WORKS
Local filmmaker Rex Dean has submitted his debut feature film to Sundance. THE ADVENTURES OF SPACE BABY & MENTAL MAN is a modern day fable about an eight year-old genius and his quest for a baby brother.
With his two best friends, Sophia (his spunky little sister who talks to animals), and Blue (an old ballplayer retired from the Negro Leagues), he rebuilds the Holy Grail in an attempt to save the world from evil and bring Space Baby safely to earth.
According to writer/producer/director Dean, "the film includes everything you're never supposed to have in a low budget film: an 18 month-old baby, kids as main characters, animatronic crows, animals, invisible baseballs, ladybug fighter pilots, and over 100 visual effects shots." Starring in the film are the director's children, Sam, Sophia, and William, alongside Broadway actor Charlie Brown, with a cameo by local rocker Peter Wolf.
A one-hour documentary film, set primarily in Lexington, Massachusetts has also been submitted to Sundance. AN UNFINISHED SYMPHONY: TAKING RESPONSIBILITY IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY takes place over the Memorial Day weekend, May 1971; it examines a local conflict which reverberated nationally. Originally planned as a rally against the Vietnam War, Operation POW retraced the ride of Paul Revere from Concord to Boston culminating with a huge demonstration on the Boston Common. The event became a watershed for discourse over dissent and its place within a democratic society.
Operation POW was organized and led by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). The second night's bivouac on the Battle Green of Lexington became the site of yet another historic act of civil disobedience. More than 400 veterans and townspeople were carted off for incarceration in the town's garage, resulting in the largest arrest in the history of the state.
As the documentary portrays, the event intentionally took place on America's sacred ground, the birthplace of the American Revolution. It occurred at the doorstep to Walden Pond where Henry David Thoreau wrote CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. And the protest happened six weeks after Vietnam Veteran John Kerry stunned the nation with his question, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
This probing film uses extensive archival footage from the era and the event and recollections culled from more than 70 participant interviews collected by the Lexington Oral History Project. In addition, it draws from other voices expert in interpreting the issues of this era including Boston University Professor Howard Zinn and Marilyn Young of New York University.
Three scholars advise the project; Kevin Bowen, University of Massachusetts; Christian Appy, M.I.T.; Michael Doyle, Ball State University. Bestor Cram, a Vietnam Veteran and principal of Northern Light Productions in Boston is the film's producer; it is directed by Cram and Mike Majoros.
WRINKLES
IMAGINE files this report here because of the unusual approach to producing a feature length film. Believe me, we are all for it! The staff at Cityscape Motion Picture Education, the innovative new film school in Roxbury, is busy gearing up for producing and shooting their low budget feature in collaboration with the legendary movie producer Roger Corman.
Over seventy-five screenplays were submitted for consideration and three finalists chosen: THE STRANGLER'S WIFE, by Charlestown attorney Mark Dickison; SHATTERED ECHOES, by Lexington novelist Barbara Shapiro, and MAMA'S GIRL, by Framingham screenwriter Erica Ferencik. Mr. Corman and Cityscape are just now deciding on the finalist. In November, the chosen script will be developed and prepped for pre-production in Cityscape's Screenplay Development class, led by local producer Jean-Paul Ouellette, of Yankee Classic Pictures.
On the production front, Cityscape has received an overwhelming response to the call for apprenticeship applications associated with the Corman movie, to be shot in April of 2001. The response has been so positive, says Laura Wilson, Cityscape founder and director, "we now project that we can realistically double our initial budget figures."
Look out for a second tier of apprenticeship offerings in Cityscape's upcoming Winter/Spring 2001 brochure, as well as numerous events related to the Corman movie beginning in January.
Meanwhile, Cityscape is busy making shorter movies as part of its regular curriculum! Already the fledgling film school has produced two narrative shorts on super 16mm (based on short stories by O. Henry and Kate Chopin) and a documentary (on digital video) about artists and affordable housing in Jamaica Plain. Watch for a screening of all three pieces at the Coolidge Corner's snazzy new video screening room on November 25 at 7pm!
WRAPS
When filmmaker Ted Reed started working with Richard Broadman on what would be his last film project, he expected that this would be merely the continuation of a 30-year long collaborative friendship. The partnership included the work that would become Broadman's last film, BROWNSVILLE: BLACK AND WHITE. The documentary focuses on the Brooklyn, NY neighborhood of Brownsville, and examines the forces that caused its transformation from a place where black and white people lived together to the divided, disadvantaged area it has become.
"Richard was my faculty advisor at Boston's School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1970," says Reed. "He was sitting in the school's basement looking at some 16mm film he had shot. He looked up from his rewinds and asked me, ŚWant to make a movie?'" Both Reed and Broadman were soon instrumental in establishing the art school's film department; it was also the beginning of a working relationship that would include documentaries, fictional shorts, and teaching the essentials of filmmaking.
When Broadman passed away this past January, the film was all but complete in its essential editing; but a slew of details remained to be tackled to finish it. "When I talked with the other people Richard had involved in the project, there was no question that I would take on the task of finishing it," says Reed. "Fortunately, a lot of Richard's friends, and his wife, Mia, felt the same way. Everybody saw this as the best way to create a memorial to him." The team poured over volumes of notes, some of which existed on unfiled index cards and as notes written on the workprint's leader and mag tracks. "It was sort of an archeology project‹digging up clues from the past to guide us."
Reed spent the summer editing together a revised narration and music track at his Beverly, MA production company, Counterproductions, Inc., and added archival material and original footage he and Broadman had shot over the last 3 years. "Richard was always one for bringing people together to get things accomplished," Reed added; "And he's still doing it. I think he would have liked that." With the sound mix completed in early October, the film is ready for a round of film festivals after its November 12 premiere at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, as part of the Boston Jewish Film Festival.
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