debor009

I have to tell you that all this talk lately about reaching out to women in film, creating special programs, help, etc rankles a bit. Maybe because it sounds just a bit patronizing and self-congratulatory....like helping disadvantaged children. (Or maybe I'm just having one of those mornings) In any case, women have been heavily involved in producing, directing, writing, and editing films since films were first invented as an art form. Every week their work hits the theaters; it just doesn't get the marketing it deserves typically. Kind of like The Hurt Locker (6 Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Editing, Sound/mixing and editing) vs. Avatar (3 Oscars: Cinematography, Visual Effects, Art Direction). Here's what women filmmakers have opening this week in theaters: The Red Pill , directed and co-produced by Cassie Jaye ; 13th , directed and co-written by Ava DuVernay ; Newtown , directed by Kim A. Snyder and produced by Maria Cuomo Cole ; and 37 , written and direct...

I'm drawing up my grocery list in preparation for a day of cooking turkey, but I just saw that Shawn Christensen's film Before I Disappear is opening this week and I had to say a few words. I saw his short film Curfew , which won more than 40 film festival awards before taking the Oscar for short film in 2012. It was very funny and clever and an example of what a writer can come up with if his take on life is prefaced with "What if....?" Before I Disappear is Curfew taken to feature length. Here's the gist: "At the lowest point in his life, Ritchie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his 11-year-old niece, Sophia, for a few hours." (The film actually opens with Ritchie in the bathtub cutting his wrists. I will say no more.) Christensen has added a few name actors to the feature, like Ron Perlman , but he still stars himself as Ritchie and has retained Fatima Ptacek as Sophie. I actually thought Ptacek was the weakest link...