Vote for your favorite Short Waves Video thru May 22. 

In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, WGBH in collaboration with the Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF) held an Open Call for short videos through the WGBH Lab.
 
Asian Pacific Americans have long been making waves in all aspects of American life, but their stories have often been lost in general U.S. discourse. “Short Waves: Stories Shaping Our Community,” hopes to bring light to these stories through locally made, short films about the Asian American experience and community.

The top four submissions can be viewed below, and were selected by a distinguished panel of judges:

• Tak Toyoshima, Creator/Secret Asian Man, Creative Director/Weekly Dig
• Donald Young, Director of Programs, Center for Asian American Media
• Judith Vecchione, Executive Producer, WGBH 

Please help determine the finalist and vote for your favorite.

The finalist will have the honor of automatic acceptance in the 2011 Boston Asian American Film Festival this November and possible broadcast on WGBH WORLD.

Watch The Short Films

Wear I Fit by Pratna Kem

N as in Name: Danh Nguyen by Pimthida Tiemchaiyapum

Depression, Suicide (Asian American Media Literacy Digital Story) by Frances Kai Ying Chow

Ballroom by Jennifer Carpenter

Vote On Your Favorite

Please help determine the finalist and vote for your favorite film. 

The finalist will have the honor of automatic acceptance in the 2011 Boston Asian American Film Festival this November and possible broadcast on WGBH WORLD.

The finalist will be announced on May 25^th at a public screening of all the Short Wave submissions at the Josiah Quincy School in Chinatown from 6:30-8pm. Filmmakers will be present for a brief Q&A session following. 

To RSVP for the May 25th event or for more information on BAAFF visit: baaff.org.

March 4, 2011

Massachusetts was well represented in the audience of this past week’s Oscar ceremony. Not only did the cast, crew, and even the real life characters behind Lowell-based The Fighter attend, but two local boys were there to represent a couple of small movies that have attracted big Oscar attention. Newton-born Howard Cohen and Brookline-born Eric d’Arbeloff are the co-presidents of Roadside Attractions, an independent film distribution company whose two movies, Winter’s Bone and Biutiful, were among those nominated in major categories.
 
Cohen started in the movie business as an agent, and d’Arbeloff was a producer whose credits include small indie films like Lovely & Amazing and Trick. After watching Hollywood turn in favor of making fewer movies with bigger budgets, the two figured they could successfully market and distribute cheaper, independently-financed movies made for grown ups.
 
“For me as a producer,” says d’Arbeloff. “I was at the flipside of a number of distribution deals, and I felt like there was an opportunity for a non-studio entity to be passionate about these smaller films. And that’s where we really found our niche.”
 

Roadside Attractions first hit was Super Size Me, which chronicled Morgan Spurlock’s self-inflicted dare of eating only meals from McDonalds for an entire month. From there, they went on to release a diverse slate of films, including Good Hair, The September Issue, and this past year’s critically-acclaimed and award-winning Winter’s Boneand Biutiful.
 
How does the duo choose which films they are going to distribute?
 
Says Howard Cohen, “They are joint decisions, but we also let each other have the films that we really champion. You get the diversity of opinion.”
 
“For instance,” continues Cohen. “In 2009 we distributed The September Issue, the Anna Wintour Documentary. Eric was really the promoter of that, and saw that there was a big audience for it. I liked the movie, but I think he really had the vision for that one.”
 
On whether or not they like every movie they distribute, Cohen answers, “It’s better if you like it.  I think we definitely distributed films that were not our personal taste, but I would say the vast majority were films that we liked.”
 
Cohen and d’Arbeloff bring to Hollywood a New England sensibility, especially in how they approach their decision-making process.
 
“We want our films to have a willingness to entertain,” explains d’Arbeloff, “and maybe that comes from a little bit from our New England roots. We are not just about pleasing critics, and being kind of urbain.”
 
“We want movies that audiences can really connect with, and that I think is the ideal Roadside Attraction Film. So maybe we have a little bit of Bostonian, New England humility in the mix versus some of our competitors. I think that has opened our eyes to a number of films that aren’t geared towards critics, but that have really sound audiences.”
 
Cohen add, “We talk how key particular theatres are for our films. They are not the downtown art houses, but actually a little more suburban theaters. The West Newton Cinema is our prototype theatre.”
 
“We go to the West Newton Cinema every time we visit Eric’s family, who still live in Brookline. We talk to the manager and ask what’s working, what’s not working. There’s a kind of too high brow or very narrow kind of movies that doesn’t work there. And there is a sort of a King’s Speech kind of movie that works really well there.”
 
What’s worked for Cohen and d’Arbeloff this part year is the Ozark-set mystery Winter’s Bone, nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture, and the Spanish drama Biutiful, which earned its star Javier Bardem a best acting nomination. 
 
What does Cohen and d’Arbeloff attribute their success to?
 
Cohen explains, “There is group think abut a film, and you don’t want to be taken in by that, because it is sometimes about going the other way. That’s how you have opportunity and success.  If everyone loved the move it would probably sell for ten million dollars.”
 
“It’s picking the one that everyone didn’t love. At Sundance 2010, Winter’s Bone was well liked, but no one thought it would do well,” says Cohen.

During depressions and recessions, good times and bad, Americans go to the movies. With 1.3 billion movie tickets sold, 2010 was another banner year for Hollywood. It’s precisely that infatuation with the big screen that makes the Academy Awards one of the year’s truly momentous events. The Emily Rooney Show’s Jared Bowen and Thomas Doherty, film buff and American studies professor at Brandeis University, walk us through the snubs, surprises, and predictions.
 

Best Picture:

 Jared Bowen: It’s predictable straight down the line. For Bostonians, it was a mixed bag. While The Fighter was nominated, there was only one nomination for The Town(Jeremy Renner for Best Supporting Actor).
 
Thomas Doherty: It was predictable... but these are ten really worthy films. There may be one or two that are not your cup of tea, but there a lot of good films from a lot of different genres. One thing that’s missing are comedies. It’s a really somber list.
 
JB: I think it’s going to go to the King’s Speech… either that or True Grit.
 
TD: I know King’s Speech is the middlebrow pick, but I still really enjoyed it.
 
Emily Rooney:True Grit was pretty predictable. It was just straight western with no Coen Brother twists or weird plotting.
 
TD: This might be why it’s the Coen Brother's most successful movie. It’s sort of the anti-No Country for Old Men. They were really smart to stick with the original literary voice of the girl from the book.
 
JB: Despite getting no attention from Golden Globes or other awards shows, it was the second most highly nominated film by the Academy. Whatever the Coen Brothers do, they have such an eye for everything. The music always work, the costumes are great, and the cinematography is always beautiful.
 

Best Actor

TD: I bet you both dinner that Colin Firth will win this category.  

ER: I thought 127 Hours was just a fantastic movie, and I really liked James Franco.
 
TD: What’s strange is that he’s also hosting the Academy Awards.
 
JB: This has happened before. Michael Caine hosted the Academy Awards years ago when he was nominated (in 1973, Michael Caine was nominated as Best Actor for Sleuth). History shows that if you are hosting, you will not win… I’m not sure he will win, but I really liked Jesse Eisenberg will win. I usually get to interview all the nominees, but this year he’s the only one I’ve interviewed.
 
TD: I thought Bridges mumbles too much in True Grit.
 
ER: Christian Bale was great, but the movie was just okay.
 

Best Actress 

JB: This is Annette Benning’s fourth nomination and she completely deserves to win it for The Kids Are Alright… but there is also Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole. Kids was so original, and so basic. It’s a simple movie that has a great exploration of traditional family dynamics.  

TD: I think Kids is weirder than that. It’s one of the few movies where the heterosexual sex is hotter than the homosexual sex. Julianne Moore has this great hetero sex, but then she returns to being in this boring homosexual couple. The gender dynamics are really curious.  

JB: I really loved Black Swan.
 
TD: I like Black Swan but it’s a film that really divides people. People who like ballet tend to not like it, while those who don’t know ballet tend to really like it.
 
JB: You’re not really supposed to be paying attention to the ballet, you’re supposed to be paying attention to Natalie Portman’s descent into madness. It’s born out her obsession with her art. It really works for me. I think she will win best actress over Annette Benning.
 
TD: It scores very well with the young female demographic. It was surprised how at the screening I was at, the audience was much younger than I expected.
 

Best Supporting Actor

 JB: Christian Bale will get best supporting actor. I thought Geoffrey Rush played the part as fairly creepy, which I don’t think was the intention, so it didn’t really work for me.
 
TD: I agree.
 

Best Supporting Actress

JB: I was a little surprised by Hailee Steinfeld’s nomination for best supporting actress. Mellissa Leo from The Fighter is my pick, and she’s up against Amy Adams from the same movie. As the mother, Leo is indomitable.
 

Glaring Omissions

 JB: What’s missing is Mila Kunis from Black Swan and Julette Lewis from Conviction, who had about 4 or 5 minutes of screen time but she gives a master-class in acting.
 
TD: For me, it was Never Let Me Go, which had Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield, who was in the social network. That movie really got to me, but it slipped under the radar.
 

Greater Boston’s Jared Bowen and film critic Joyce Kulhawik give Emily their take on what Oscar night might bring.

 

It’s been another banner year for Hollywood with more than a billion tickets sold. We’ve seen the return to form of one of America’s most critically acclaimed directors with Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, the end of one of the most popular franchises in film history with the 8th and final Harry Potter film...even a 24-hour film experience here in Boston as the MFA screened, The Clock. With so many movies to see and so little time, we turn to Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr and our own Jared Bowen - a couple of certified film fanatics, to walk us through some of the best of the year.

Jared Bowen's Picks

Jane Eyre
Directed By: Cary Fukunaga
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Machal Fassbender
Michael Fassbender explodes off the screen (and into a year of prominence) in an exquisitely rendered film.

Bridesmaids
Directed By: Paul Feig
Starring: Krisen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne
I definitely did not see a funnier movie this year. And let me be upfront—I loves me some low-brow. And how about something revolutionary—give Melissa McCarthy the Oscar.

The Debt
Directed By: John Madden (Proof, Shakespeare in Love)
Starring: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Tom Wilkinson
Intense and riveting—it’s great when the film ends and you can finally catch your breath (which you’d been holding forever).

Midnight in Paris
Directed By: Woody Allen
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams
A quirky sweet film with a most novel concept

The Help
Directed By: Tate Taylor
Starring: Emma Stone, Viola Davis
All glossy and slick and somewhat pat—but that doesn’t matter after an extraordinary cast led by Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Emma Stone is finished

War Horse
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson
Spielberg opens and closes the film with a distracting John Ford take. But for the actual war crux of the film, War Horse slips into Spielbergian rhythm and just gallops brilliantly.

My Week with Marilyn
Directed By: Simon Curtis
Starring: Michelle Willims, Kenneth Branagh
What I like to call a Vanity Fair film—completely overstylized in lighting, costumes and set and for all that I love it. Eddie Redmayne is just utterly charming (even though he only ever smiles) and Michelle Williams is just absolutely captivating as Marilyn. Plus there’s an equally decadent supporting cast including Branagh, Ormond, Dench, Wannamaker and more.

For Kids - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Directed By: David Yates
Starring: Danielle Radcliff, Emma Watson
Jared Says: This series went off the rails for me awhile back. But this edition completely returned me. Just an exceptional end to the series.

Ty Burr’s Picks

Dec 2, 2010

CAMBRIDGE — The Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights has organized a group of local filmmakers, survivors, activists, and academics to participate in the Human Rights and Sexual Trafficking Film Forum, taking place at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Dec. 2-5. This forum presents 12 documentaries that explore how the power of film can combat commercial sexual exploitation and modern-day slavery.
 
Suffolk law professor Kate Nace Day organized the film forum with fellow Suffolk law professor Alicia Foley Winn. Day says the event forwards the notion that film can spark change in ways other mediums can’t. “Documentaries have the power to make the experiences of the victims and the survivors very real… and very human,” Foley Winn said.
 

Day said she was struck by the effect documentary film had on her students when a film on sex trafficking was shown at Suffolk five years ago. "We decided that film was a powerful way to teach and move forward this growing social movement… to give it a political voice… and to lead to local, national, and international law reform,” Day said.
 
The forum aims to make a singular impact by presenting in stark terms the most powerful visual images that stem from this issue. “One of the advantages film has as a medium is that it pierces illiteracy," Day said.
 
“Film also has the power to create concrete change,” Day said. “For example, one of the films, Playground (playing at BITAHR Sunday at 2pm and 3:15pm), about domestic minor sex trafficking, is a film we asked Congressmen Jim McGovern to watch. That lead to opening hearings in congress on the problem of sex trafficking in the United States.”

How do Kate and Alicia advise audiences brace themselves for the often shocking imagery they will face throughout the course of the forum? “I think if you want to understand what’s involved in violent sexual inequalities,” Day said, “Then you have to be prepared to see some part of it.  None of it is exposed in its entirety in any one of these films.”
 
“But if you have a young person, there are a number of films in the forum on Sunday that are designed to stress preventive measures that work in combating sex trafficking," Day continued.

She admits it's difficult. "You want to make young people aware of the vulnerability, but without violating important social norms about what young people should be seeing or being exposed to,” Day said.
 
The Human Rights and Sex Trafficking Film Forum opens on Dec. 2 and runs through Dec. 5 at the Brattle Theatre.

Jared Bowen sits down with Boston Globe film critc Ty Burr to talk whatelse, football, and what you should be watching this Thanksgiving.
 
if you’re not going to be watching football on Thanksgiving, the second best thing to do is watch a football movie. And there are plenty of choices.
 
What makes a good football movie? According to Boston Globe film critic Ty Burrr, “It’s got to have a knowledge of the game, and get the audience in there, so they know what’s going on.  And, you also need a certain amount of sentiment, but not too much sentimentality.  And the best ones balance mom and apple pie, football, and Thanksgiving sentiment with some tougher outlooks on life.”

What are Ty’s favorite football movies? “There are some really good football movies, not as many as I think baseball movies, but it’s a smaller genre. North Dallas Forty is one of my favorites.  That’s the cynical sort of pro-movie, but I think the all around sentimental favorite has to be Rudy. “
 
“Oh, I know, the grizzled hardened movie critic…but Rudy gets me weeping every time. When Charles S. Dutton gets up at the end of the movie and starts doing the slow clap. I actually think this may be the first instance of the slow clap in movie history.  You know you do the, clap... clap... clap... And then everybody starts getting on there and chanting Rudy, Rudy. It’s the classic little guy who wants to prove himself on the football field. You gotta get behind that movie.  I mean, it’s corn, but it’s honest corn, well served and well mounted.”

So, what’s the worst football movie out there? “For my money,” says Ty. ”It has to be Radio with Cuba Gooding Jr.  The one in which he plays a mentally challenged young man who becomes sort of the mascot for this local high school team with Ed Harris as the coach.  Remember, what I said that a football movie has to have sentimentality, but not too much—man this movie lards it on. It’s an embarrassment to watch.”
 
Now, what’s the movie that people should seek out that they haven’t seen that they won’t know about?
 
“The sleeper of football movies, to my mind, is a documentary that came out a couple of years ago. It’s called Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. It’s a documentary about a 1968 football game played in Harvard stadium against Yale. Both teams undefeated, but Harvard the underdog. With a minute and 42 seconds to go, Harvard was down 29 to 13,  and they came back to tie it.”

“It’s not just about that, it’s about everything else that was going on in 1968. The movie’s a microcosm of what was happening in this country. One of the players was a Vietnam vet, one of the player’s was dating Meryl Streep, another one had George Bush as a roommate at Yale. Tommy Lee Jones is interviewed cause he was on the Harvard football squad, and his roommate was Al Gore. There’s so much that sort of criss-crossed into this movie. This game sort of reflects that in the background and solves it a very weird, sort of triumph surreal way.”

CAMBRIDGE -- Even if you are a muggle who’s never heard of a horcrux or a diagon alley wand, there is still a good chance you know something about the sign of the deathly hallows.That’s because at the stroke of midnight on Friday, Nov 19, thousands of theaters across the country will be packed to the gills for the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; the first installment of the series’ much-anticipated two-part finale. 
 
Across the river in Cambridge, at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History, volunteer coordinator Carol Carlson is opening the door to an entirely different kind of Potter experience.

Carol explains, “The exhibit director Jan Sacco and I are both Harry Potter fans, along with our kids. When we knew the next movie was coming out, we got together and thought it would be a really great idea to connect the science of the Natural History Museum to some of these wonderful characters.”
 
And connect it they did. Harvard’s Museum of Natural History is offering Harry Potter fans a chance to take a magical quest of their own at the museum’s very own Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt.
 
“We laid it out so that you start in one gallery, and each of the stops is in a different gallery. People walk through the entire museum,” says Carol.
 
Armed with nothing more than a map, a set of questions, and a love of all things Potter, visitors set out to discover how the fantastical world of J.K. Rowling comes to life in the natural world. 
 
The questions start out pretty easy, for example: “What is Harry’s companion animal?” For anyone who has every seen, read, or glanced at a poster of Harry Potter, they probably know that the boy’s beloved Hedwig is a Snowy Owl. So, explains Carol, “You would go look in the owl collection up in the balcony, the bird balcony, for something that looked like Hedwig.”

Replica of a Snowy Owl, found at Havard's Natural History Museum (photo credit: Harvard)

As the trail leads you into the Indo-Asia hall, the questions get increasingly more difficult.  Lay your eyes on the Museum’s giant python, renamed Nagini after another of the series companion animals, and you are asked: “What are some of the other horcruxes?”
 
In Potter lore, a horcrux is an object a dark wizard or witch uses to hide a fragment of his or her soul for the purpose of attaining immortality.Two of the horcruxes are made of precious metals. “So what precious metal were they made from?” ask Carol. “Go into the minerals hall and find out. I won’t tell you what it is.”
 
As you work your way through each hall, and the increasingly difficult questions, you begin to appreciate the massive amount of natural world research Rowling must have done to create her own fantastical one.
 
“For example,” says Carol, “We’re looking at wands and the different woods that wands were made of. Voldomort’s wand is made of yew. Yew comes from plants that are traditionally planted in graveyards. Although it’s an evergreen, it’s associated with death, and it’s very toxic.” For those who don’t know, Voldomort’s the bad guy ­– think Darth Vader meets Dracula without a nose. He’s come back from the dead.

Harvard's collection of glass flowers (photo credit: Harvard University)

Then there’s our hero’s wand. “Harry’s wand is made of holly, and when you think about holly, it’s also evergreen, but it’s associated with Christmas and everlasting life. I think it’s wonderful that this is Harry’s.”
 
Carol shows just how truly wonderful holly can be as her hunt leads into the Museum’s astounding Glass Flowers gallery. “When people first come in the first question is, where are the glass flowers,” says Carol. “The second question is, but where are the glass flowers?”
 
To be fair, the gallery does hold more than 3,000 hand-crafted models, but they’re still easy to miss. This is mostly because they look so astoundingly real. As you gaze upon these unbelievable replicas of some of nature’s most beautiful flowers, you can’t help but be filled with wonder. How did artists Leopold Blaschka and his son, Rudolph, do it? It seems, almost magical.
 
“They’re scientifically as accurate as can be,” says Carol.
 
Which may be why it’s impossible to tear your eyes away from the life-like red leaves. The leaves that Rudolph spent ten years perfectly coloring without cracking the glass.
 
“Here we have Harry’s wand,” explains Carol. “This is a model of American holly, and his is probably English holly, but it’s close enough. Again, everything is glass, including the microscopic slices.  So the Blaschkas had a microscope and they were able to take a live specimen of the plant. They drew it, and then they created it out of glass…to me that’s magic, too.”
 
The Magic of Harry Potter remains on display at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History until November 28^th. WGBH members receive $1 off regularly priced adult admission, limit two per MemberCard.
 

BEDFORD -- Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Mass. has a lot of what you might expect: Fighter jets, uniformed men and women bustling about and the requisite on-base hangout. At the back of Hansom’s MinuteMan Club sits 2nd. Lt. Patrick Gernert, who sits at a card table with two other servicemen, talking about their favorite war movies.
 
“Mine would probably be Forrest Gump,” says Gernert. “Even when he was miles from home he always thought about Jenny, and he always wanted to get back to her. He got bit in the butt, but he did definitely get home.”
 
Just like every football player has seen Rudy, and every filmmaker has studied Citizen Kane, for America’s men and women in uniform there are a go-to set of must-see movies that are often quoted, joked about and heavily relied on.

Must-See War Movies

Saving Private Ryan

Its first and last acts are among the most realistic and brutal depictions of war captured on film. In between is a timeless story of innocence facing the ultimate test.

Top Gun

One of a handful of movies granted full cooperation by U.S. Miltary, Top Gun defined heroics in the air for a generation with iconic star turns by Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer.

Forrest Gump

On one hand the story of a simple fan living an extraordinary life. Dig deeper and follow the baby boom generation as it grows up through Elvis, Vietnam, and the age of disco, drugs, and disease.

Stripes

Classic Bill Murrary comedy. "Don't leave. The flowers will die."

Full Metal Jacket

Stanley Kubrick's mix of surrealism and dark humor follows a Vietnam platoon's evolution from boyhood to war machine.

Gladiator

When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by a corrupt prince, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge.

“I mean, you can’t go wrong with Full Metal Jacket,” chimes Staff Sgt. Andre Edgardo Olaciregui-Perez, who normally craves the comedy stylings of Bill Murray and company. “Stripes is good, too. ‘The name’s Francis Sawyer.  If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I kill ya.’”

Olaciregui-Perez then wades into the danger zone with his next pick, Tony Scott’s 1986 melodramatic ode to military machismo Top Gun. He sums it up in one word: "Lame.”
 
Tech Sgt Khaliliah Velez is a little kinder. “All I gotta say is Take My Breathe Away. Every time I hear that song, that movie pops into my head, and I liked it," Velez said. "Now, it’s not Air Force, but I like the movie.”
 
The one movie they all agree is paramount is the untouchable Saving Private Ryan. “This movie, straight from the entrance, the Battle of Normandy” says Gernert. “It’s like—wow—boom—bomb—you know all this stuff going on, everybody ducking down, you hear the splash of the water—splush. It’s just intense, really intense.”

For the group assembled at this card table, there are a variety of different missions under their collective belts -- some of which include long deployments. To them, there is a different set of go-to comfort movies: The ones that take them home, when home is many miles and months away.
 
“They kind of helped me get through my time there,” says Velez. “You know, reminded me of my family and of things that I like to do in the States that I wasn’t afforded in Iraq. The Devil Wears Prada, The Breakup, Failure to Launch, Underworld 2, you always gotta switch it up a little bit. Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift was one that was close to home because it reminded me of son because he loves cars. And then, The DaVinci Code, just to kill time. I fell asleep most of the time, you know, it’s a long movie.”
 
Sergeant Olaciregui Perez has a shorter list of comfort movies. ”I was in Kuwait in 2007 and 2009, and my two favorite movies of all time, that I’ve watched repeatedly over when I was deployed, were Cast Away and Gladiator.”
 
“Cast Away is really interesting cause you know, you have this guy that gets stranded, in the middle of nowhere and really has no hope. But because of his determination in wanting to go back to what was close to his heart, it kind of deals with the same thing as in deployment," Perez said. "You know, you’re ready to go back, but you understand that you have to do certain things at the location. It’s like a journey, or an adventure. That’s why Cast Away is close to me, I guess.”

As for Ridley Scott’s action-packed historical epic Gladiator -- that one is a little more obvious.
 
“Every guy, they all wanna be Russell Crowe in that movie,” says Perez. “You know, screaming out, ‘Are you not entertained?  Are you not entertained? Is this not what you want?’  You know, it’s just very thrilling—it’s amazing.”
 
It’s also an escape. So in wartime, amid the intensity, the brutality, the loneliness—it’s clear listening to these veterans that in the 21^st century, movies are an integral part of the war experience.
 
“I guess I would tell someone that’s in the military with me, you know, whatever makes you laugh, smile, cry, because we all have different tastes,” says Velez. “Whatever takes you to your happy place—just watch it.”

 

2010 marks the 22^nd Anniversary of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, and in that time, its mission has kept consistent and clear.
 
“We began as a way to showcase films with Jewish themes from around the world, and we’ve pretty much stayed that way,” says Sara Rubin, artistic director of the Boston Jewish Film Festival.
 
“We focus on very contemporary films. Sometimes we push the envelope a little bit, if it’s a fiction film, but we want either the theme or the characters to the Jewish. We don’t really care about who directed the film, or who acts in it. And if it’s a documentary, most things from Israel are going to be fair game.”

Being steeped in the Jewish experience certainly hasn’t limited the appeal of this festival, especially for film lovers simply looking for good films that wouldn’t come to Boston otherwise. And for Boston’s Jewish community, says Sara, “I think that film festivals are a place where Jews who might be a little uncomfortable in a more organized setting—a synagogue for example—can come and be comfortable exploring their Jewishness.”
 
In terms of “place”, the “place” Sara refers to is the community that gets built each year through the festival, and continues year-round. The festival itself is housed in a number of venues, primarily the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline and the Museum of Fine Arts. Additionally, there are a number of screenings in the suburbs, including the West Newton Cinema and Arlington’s Capitol Theater.
 
One of the highlights of festival is the film Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story.

Sara explains, “It’s a wonderful, wonderful film, and what it does is touch upon something that has obviously struck a nerve.”
 
Directed by Peter Miller (who grew up in Lexington) and narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story confronts an old stereotype: That Jews are not athletic. It does this by exploring the historical connection between Jewish Americans and the nation's pasttime.
 
“It’s the puny Jew versus the strong athletic Jew,” says Sara. “I think that there are a couple of really strong characters that have resonated with audiences.  Certainly, Sandy Koufax by not playing on Yom Kippur, and Hank Greenberg who did the same. They’re both real giants, both physically… and um… sort of morally.”

Sara also recommends a couple of hidden gems, including one called The Socalled Movie, about a very quirky artist called Socalled. Who is he?
 
“Socalled’s real name is Josh Dolgin, and he’s from Montreal.  I’d say that he is kind of a ‘schlump,’ which is a Yiddish word for someone that’s sloppy.  He’s taken Klezmer music, which is an old music from Eastern Europe, and has added hip-hop music to it. He’s got quite the following among Klezmer and hip-hop types alike."
 
“We’ve shown more traditional Klezmer films, and this one is a little bit cutting edge. So I hope people will go, because they’ll see something different. That’s what we try to do with the Festival.”
 
The Boston Jewish Film Festival is underway all the way through November 14^th.
 

Moviola's "So Called" Review

It's an understatement to say that Mark Anastasio knows horror movies. His office at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, where he is the assistant program manager, is crammed with more movie posters and action figures than office supplies. This guy knows horror movies the way Ted Williams knew hitting and Stephen Hawking knows physics.

So what makes a great horror movie? To Anastasio, it's a pretty specific formula. “It has to be made from the mid-70s to the mid-80s. That’s step one," Anastasio says. "Step two is that either Tom Savini or Rob Bottin should have done the makeup effects and special effects for it. And step three is that it needs to have been directed by John Carpenter.”

This connoisure of cinematic gore is one of two men responsible for the lineup at the Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Annual Halloween Horror Movie Marathon, a 12-hour sensory overload of live music, psychic readings, popcorn and — of course — plenty of blood and guts on the big screen. 

“It’s a really great endurance test for horror film fans,” says Anastasio. “Half the fun I have is going around at like 9 a.m., seeing what the status of the place is.  Seeing who’s still here… what the smells are like.  Our projectionist one year equated it to an actual crypt. It gets funky.”

The funk starts at the Coolidge Corner Theater this Saturday at midnight and it doesn’t stop until noon on Halloween Day. Hundreds of horror movie geeks, film buffs and curiosity seekers will pack into the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline. Some will stay for a movie or two and maybe a laugh. A few will be in it to win it, enduring six feature films ranging from the campy to the terrifying.
 
If you’re hoping to hear a preview of all of the films that you can expect to see on the big screen, well... “I can definitely talk about two of them,” says program manager Jesse Hassinger. Jesse is a refugee of Los Angeles who fled back to Boston to become the Coolidge Theatre’s lead programmer. He shares Mark’s facial hair and his enthusiasm for this year’s line-up, especially Saturday night’s double-feature.

“This year there’s a movie called House, which is a 1977 Japanese film, that just got… well, I don’t know if 'rediscovered' is the right word… but ‘rediscovered’ by Janus Films. It’s a crazy, wild, insane movie that is equal parts Japanese pop and LSD trip.”
 
The second part of the double-feature is the 1980s horror classic Re-Animator, which isn’t just celebrating Halloween, but a birthday as well.

“This is the 25^th Anniversary year,” Jesse says. “It’s definitely a horror movie classic—HP Lovecraft influenced.  It has a great mix of humor and gore goes to extremes on both sides.”
 
So, which title is the bigger draw? The subtitled, LCD-trip Japanese Pop, or the Cult Classic celebrating it’s big 25?  According to Jesse, it’s neither.

“I think the biggest draw are the four films that we’re not advertising.”
 
Mark agrees, “The dawn hours… and maybe even close to 9AM… yeah, there’s gonna be shear brutality. I challenge you to come to this thing and stay until noon.  I’ll be there at noon the next day and if you’re there shaking my hand, you are a true horror movie fan.”
 
And if that’s still not enough for you, “We do have a ghost that’s rumored to live in the theater,” says Jesse. “So, maybe we will hear from that ghost this year."

Moviola's Halloween Must-Sees

On this week's Moviola, WGBH's inside look at movies in and around the Hub, Jared Bowen talks to filmmaker and actor Ed Burns. Burns' latest release Nice Guy Johnny is definitely not coming to a theater near you, but will soon be available to everyone in Boston, and beyond.

Ed Burns is a filmmaker and an actor, often most recoginized as a co-star to the likes of Robert DeNiro and Tom Hanks in major Hollywood pictures like Saving Private Ryan. But like his hero Woody Allen, what sustains Burns is making his own small, personal films that have built up a dedicated following among indie film fans. In 1995, he attracted major buzz when his first feature, The Brothers McMullen, won at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win over audiences hungry to watch Burns' kind of personal storytelling in their local theaters.

The success of The Brothers McMullen was both a professional and personal triumph for Burns, especially given that he financed the $25,000 production budget on his own. After 15 years of making movies, Burns finds himself in an industry landscape much less friendly to independent films. Which left Burns to ask himself, 'where do I want to go next?'

I wanted to go back to what I was doing, and where my head was, pre-McMullen. I had no money. I didn’t know anybody in the film business. I didn’t know how to make a film. So, I thought, let’s set some parameters and go back and do that thing again.

“That thing,” now has a name.  It’s called, Nice Guy Johnny, and it’s Burns’s latest film. The parameters were simple: Don’t spend more than $25,000.  Don’t shoot more than 12 days. Don’t shoot with any more than a 3-man crew. Don’t hire any stars. Oh, and most importantly, don’t give it to the theaters—any of them.

“We’re trying a new way to get these smaller, specialized films out to the audiences—because the biggest complaint I’ve always heard from fans of my movies is that they don’t live anywhere near an art-house theater, and the films never get to them.”

So, when Nice Guy Johnny debuts on Tuesday, Oct 26th, you can enjoy it in the privacy of your own living room. Or, say, on your iPhone wherever you like. That’s because Nice Guy Johnny will only be available on-demand, online and on DVD.

“The fact that we can stream movies on Netflix, Comcast, and iTunes or even YouTube or Facebook—all these things didn’t exist when I got into the business.  So we’ve been trying to figure out how do we fight for attention?”

Burns’s answer: Tell a good story. “The movie’s about Johnny, a sports radio talkshow host out in Oakland.  It’s his dream job, it’s all he really wants to do.”

Burns explained he wrote the film in response to a crossroads he faced in his own career, when his agents were pressuring him to stop with the smaller, personal films. Many in the industry were urging Burn to finally direct a big-budget romantic comedy,

What did Ed learn? That following your dream doesn’t mean a life without compromise -- it means a life where you choose which comprises to make.

Nice Guy Johnny, premieres on-demand, online, and on DVD on Tuesday, Oct 26th.

Watch the trailer for Nice Guy Johnny.

Is Nice Guy Johnny Worth Seeing?