Why I Support First-Time Filmmakers and the Importance of Celebrating Their Work
When I began Xingu Films more than 15 years ago, I was driven by the need to take control of my own career, rather than sit at home waiting for my agent to call. As a first-time producer, I suddenly had to learn a great deal in a short amount of time, but I was lucky enough to have many friends and contacts who could point me in the right direction. Most first-time filmmakers are not so lucky. So it has become almost a mission on my part for Xingu Films to search for fresh young writers and directors, nurture their talents and skills, and provide them with the chance to break through into the film industry and launch their careers.
Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to play an instrumental role in bringing to the screen some tremendous projects by some of today's finest and most exciting directors, including Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and Dito Montiel (A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints). There has been something special in each of them, the stories they wanted to tell and their willingness to work tirelessly to engage the audience, even with limited resources. Duncan Jones has that same passion, creativity and drive.
Duncan came to me with the screenplay of Moon, the story of which he had conceived and then co-written with Nathan Parker. It was pitched as a science fiction film, which to me often signals a rather masculine preoccupation with special effects. However, I soon realized that this was a different kind of sci-fi. Psychological drama drives the narrative of this movie, which I think is hugely appealing to a female audience. If Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, they can have a meeting of minds watching Moon! Duncan's vision has made this possible. His ease with the camera and his intelligent direction of the actors has brought an independent sci-fi film to life.
Few people would relish producing a science fiction film on a budget of only $5 million, but that's what I love--the challenge of telling a story with the resources available. With that kind of budget for this kind of film, you have to be prepared to get your hands dirty--looking for pockets of money all the way through to the very end of post-production, begging for favours, stretching our resourcefulness to the max. It's exciting. Each film is a new beginning, each director a new collaboration and a new opportunity to invest in the futures of gifted and creative people.
This excitement is unique to working with first-time filmmakers. And festivals like Tribeca are so important, because they allow companies like mine to showcase new talent to a greater audience, and one who'll be prepared to embrace it. I'm very proud to say that Moon was received very warmly at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and will be on nationwide release this summer through Sony Pictures Classics. I hope you'll take some chances on movie night and see not only the big studio titles but also some independents - these are the hidden jewels of the film industry, and the showcases for the future greats of cinema.
Note: Moon premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It screens this week at the Tribeca Film Festival and opens in theaters on June 12. Moon will be distributed domestically by Sony Pictures Classics.
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I appreciate Trudie Styler's position on film-makers, and it's great that, even when she was starting out, that she had the connections and contacts to get doors open for other filmmakers.
I'm a commercial film editor and we are attempting something somewhat similiar, on a smaller scale, in San Francisco--to allow filmmakers to submit their short films, at no charge, to our website. We then will screen as many as we can each month at The Hotel Utah, an old-time San Francisco bar, interspersed with live music. We charge a sliding scale for admission (as little as $2) and hopefully will give beginning (or advanced) filmmakers a supportive venue to screen their work in public.
Submissions are open to anyone, worldwide, at www.cinemathequeavec.com.
(I need to update the site--next screening is May 28.)
Thanks for posting this. But your situation is considerably different than many independent filmmakers in who your contacts were and who you were married to. Like many others, I have few contacts, little money and no powerful people to open doors for me. I wish I did. I live in the hope that someday one of those doors will open, just a crack, and allow me to spread my creative wings.
More could be written about how Women are completely overlooked and the chances of a female director making it in the film business is incredibly difficult. Hollywood is no angel and in my opinion the keys should be redistributed. We need more female, minority and disenfranchised individuals making world class art. This should be supported.
Film Festivals are also a so/so proposition. Do you realize that the one of the head curator's for the 2009 Cinequest Maverick competition is a meteorologist! An enthusiast not a film professional or scholar. Truly dissapointing. Think about all the beautiful cinema being passed up because a judge has never watched Bunel, Ritt, Visconti, Quay and Svankmajer. So often films in fests are terrible and the information they offer is in most cases trite and ill-informed. Just another example about why Cinema courses should be started in elementary school, not college.
I could go on and on about this...
You are being unduly harsh on Cinequest, I think. (Full disclosure: they picked one of my short films to show last year). You don't know if the meteorologist has seen any Svankmajer films or any of the others you cite or not. How many film professionals have? Sometimes the opinion of a person outside the "business" can be refreshing because they have no vested interests. I agree with you that film studies should start early. My first film course was in Junior High School (back in the late 60's). I think what America has done to marginalize the arts is disgusting.
It also should be noted that there are great directors out there who don't even know they could be the next De Sica, Tarkovsky, Kubrick or Reichardt. Kurosawa stumbled into filmmaking by chance and imagine a world without his great films. Their are several kids in our slums, our rural areas, impoverished neighborhoods that will never know their true potential unless someone opens the door for them and teaches them some artistic skills. So knowing this and knowing that LA is continually shutting down it's schools and their art's programs I'm ashamed of my industry. Ashamed at their greed, their insolence, their ineptitude and just their plain old mediocrity. Why are the education programs of LA suffering when the film business is a juggernaut of profits. Studio's should feel some accountability when they prioritize a $300million dollar film over the education of a young American. All studio major tent pole releases should provide community development. We have an obligation to strenghthen our communities. Not let them decay.
The American Film Industry has the obligation to support the next generation of artists. Any studio or production company that has profited handsomely owes a debt to society and this debt should be repaid by supporting the dreams of future artists. I've always wondered why Spielberg, Lucas, Scorsese, Bay and many others do not offer a yearly grant program for up to $1million for an aspiring filmmaker to make their vision. Their should be at least 20 - 30 of these grants a year in this country. Considering the industry takes in over $15billion annually. It's a small price to pay to support new writers, actors, directors etc.
I really appreciate your article. You are right that young and aspiring filmmaking talent needs to be nurtured and supported. However, I must point out that the man who is directing Moon (a film I do want to see) is the son of David Bowie. So I'm sure that helps when it comes to opening doors and finding $5million for a first time director.
Truth is, too little is done to bring up the next generation of filmmakers or for that matter support them. The Fox Gameshow called the Backlot made me so angry I was spitting nails. The fact that Spielberg had profited from the aspiring dreams of others made my stomach turn. In truth each one of those young directors should have been given $750k to make a film and a distribution deal. I couldn't believe how tacky that show was and the fact it equated success to that of winning the lottery! Shameful.
"...nurture their talents and skills..."
Thank you for this!
Can you tell a loyal supporter of independent cinema (I've attended the Toronto Film Festival for 11 straight years) what became of a certain 2002 documentary titled THE SWEATBOX? Has Disney killed it forever? Is there NO hope of ever seeing it again?
Trudie,
If you're really in a position to support independent filmmakers, I'd suggest you support women. Hollywood is an old boys club that actively discriminates against creative women. Men jump from film school into directing. No one gives aspiring female directors that easy path.
How many women are given key positions on film crews? DPs? Cameramen? Sound Techs? I've been there and I know the answer to that question as well as you.
If you have the power to do so, support women. Let's start our own "Old Girls" network and finally make some progress. . .
Power to Women, our time has come again!
they also discriminate against middle age people in favor of young people.
Men making movies about men. Over and over and over again.
I'm so tired of their mostly predictible stories.
I just viewed Frozen River, a unique and edgy thriller, by and about women.
Bravo!
You make a great point. More women should be writing and directing their own films.
Frozen River is great, but is it really necessary to deride men - be "sick" of men - in order to pursue movies by women? Did men do something wrong to deserve this insult?
Men making male movies about men, with male cinematographers and male boom operators and male caterers serving masculine food to male crew members. Male screenwriters pitching male scripts to men producers, being greenlit by men executives. Male ticket takers, and men concession workers squirting butter on manly popcorn. Male video clerks renting male dvds to men customers watching their male movies on their manly tvs in their male houses designed by men architects, built by male construction workers...When will it ever end?!
With two or three exceptions, Men control Hollywood.
Hollywood affects our culture in numerous, powerful ways and half the population is excluded from the decision making, creative process. I would think, as you're on a purportedly progressive website, discrimination would concern you.
Guess not.
While I understand your comments, I think that the actual problem is Hollywood studios make formula films over and over. Come on ladies, how many chick flicks do we go to , made by a man or a woman are the same formula over and over?
Personally I go out of my way to watch the indie films, they are original, not formulaic and I just find them much more interesting. I watch foreign films for the same reason...
It's Hollywood Studios that are the problem here, not men vs women.
Hear hear BethA. You've hit the nail on the head. Well done.
Moon sounds like a very interesting movie. And I must say, that 2 of my favorite films were also featured at Sundance and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. Katja von Garnier's awesome film "Bandits" and Tom Tykwer's mesmerizing "Run Lola Run" (Lola Rennt). I still love them dearly to this day. So if this Moon movie is following in their footsteps, oh goody, this is going to be something else I can buy on dvd too hopefully and enjoy from now on. I'm a bit of sci-fi nut and have been going through MAJOR withdrawals since Stargates SG1, Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica are no more. Moon will give me something to look forward to.
Thanks for the heads up!
Thank you Ms. Styler. That is indeed noble and important work you are doing. What gives me some pause is do the directors have to be "young?" I am 51 years young and I have directed four short films, three of which I also produced and wrote (one was adapted). I now want to make a feature. Do you think I have a chance? I already have the script and the concept all I need now is funding (not nearly 5 million, maybe a fifth of that). You can check out two of my films, "Red Lion" and "No Connection" on You Tube. Just type in jlopen in the search box. Or check out our website www.jlopen.com for info on the film festivals they have appeared in. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks again.
I'm with you on the young part. I produced and directed my first feature film at 67.
www.AlternateRoutesMovie.com
I was too busy working in theatre for 50 years and had to wait until I had the time.
Make that www.AlternateRoutesMovie.com/index.htm
(Something wierd happened to the website.)
Hollywood has been dead for some time. These corpses you see on TV are recycled holograms.
I've got the outline and a story board and I've cast the part of the heroine (Cate Blanchette, she doesn't know yet). Now what?
As a person of the female gender, I must say that I am a HUGE fan of science fiction. I am a scientist, but I am also a story teller. The best science fiction isn't about the effects, it's about the story. I am looking forward to Moon!
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