As the shit hits the fan on Wall St., a more gradual, but equally serious shake-up is happening in the world of independent film. Paul shares stories from Independent Film Week, a tumultuous clash of ideas about what the future of cinema sans Hollywood will look like.

Karina checks in to tell us about Fantastic Fest. Along with alcohol, karaoke, and BBQ, she’s enjoyed the films Cargo 200 and Ex Drummer.

Choke, the new film based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club), comes out tonight. Is this Sundance alum truly provocative cinema, or just the same old thing with some extra sex thrown in?

 

 FilmCouch 89 [38:06m]: Play Now | Download

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

0:00 - Intro, listener feedback, what independent film of yesteryear made the scales fall from your eyes?

6:23 - Independent Film Week, state of indie film.

18:44 - Karina shares tales from Fantastic Fest.

28:24 - Choke.

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I’m finally heading back to New York tomorrow after almost 5 weeks away, and a number of can’t-miss film events are awaiting me. A sample:

• Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light is finally, finally coming back to New York, a year after it screened at NYFF 2007, as part of a retrospective dedicated to the Mexican filmmaker at MoMA. Manohla Dargis raves.
• Natural Causes, the relationship drama co-directed by sometime SpoutBlog contributor Michael Lerman (and featuring yours truly in a teeny-tiny cameo), has a one-night-only NYC preview on Monday night at the IFC Center. You can buy tickets here, and read our SXSW coverage of the film here and here.
• IFP is launching a new series of screenings called First Weekend, in which they help ensure an indie release has a successful first weekend by inviting their members to buy tickets for a special screening featuring a discussion with the filmmakers and an after party. The first film to get the treatment will be Ballast, which we loved at Sundance, and which director Lance Hammer is self-distributing. It all starts at Film Forum on October 2. More info here.

While I’m in Texas for the week, Texan filmmaker (and sometime Spout contributor) David Lowery is in New York, attending Independent Film Week to support his feature St. Nick, which is a product of IFP’s Emerging Filmmaker Labs. He’s writing about his experience for Hammer to Nail, and had some interesting observations about the health of the industry. An excerpt:

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As the Toronto International Film Festival draws to a close, we talk with Karina Longworth and Kevin Kelly about their experience. The Coen Brothers’ new film Burn After Reading gets a mixed reaction, apparently it’s better if you get to see it with Adrien Brody. Brody’s new film, The Brothers Bloom, by Brick director Rian Johnson, is one of Kevin’s favorites.

The Fall, a lush surrealist epic directed by Tarsem (yes, he only goes by one name), is out on DVD. Adam and I mull it over, comparing it to the 1973 campy classic Zardoz, starring a half-naked Sean Connery.

Lastly, I interview Michelle Byrd, executive director of IFP about Independent Film Week, taking place in New York September 14-19. I should note that I accidentally mispronounced her name as “Boyd,” my apologies. It’s sort of funny if you imagine I have a strong Brooklyn accent for just that one word.

 

 FilmCouch 87 [42:01m]: Play Now | Download

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

0:00 - Intro, a listener shares his woeful Crispin Glover tale

5:12 - Kevin and Karina’s dispatch from Toronto

19:45 - The Fall

30:46 - Michelle Byrd interview

filmcouch-87

• The subject of today’s Friday Screen Test interview at DVD Panache is film blog hero David Hudson of GreenCine Daily. An excerpt, regarding something he learned from watching movies: “I’m going to have to be a little cryptic…I walked into the film in a state of torment, not even realizing that what was tearing me up was the need to make a decision. When I walked out, I realized that I was facing a choice that hadn’t been clear to me before. And I knew damn well which way I’d have to decide. And, sorry, but I’ll have to leave it at that. I will say, though, that, as is often the case is such situations, the movie wasn’t even a particularly good one!”
• This Vanity Fair chart weirdly lumps Cannes in with a number of summer music events, including Coachella and the “Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.” You’ll have to judge its accuracy for yourself, but I made it through ten days in the South of France without going near a yacht, a bellini nor cocaine. I swear.
• Congratulations are in order for Friends of Spout David Lowery and Dia Sokol, whose feature projects (respectively: St. Nick and Sorry, Thanks; the latter stars another FoS, Wiley Wiggins) have been selected for IFP’s Independent Filmmakers Lab, which means they’ll also make the short list for a new $50,000 grant.

IFP has just announced the nominations for their Gotham Awards, which will be handed out in Brooklyn next month. I’m so happy to see that Craig Zobel’s fantastic Great World of Sound has been nominated in three categories–Best Feature, Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor–the most nominations of any single film this year. Zobel’s feature, which Magnolia released with little fanfare last month, shares the Best Feature category with four, relatively “big” indie-arm titles: The Namesake, I’m Not There, Margot at the Wedding, and Into the Wild.

I’ve privately bitched about the lack of publicity surrounding Sound (even the release date seemed misguided, as it fell right in the middle of the Toronto Film Festival and thus necessarily turned coverage of the movie by bloggers and other indie journalists of limited resources into an afterthought), so I’m hoping these nominations will give Magnolia the impetus to give the film a stronger push. According to the distributor’s website, they’re still planning a slow roll-out to smaller markets through December.

Other Spout favorites to make the cut: Julia Loktev’s Day Night Day Night earned two nominations, for Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor; and Ronnie Bronstein’s Frownland will compete in the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You race.

As of this writing, IFP hasn’t posted the list of nominees on their website, but you can check out an alphabetical list on nominees, ripped from the press release, after the jump.

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***The Independent Feature Project is expanding the Gothams, the New York-based fall awards show that often out-indies the Indie Spirits. This year the actual awards ceremony will move from Chelsea Piers to BAM in Brooklyn, and related events will include a series of screenings devoted to Gotham honoree Mira Nair, to take place at the IFC Center.

***Cineville, the production company behind 90s indie classics such as Gas, Food, Lodging and Swimming with Sharks, is merging with DVD disributor Westlake Entertainment to form a new indie studio called Keystone.

***Yes, there’s a Terminator 4, and yes, several companies are fighting over releasing it.