REPORTS

Wrapping Independent Film Week

By Mary Anderson Casavant

14

FILMMAKER

FALL 2012

PHOTO BY PHILLIP STEARNS, COURTESY OF IFP

emorable movie moments may be made out of triumph the winning of the big game, the getting of the girl but a career in lm rarely reaches its triumphant third act in 90 minutes. Even the most successful lmmakers spend years on their journey, and it is for them those waiting and hustling for their breaks that Independent Film Week exists. Founded in 1979 by IFP, the publisher of Filmmaker, Independent Film Week has mushroomed over the past 33 years into a one-of-a-kind event that connects emerging and established artists with the producers, nanciers and executives that can help shape a career. Please note that I used the word shape rather than make. As was emphasized in the numerous panels and discussions, a career is not something that is made, it is something that is nurtured and cultivated. Indeed, in addition to counseling lmmakers on how to angle toward possible big breaks, Independent Film Week in its panels and seminars also emphasizes DIY and sustainability strategies, recognizing that its as much about what you can do for yourself as what others can do for you. Over and over again, people who have spent years in the business of making movies emphasized the importance of finding your own path. In a discussion with James Schamus, producer, screenwriter and CEO of Focus Features, and producer Christine Vachon, hosted by IFPs executive director Joana Vicente, Schamus remembered how when he was first starting out, I would see my colleagues chasing distributors down the hall, but thats not who you should find. Find the assistants. Find your peers. Theyre the ones who are going to lift you up. Vachon agreed with Schamus, noting that she regularly asked her interns for tips on lmmakers doing new things.Its an attitude she said is more necessary now than it has been in the past: Independent lms more than ever before are about being truly original. She also gave a profound piece of prac-

Margin Calls J.C. Chandor at Independent Film Week

tical advice for a young producer: Try and make sure that the director youre backing isnt a psychopath. In what was, for me, the highlight of the week, J. C. Chandor, the Academy Awardnominated writer and director of Margin Call, spoke honestly about the difficult, 15-year process of getting his rst lm off the ground. After years of putting his family into nancial difficulty so he could write scripts he didnt think were good enough, Chandor found himself unexpectedly inspired by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent economic crisis. Chandor said that while he latched onto the story because it could be made in one location and cheaply, he found its limitations inspiring. If there was any lesson to be taken from his experience, it was, instead of running away from [your films] weaknesses, you sit with them in the room and square off with them directly, and say, What does this inherent weakness have

to offer my film? How can I literally turn this into a strength? At the IFC Center and Filmmaker-hosted screening of selections of short works from the 25 New Faces of Independent Film, Desiree Akhavan (co-creator of the hilarious Web seriesThe Slope) said it wasnt so much what happened to her since being on the list, but how it changed her outlook. Being one of the 25 Faces seemed impossible to me, and now that Ive been it, its changed my attitude and made me think that things I once thought were impossible are actually attainable. For the veteran producers, distributors and makers of content at the invitationonly meeting/discussion ReInvent, the dialogue turned to todays new distribution platforms and how to exploit them for new sources of revenue. Speaker Bob Berneypointed out that just that weekend, Paul Thomas Andersons The Master had been released as a specialty-lm event on 70mm, while Arbitrage had managed to make pretty good box office at the same time while also being readily available on VOD. Citing these two very different examples, Berney emphasized the importance of nding the right platform for the individual lm, noting that genre plays a huge role in what does well in VOD while critical support and a theatrical release is important for foreign lms. With so many options available, its no wonder that Cinetics John Sloss, called this the most dynamic period Ive ever been a part of. At Independent Film Weeks close, the question remained for lmmakers, How, going forward, do I capture that dynamism? How do I become a part of making the impossible possible? After a weeks worth of panels, screenings and discussions, the thing that most stuck in my mind was a quote from Vachon discussing how her company, Killer Films, has stopped thinking of itself as a movie production house but rather as media producers, across all platforms. Were cockroaches, she said. We have always managed to adapt.