs at The Film Panel Notetaker.

Despite the sweltering heat, Sujewa got through all 3 profiles, travelling to each of our apartments to shoot each interview, logging around 2 rather heavy bags, loaded with camera, microphone and lighting equipment.

Given that I hosted a podcast for about 8 months last year through early this year, I'm much more used to being the interviewer, not the subject, so this took some initial adjustment on my part, but once we got into the flow of things, our conversation reflected our comfort... well, my comfort I suppose. We touched on a variety of subjects, mostly related to film, of course, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the entire piece cuts together with all the other profiles Sujewa plans on shooting for the finished product which he says will be completed this fall, 2008.

I'm excited to have participated in this project because I met 3 filmmakers in a span of one day - 1 who lives literally within 2 blocks of where I live (even though we've never met), and I was truly inspired just by being in their presence. Sujewa is a true DIY (do-it-yourself) filmmaker, and his drive and ambition are not only palpable but also contagious. I got to meet Brandon Harris and Brian Geldin as well, both cinephiles, and I was also very inspired by their individual efforts.

After the day was all over, I sat in my apartment staring at nothing for an extended period of time, realizing how invigorating it all was, spending time with these 3 fellows. These are the kinds of people I need to be around more often, for reasons I already mentioned. As an artist, especially a scribe, one can lead a rather insular life, understandably; but the experience of being around other artists from time to time is just as necessary, and that's something I tend to forget sometimes... until I have a day like I did yesterday. Thus I plan on making a habit of this.

Check out the website for Sujewa's documentary at The Indie Film Bloggers movie blogspot. He also blogs at DIY Filmmaker. which is part of the indieWIRE Blog Network. While you're at it, read his sound review of Medicine For Melancholy, as well as his Q&A with the director of that film, Barry Jenkins. Sujewa has also completed several films - both short and long-form - and you can find out about each one at his DIY Filmmaker blog.

I will post any info about the documentary as it comes to me, so pay attention!

He's worth every research minute!

Isaach De Bankolé is a 51-year old award-winning actor, of West African origin, specifically Benin, although he was born in Ivory Coast.

He has a degree in Acting and a Masters in Mathematics from the Universite de Paris. He was also married to singer Cassandra Wilson from 2000 to 2003.

One look at his IMDB page and you'll notice that he frequently works with director Jim Jarmusch, an early influence of mine. In fact, it was while watching his second film, Stranger Than Paradise, that I realized I really could be a filmmaker! If there's one auteur working today whose career I'd like to emulate, it would be Jarmusch's. I'll go into the reasons why some other time.

Isaach has appeared in 3 films with Jarmusch (Night on Earth, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and Coffee and Cigarettes). Now he'll be starring in a 4th Jarmusch film, his latest actually, titled The Limits of Control, which went into production in February of this year. It really should be on my "must-see" list, but I forgot all about it, until now.

In short, the film centers on "a secretive mysterious loner (played by Bankole) in the process of completing an undisclosed criminal job in and around Spain." Also starring in the film is a rather impressive list of actors, including another Jarmusch regular, Bill Murray, as well as the usually reliable Tilda Swinton, and Gael Garcia Bernal. And, by the way, the cinematographer for the film is none other than Chris Doyle, the award-winning DP known mostly for his work on Wong Kar-Wai's films, notably the luscious In The Mood For Love, amongst many others.

The Limits Of Control will be distributed in the U.S. by Focus Features, likely some time early next year.

This won't be De Bankole's first starring role, by the way - he's been in quite a few French films, working with notable French directors like Claire Denis, and you'll often find him partnered with another Afro European French actor who goes by the name of Alex Descas, also one to be familiar with actually, and who will have a part in Jarmusch's Limits Of Control as well. I'm always glad to see either of them on screen. But this could be a film that possibly widens public awareness of Bankole and his talent.

I'll certainly post anything about the film as I discover new information. I'm looking forward to seeing some footage of this - maybe a teaser trailer! In the meantime, check out a film called No Fear, No Die - a Claire Denis film, starring Bankolé and Descas.

(Josh Brolin as George W Bush, and director Oliver Stone) I wonder what this scene is about.

I certainly didn't expect the film to be one long Saturday Night Live skit, but I also didn't think that words like "sympathetic" would be used to describe it. I'm even more intrigued. Oliver Stone, an unabashedly liberal democratic filmmaker making a film that empathizes with George W Bush? Hm... ok.

Found this piece printed in today's L.A. times. Here are a few poignant snippets:

- Stone, Brolin and the filmmaking team believe they are crafting a biography so honest that loyal Republicans and the Bushes themselves might see it.
- "When Oliver asked me, I said, 'Are you crazy? Why would I want to do this with my little moment in my career?'" (Josh) Brolin recalled. Then, early one morning during a family ski trip, Brolin read Weiser's original screenplay, which covers Bush from 1967 to 2004. "It was very different than what I thought it would be," Brolin said.
- "It's not a political movie. It's a biography. People will remember that this guy is human, when we are always [outside of the movie] dehumanizing him, calling him an idiot, a puppet, a failed president."
- Stone, who was briefly a Yale classmate of Bush, is clearly no fan of the president's politics but said he's amazed by the man's resilience and ambition. The movie is basically divided into three acts: Bush's hard-living youth, his personal and religious conversion, and finally his first term in the Oval Office.

Read the entire article HERE.

So, the message seems to be: if you're a black filmmaker, and/or have a film about a black person or black people, then IFC Films just might be the distributor whose door you should be knocking on right about now :o) Of course, I'm being facetious, but if I did have a film, I'd certainly have consider seriously the facts above.