Two of the directors with commercialmaking ties whose work was covered in SHOOT‘s Sundance Film Festival preview (1/21) have gone on to earn top prizes in competition.
Director Peter D. Richardson won Sundance’s grand jury U.S. documentary prize for How to Die in Oregon. And director Matt Piedmont took the U.S. jury prize in short filmmaking for Brick Novax’s Diary. Richardson directs spots and branded content via Food Chain Films, Portland, Ore., while Piedmont is repped for commercials and branded entertainment by PRETTYBIRD, Santa Monica, Calif.
How to Die In Oregon tells the stories of terminally ill Oregonians as they decide whether and when to end their lives under the state’s Death With Dignity Law. This was Richardson’s second documentary–both making the cut at Sundance, the first being Clear Cut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon, which centered on a cultural/political conflict that occurred within that town’s school district. Clear Cut was part of Sundance’s then American Spectrum program in 2006.
Actually Richardson found the inspiration for How to Die in Oregon on the morning he was leaving the ’06 Sundance Festival. He saw the announcement that the Supreme Court upheld the Death With Dignity Law, against a challenge filed by the Bush administration. “I was immediately struck by the news and knew that would be my next project,” recalled Richardson.
That next project was four years in the making. “I was on call almost like a physician,” related Richardson in reference to his jumping into the lives of terminally ill people to do cinema verite justice to their stories. The film centers on a 54-year-old woman–a wife and mother of two children in their 20s–who has had a recurrence of liver cancer and ultimately faces the decision of whether she should use the law to end her life.
Richardson also chronicles Ray Carnay, a professional opera singer and actor with throat cancer. With Carnay, said Richardson, “We encountered the sorts of things that people do when they have control over the end. One day I filmed Ray going to a local studio to record his own eulogy.”
The documentary additionally took Richardson to the nearby State of Washington to tell the story of a woman who played an integral role in the passage of a nearly identical Death With Dignity law there in ’08. She became the face of the campaign supporting the law. Her husband had died of brain cancer, suffering over a lengthy period. She had promised him that she would try to bring to fruition a Death With Dignity Law in Washington.
How to Die in Oregon made its world premiere at Sundance and is slated for air later this year on HBO. Editor was Greg Snider of The Whitehouse. Richardson said of the documentary, “What’s surprising is that while the topic is serious and tragic, the film is uplifting. That comes entirely from the people and their stories. They are extraordinary people who led meaningful lives…In some ways this is a very existential film.”
Short honor
Director Piedmont made his Sundance debut with Brick Novax’s Diary. The film picks up the “legendary” Novax’s life at a point when he is penniless and residing in a seedy motel, knowing full well that he will die in a matter of weeks. Novax takes the time to reflect on a life spanning careers as a famous musician, astronaut, movie star and corporate CEO. He’s now looking to preserve his legacy as the coolest guy of all time.
If the storyline isn’t offbeat and tongue-in-cheek enough, the production discipline of the film is as Piedmont has made a short in which Novax is a one-sixth-scale toy action figure whose exploits are seen in an environment consisting of miniatures, interacting with other dolls.
Piedmont’s concept for this short film dated back to 2002 around when he left his writer’s gig at Saturday Night Live. “I had the idea to do a seriously cinematic vehicle using all miniatures and one-sixth-scale dolls,” he recalled. “I became a grown man playing with dolls. I’m a flea market goer anyway and started to pick up dolls and other props for the film. I was gluing cotton balls to blue construction paper. I was really into it. But then we moved, I boxed everything up and went on to other things. For better or worse, though, I have a track record of eventually completing what I set out to do.”
Indeed an overture from Funny or Die resurrected the project which took on a comedic bent, ultimately evolving into the short, which has been broken up into four segments for episodic airing on the HBO show Funny or Die Presents (the first installment of Piedmont’s short premiered on HBO earlier this month). The full short film, described by Piedmont as “a hand-crafted labor of love,” screened at Sundance.
Among those contributing to the hand crafting was production designer Mark Snelgrove who’s collaborated with Piedmont on various projects over the years, including a 7-Up commercial in 2010 produced by PRETTYBIRD. Brick Novax’s Diary required that miniature sets be built from scratch. “Mark couldn’t have been more up for it,” related Piedmont. “We were on eBay constantly buying 1973 Ken doll clothes, things like tiny saxophones thinking we might able to use them. He helped to capture an American design, 1970’s feel.”
Piedmont also credited DP Giles Dunning who shot the short on the RED camera outfitted with anamorphic lenses.
Piedmont is currently in post on his feature film directorial debut, a spaghetti Western shot in Mexico, done completely in Spanish with English subtitles, and starring Will Farrell.
As for his alluded to commercialmaking chops, Piedmont first became widely known in the advertising arena when DDB Chicago hired him to write and direct series for the short-lived yet ambitious bud.tv online entertainment channel. This work caught the eye of HSI Productions which signed Piedmont for commercials. When HSI exec Kerstin Emhoff went on to co-found PRETTYBIRD, Piedmont joined her there.
Winning entries
Here’s a rundown of award winners at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival which opened on Jan. 20 and ran through Jan. 30:
o The Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to How to Die in Oregon, directed by Peter D. Richardson.
o The Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to Like Crazy, directed by Drake Doremus; written by Drake Doremus and Ben York Jones. A young American guy and a young British girl meet in college and fall in love. Their love is tested when she is required to leave the country and they must face the challenges of a long-distance relationship.
o The World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to Hell and Back Again, directed by Danfung Dennis. Told through the eyes of one Marine from the start of his 2009 Afghanistan tour to his distressing return and rehabilitation in the U.S., we witness what modern “unconventional” warfare really means to the men who are fighting it. U.S.A./United Kingdom
o The World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to Happy, Happy (Sykt Lykkelig), directed by Anne Sewitsky; written by Ragnhild Tronvoll. A perfect housewife, who just happens to be sex-starved, struggles to keep her emotions in check when an attractive family moves in next door. Norway
o The Audience Award: Documentary was presented to Buck, directed by Cindy Meehl, for her story about the power of non-violence and master horse trainer Buck Brannaman, who uses principles of respect and trust to tame horses and inspire their human counterparts.
o The Audience Award: Dramatic was presented to Circumstance, directed and written by Maryam Keshavarz, in which a wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager’s growing sexual rebellion and her brother’s dangerous obsession.
o The World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary was presented to Senna, directed by Asif Kapadia; written by Manish Pandey, about legendary racing driver and Brazilian hero Ayrton Senna, taking us on the ultimate journey of what it means to become the greatest when faced with the constant possibility of death. United Kingdom
o The World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic was presented to Kinyarwanda, directed and written by Alrick Brown, which tells the story of Rwandans who crossed the lines of hatred during the 1994 genocide, turning mosques into places of refuge for Muslims and Christians, Hutus and Tutsis. U.S.A./Rwanda
o The Best of NEXT!: Audience Award was presented to to.get.her, directed and written by Erica Dunton about five girls who come together for one fateful night where anything goes. They all had secrets, but their friendship was the only thing they knew to be true.
o The Directing Award: Documentary was presented to Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, directed by Jon Foy. An urban mystery unfurls as one man pieces together the surreal meaning of hundreds of cryptic tiled messages that have been appearing in city streets across the U.S. and South America.
o The Directing Award: Dramatic was presented to Martha Marcy May Marlene, directed and written by Sean Durkin. Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult.
o The World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary was presented to Project Nim, directed by James Marsh, who explores the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who was taught to communicate with language as he was raised and nurtured like a human child. United Kingdom
o The World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic was presented to Tyrannosaur, directed and written by Paddy Considine. For a man plagued by self-destructive violence and rage, a chance of redemption appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker with a devastating secret of her own. United Kingdom
o The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award was presented to Another Happy Day, directed and written by Sam Levinson, about a pair of reckless siblings who are dragged into a chaotic family wedding by their overwrought mother.
o The World Cinema Screenwriting Award was presented to Restoration, directed by Yossi Madmony; written by Erez Kav-El, about an antique furniture restorer, who, aided by a young and mysterious apprentice, struggles to keep his workshop alive, while his relationship with his own estranged son, who is trying to close down the shop, begins to disintegrate. Israel
o The Documentary Editing Award was presented to If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, edited by Matthew Hamachek and Marshall Curry and directed by Marshall Curry. The Earth Liberation Front is a radical environmental group that the FBI calls America’s “number one domestic terrorist threat.” Daniel McGowan, an ELF member, faces life in prison for two multi-million dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies.
o The World Cinema Documentary Editing Award was presented to The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, edited by Göran Hugo Olsson and Hanna Lejonqvist and directed by Göran Hugo Olsson. From 1967 to 1975, Swedish journalists chronicled the Black Power movement in America. Combining that 16mm footage, undiscovered until now, with contemporary audio interviews, this film illuminates the people and culture that fueled change and brings the movement to life anew. Sweden/U.S.A.
o The Excellence in Cinematography Award: Documentary was presented to The Redemption of General Butt Naked, directed by Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion; cinematographers: Eric Strauss, Ryan Hill and Peter Hutchens. A brutal warlord who murdered thousands during Liberia’s horrific 14-year civil war renounces his violent past and reinvents himself as an Evangelist, facing those he once terrorized.
o The Excellence in Cinematography Award: Dramatic was presented to Pariah, directed and written by Dee Rees; cinematographer: Bradford Young. When forced to choose between losing her best friend or destroying her family, a Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and endures heartbreak in a desperate search for sexual expression.
o The World Cinema Cinematography Award: Documentary was presented to Hell and Back Again, directed and shot by Danfung Dennis.
o The World Cinema Cinematography Award: Dramatic was presented to All Your Dead Ones, directed by Carlos Moreno; written by Alonso Torres and Carlos Moreno; cinematographer: Diego F. Jimenez. One morning, a peasant wakes to find a pile of bodies in the middle of his crops. When he goes to the authorities, he quickly realizes that the dead ones are a problem nobody wants to deal with. Colombia
o Two World Cinema Special Jury Prizes: Dramatic for Breakout Performances were presented to Olivia Colman and Peter Mullan for their roles in Tyrannosaur, directed and written by Paddy Considine. For a man plagued by self-destructive violence and rage, a chance of redemption appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker with a devastating secret of her own. United Kingdom
o A World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to Position Among the Stars (Stand van de Sterren) directed by Leonard Retel Helmrich, for his expose of the effects of globalization on Indonesia’s rapidly changing society as it ripples into the life of a poor Christian woman living in the slums of Jakarta with her Muslim sons and teenage granddaughter. The Netherlands
o A Special Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to BEING ELMO: A Puppeteer’s Journey, directed by Constance Marks, an inspirational film that crosses cultures and generations
o A Special Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to Another Earth directed by Mike Cahill; written by Mike Cahill and Brit Marling. On the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth, a horrible tragedy irrevocably alters the lives of two strangers, who begin an unlikely love affair.
o A Special Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to Felicity Jones for her role in Like Crazy, directed by Drake Doremus.
o The Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking was awarded to Brick Novax’s Diary (Director and screenwriter: Matt Piedmont). The International Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking was given to Deeper Than Yesterday/Australia (Director and screenwriter: Ariel Kleiman). In addition, the jury awarded Honorable Mentions in Short Filmmaking to: Choke/Canada (Director and screenwriter: Michelle Latimer); Diarchy/Italy (Director and screenwriter: Ferdinando Cito Filomarino); The External World/Germany, Ireland (Director and screenwriter: David O’Reilly); The Legend of Beaver Dam/Canada (Director: Jerome Sable, screenwriters: Jerome Sable and Eli Batalion); Out of Reach/Poland (Director and screenwriter: Jakub Stozek); and Protoparticles/Spain (Director and screenwriter: Chema García Ibarra).
o Sundance Institute and Mahindra announced the winners of the inaugural Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, in recognition and support of emerging independent filmmakers from around the world. The winning directors and projects are: Bogdan Mustata, Wolf from Romania; Ernesto Contreras, I Dream in Another Language from Mexico; Seng Tat Liew, In What City Does It Live? from Malaysia; and Talya Lavie, Zero Motivation from Israel.
o Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) announced Cherien Dabis, director of May in the Summer, as the winner of the Sundance Institute/NHK Award honoring and supporting emerging filmmakers.
o And Another Earth, written and directed by Mike Cahill, is the recipient of this year’s Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize. The Prize, which carries a $20,000 cash award by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character.
Other highlights
Among the other highlights at Sundance were:
o The world premiere on January 27 of Life In A Day brought a new dimension of experimental filmmaking to the festival. The film’s development has been chronicled over the past six-plus months in SHOOT. A YouTube movie, Life In A Day documents July 24, 2010, based on user-submitted videos from around the world. The call for entries yielded some 80,000 submissions representing 192 countries, with content in 45 languages.
Feature filmmaker (The Last King of Scotland), documentarian (the Oscar-winning One Day in September) and commercial director Kevin Macdonald helmed Life In A Day, culling from some 4,500 hours of lensed material a final movie in the 90 minute range. Exec producing the project is director Ridley Scott, with his and brother Tony Scott’s feature/TV company Scott Free Productions producing the film in partnership with YouTube. (Both Macdonald and the Scotts have commercialmaking ties; the Scott brothers of course maintain RSA Films, while Macdonald is repped stateside for commercials and branded content by Chelsea, and in the U.K. by Rogue Films.)
The Sundance premiere was streamed live simultaneously on YouTube, and the next day “rebroadcast” on youtube.com/lifeinaday and subtitled in 25 languages. Plans call for the film to be distributed to select theaters, on demand, and placed online later in the year.
Ridley Scott said, “I am delighted that we’re bringing together contributors from all over the globe in such a unique way. I believe Life In A Day will inspire more people to pick up a camera and tell their stories.”
The film clips capture varied life experiences, including a Korean man who has been cycling the world, and a young mother battling cancer, and the beauty of the seemingly mundane such as a full moon and folks fishing for their food and sustenance.
o Director Morgan Spurlock debuted The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, a documentary exploring product placement in movies–but with a unique twist. Spurlock made the movie itself an exercise in product placement, directly pitching companies on the idea of funding the documentary in return for visibility in the film. The movie shows Spurlock as he seeks backing from corporate folks, brand managers and ad execs.
Those companies that provided support were somewhat fearless in that there was no promise of how they would be depicted in the film. Spurlock’s credits after all include Super Size Me in which he showed the effects of eating a diet consisting exclusively of food from McDonald’s for an entire month.
Nonetheless coming aboard The Greatest Movie Ever Sold were lead sponsor POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice, Hyatt Hotels, JetBlue, Amy’s Kitchen, Sheetz Convenience Stores and outdoor/lifestyle shoes and clothing company Merrell.
“We are thrilled to be a part of this truly transparent view of advertising and product placement as it exists today,” stated Linda Brunzell, global marketing director at Merrell. “Spurlock’s raw and authentic approach aligns well with our brand that prides itself in being inclusive and real. The opportunity to join Spurlock to deliberately unveil the world of product placement with like-minded brands who have nothing to hide is priceless.”
Spurlock’s film pretty much makes the film’s 13 “sponsors” look good as risk takers for their decision to align themselves with a project that delves into the mesh of art and commerce. In addition to Spurlock’s pitch sessions, the documentary also interviews filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Brett Rather and Peter Berg about product placement and artistic compromise. The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is slated for release in April by Sony Pictures Classics.
o The aforementioned Another Earth was bought by Fox Searchlight. Directed by Cahill, the film featured a score by New York-based Fall on Your Sword, a music/sound house active in varied disciplines, including commercials.
o Commercials artisan Jessica Congdon of San Francisco post house Umlaut Films edited Miss Representation, which was in the U.S. documentary competition. Directed, written and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the film explored women’s under-representation in positions of power by challenging the limited and often disparaging portrayal of women in the media. Miss Representation brings together some of America’s most influential women in politics, news and entertainment including actors and activists Geena Davis, Jane Fonda, Margaret Cho and Rosario Dawson, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, PhD, broadcast journalists Katie Couric and Lisa Ling, and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, among others.
o Washington Square Films sold its film Margin Call, directed by JC Chandor, to Lionsgate & Roadside Attractions. The film tells the story of a dramatic 24-hour span at the onset of the world financial crisis. Washington Square also saw its aforementioned film Martha Marcy May Marlene get bought by Fox Searchlight.
