As The Blackhouse Foundation marked its 15th anniversary, the organization presented TriStar Pictures president Nicole Brown with a special honor during a cocktail reception on Oct. 15.
Held at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica, Calif., the special event commemorated Blackhouse’s work to amplify the voices of Black multiplatform content creators, particularly through its programming at the Sundance Film Festival, increasing the number of Black attendees, as well as expanding the opportunities for Black films and filmmakers to be featured at major film festivals.
Brown was awarded the Entertainment Trailblazer Award, singled out for embodying the nonprofit organization’s mission to “continually change the way audiences think about Black movies and television, and to keep the conversation about Black storytelling going on and off the screen.”
The honor was presented by The Blackhouse Foundation board chair and co-founder Brickson Diamond, who saluted Brown for her leadership. Among the...
Held at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica, Calif., the special event commemorated Blackhouse’s work to amplify the voices of Black multiplatform content creators, particularly through its programming at the Sundance Film Festival, increasing the number of Black attendees, as well as expanding the opportunities for Black films and filmmakers to be featured at major film festivals.
Brown was awarded the Entertainment Trailblazer Award, singled out for embodying the nonprofit organization’s mission to “continually change the way audiences think about Black movies and television, and to keep the conversation about Black storytelling going on and off the screen.”
The honor was presented by The Blackhouse Foundation board chair and co-founder Brickson Diamond, who saluted Brown for her leadership. Among the...
- 10/24/2022
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
Germany’s Red Balloon Film and Palestine’s Fresco Films have boarded director Ameer Fakher Eldin’s second film “Nothing of Nothing Remains.” The film is part of a trilogy building on his first film, “The Stranger” (pictured), which premiered in Venice and represents Palestine at the Oscars in the International Feature Film category.
“Nothing of Nothing Remains” has received development and script funding from German regional funder Moin Film Fund in Hamburg. Fresco and Red Balloon are now moving into the financing phase for the film.
“It’s part of a trilogy,” Eldin tells Variety, speaking from Berlin. “The first film, ‘The Stranger,’ is about a stranger amongst his own people. The second one is about a stranger amongst strangers. I do not want to give too much away but it’s a story set in Germany. The third one will be set in France. All three films are about the theme of home.
“Nothing of Nothing Remains” has received development and script funding from German regional funder Moin Film Fund in Hamburg. Fresco and Red Balloon are now moving into the financing phase for the film.
“It’s part of a trilogy,” Eldin tells Variety, speaking from Berlin. “The first film, ‘The Stranger,’ is about a stranger amongst his own people. The second one is about a stranger amongst strangers. I do not want to give too much away but it’s a story set in Germany. The third one will be set in France. All three films are about the theme of home.
- 12/5/2021
- by Liza Foreman
- Variety Film + TV
It’s not often that films shoot in the Occupied Golan Heights, Israel’s contested border territory with Syria and Lebanon.
Characterized by sloping mountains and the ruins of more than 100 Syrian villages, destroyed (by Israel) after the Six Day War in 1967, it makes for an atmospheric filming location. This can be seen in “The Stranger” (Al Garib), a drama making its world premiere in the Venice Critics’ Week section on Monday.
The Arab and German crew shot in rough conditions, including dense fog that hugged the mountain villages that are now reduced to rubble. Slush washed over the empty roads leading to the Syrian border, and heavy snow falls cut off Majdal Shams, the biggest town in the area, from the rest of the world, to create a shadowy darkness in this post-Christmas shoot in 2019 by first-time feature director Ameer Fakher Eldin.
Eldin directed from his own script. He...
Characterized by sloping mountains and the ruins of more than 100 Syrian villages, destroyed (by Israel) after the Six Day War in 1967, it makes for an atmospheric filming location. This can be seen in “The Stranger” (Al Garib), a drama making its world premiere in the Venice Critics’ Week section on Monday.
The Arab and German crew shot in rough conditions, including dense fog that hugged the mountain villages that are now reduced to rubble. Slush washed over the empty roads leading to the Syrian border, and heavy snow falls cut off Majdal Shams, the biggest town in the area, from the rest of the world, to create a shadowy darkness in this post-Christmas shoot in 2019 by first-time feature director Ameer Fakher Eldin.
Eldin directed from his own script. He...
- 9/6/2021
- by Liza Foreman
- Variety Film + TV
In 2001, Gordon Bobb, now a partner at Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano, attended his first Sundance Film Festival. Bobb had joined the prestigious entertainment law firm the previous year and was accompanying one of his early clients, a Black filmmaker whose film was screening at the event. It was an exciting experience, Bobb recalls, but a somewhat disorienting one.
“The film screened and premiered, and there was press around it, but that was pretty much it,” says Bobb, who will be recognized with Variety’s Power of Law honor at the online Power of Law breakfast April 9. “There wasn’t any kind of support around the film and the filmmakers. And we were just kind of left to wander around Park City, up and down Main Street. There were other Black filmmakers that had similar experiences — there was no place to come together and network. There was no organization...
“The film screened and premiered, and there was press around it, but that was pretty much it,” says Bobb, who will be recognized with Variety’s Power of Law honor at the online Power of Law breakfast April 9. “There wasn’t any kind of support around the film and the filmmakers. And we were just kind of left to wander around Park City, up and down Main Street. There were other Black filmmakers that had similar experiences — there was no place to come together and network. There was no organization...
- 4/8/2021
- by Malina Saval
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Danni Conner, Trevite Willis, Avril Speaks, Adetoro Makinde, Letitia Guillory, Ashley Chrisman, and Jessica Funches has been named the 2020 fellows for The Blackhouse Foundation’s 2nd annual Multicultural Producers Lab. The program highlights seven accomplished Black female producers responsible for fiction and nonfiction projects, showcasing the best-of-the-best in film and television.
Blackhouse Foundation launched the program last year with a mission to expand the number of multicultural production companies and executives, to increase their pipeline of content, and to support the sustainability of mid-career independent producers and the scale at which their projects and businesses operate.
In light of the current global pandemic program, this year’s program will consist of virtual symposiums, online workshops, and feedback sessions. Starting on Feb. 5th through the 9th, the 2020 fellows will have the opportunity to engage in in-person industry meetings and a pitch fest to showcase their projects to film studios, networks,...
Blackhouse Foundation launched the program last year with a mission to expand the number of multicultural production companies and executives, to increase their pipeline of content, and to support the sustainability of mid-career independent producers and the scale at which their projects and businesses operate.
In light of the current global pandemic program, this year’s program will consist of virtual symposiums, online workshops, and feedback sessions. Starting on Feb. 5th through the 9th, the 2020 fellows will have the opportunity to engage in in-person industry meetings and a pitch fest to showcase their projects to film studios, networks,...
- 12/9/2020
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
In today’s film news roundup, the documentary “House of Cardin” and crime thriller “Devil’s Night” find distributors and “Lucky Grandma” is raising funds for New York Chinatown.
Acquisitions
Utopia has acquired the North American rights to the fashion documentary “House of Cardin” by filmmakers P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes.
The film, centering on the life and work of designer and entrepreneur Pierre Cardin, held its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival and was set for a North American tour at the San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, and Seattle Film Festivals before the widespread Covid-19 cancellations and postponements.
Ebersole and Hughes produced under their banner, The Ebersole Hughes Company, alongside Cori Coppola. Utopia will release the film in August ahead of September’s New York Fashion Week and a subsequent Paris premiere hosted by Cardin himself.
“’House of Cardin’ brings a fresh understanding of just how incredibly groundbreaking...
Acquisitions
Utopia has acquired the North American rights to the fashion documentary “House of Cardin” by filmmakers P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes.
The film, centering on the life and work of designer and entrepreneur Pierre Cardin, held its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival and was set for a North American tour at the San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, and Seattle Film Festivals before the widespread Covid-19 cancellations and postponements.
Ebersole and Hughes produced under their banner, The Ebersole Hughes Company, alongside Cori Coppola. Utopia will release the film in August ahead of September’s New York Fashion Week and a subsequent Paris premiere hosted by Cardin himself.
“’House of Cardin’ brings a fresh understanding of just how incredibly groundbreaking...
- 5/13/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Isaiah Washington, whose run on Grey’s Anatomy ended when he got caught up in a scandal in which cast mates said had used homophobic slurs, has just finished Blackbird, a film by writer/director Patrik-Ian Polk. Washington plays the sympathetic father of a talented teen singer who is gay and struggling with it in a small Southern Baptist town. Washington produced with Polk and Carol Ann Shine with Keith Brown the exec producer. Washington, repped by Inqlusion Entertainment and Anderson & Smith, is getting strong reviews for the Alexander Moors-directed Blue Caprice, which premiered at Sundance and gets released this week by IFC, and he recently starred in the SXSW film They Die By Dawn. He is also developing a reality-based sports and outdoor adventure show with Wayne Hubbard and Candice Price’s Urban American Adventures brand.
- 9/9/2013
- by MIKE FLEMING JR
- Deadline
Last night at Hsbc’s corporate headquarters in New York, The Blackhouse Foundation celebrated the launch of the 2012 film festival season with a networking event and panel discussion focused on festival strategy. Now in its fifth year, Blackhouse is a non-profit organization set up to support communities of black filmmakers throughout the festival process. The Foundation has had a presence at many of the top North American festivals, including Sundance, Tribeca, Toronto, and the La Film Festival.
Blackhouse exists to help black filmmakers at all stages in their careers, a fact made clear by the event’s attendees. The talent in the room ranged from Nyu film students in production on their theses to up-and-coming documentarians like Michael Brown (whose first feature 25 to Life is currently in post production). Also in attendance were more established filmmakers such as Gun Hill Road director Rashaad Ernesto Green and Precious producer Lisa Cortes...
Blackhouse exists to help black filmmakers at all stages in their careers, a fact made clear by the event’s attendees. The talent in the room ranged from Nyu film students in production on their theses to up-and-coming documentarians like Michael Brown (whose first feature 25 to Life is currently in post production). Also in attendance were more established filmmakers such as Gun Hill Road director Rashaad Ernesto Green and Precious producer Lisa Cortes...
- 10/28/2011
- by Dan Schoenbrun
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Rockmond Dunbar is making the leap into producing and directing with the indie drama "Pastor Brown".
Dunbar is producing with Carol Ann Shine and Re'Shaun Frear. Rock Capital Films' Steve Belser, Shaun Livingston of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers and former NBA player Charles Oakley are on board as executive producers.
Now filming in Atlanta, "Pastor", penned by Rhonda Freeman-Baraka, is a twist on the prodigal son story. It follows a wayward pastor's daughter, Jesse Brown, as she returns from a life as an exotic dancer to make amends with her family and teen son and eventually lead her father's parish, becoming Pastor Brown.
Dunbar also stars in the film as Amir, a Muslim man who becomes the love interest of Brown, played by Salli Richardson Whitfield ("I Am Legend").
Rounding out the cast are Nicole Ari Parker, Keith David, Michael B. Jordan and Michael Beach. Tisha Campbell-Martin, Tasha Smith, Dondre T. Whitfield and Ernie Hudson also star. The film also features guest appearances by R&B singers Monica, Angie Stone and India.Arie as well as former Olympic track star Carl Lewis and Oakley.
Dunbar is producing with Carol Ann Shine and Re'Shaun Frear. Rock Capital Films' Steve Belser, Shaun Livingston of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers and former NBA player Charles Oakley are on board as executive producers.
Now filming in Atlanta, "Pastor", penned by Rhonda Freeman-Baraka, is a twist on the prodigal son story. It follows a wayward pastor's daughter, Jesse Brown, as she returns from a life as an exotic dancer to make amends with her family and teen son and eventually lead her father's parish, becoming Pastor Brown.
Dunbar also stars in the film as Amir, a Muslim man who becomes the love interest of Brown, played by Salli Richardson Whitfield ("I Am Legend").
Rounding out the cast are Nicole Ari Parker, Keith David, Michael B. Jordan and Michael Beach. Tisha Campbell-Martin, Tasha Smith, Dondre T. Whitfield and Ernie Hudson also star. The film also features guest appearances by R&B singers Monica, Angie Stone and India.Arie as well as former Olympic track star Carl Lewis and Oakley.
- 4/21/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Logo on Thursday greenlighted a feature film based on the channel's popular series Noah's Arc.
Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom will revolve around four black gay friends living in Los Angeles and pick up where the series' second-season cliffhanger left off.
Series creator Patrik-Ian Polk will direct from a script he wrote with John R. Gordon. Darryl Stephens, Doug Spearman, Rodney Chester and Christian Vincent will star. Polk will produce with Carol Ann Shine.
Distribution plans for the film, which begins filming in March in Canada, have not been announced.
MTV Networks' Logo targets gay and lesbian viewers.
Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom will revolve around four black gay friends living in Los Angeles and pick up where the series' second-season cliffhanger left off.
Series creator Patrik-Ian Polk will direct from a script he wrote with John R. Gordon. Darryl Stephens, Doug Spearman, Rodney Chester and Christian Vincent will star. Polk will produce with Carol Ann Shine.
Distribution plans for the film, which begins filming in March in Canada, have not been announced.
MTV Networks' Logo targets gay and lesbian viewers.
- 2/15/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Logo is thinking big with its original series "Noah's Arc", with plans to turn the ensemble show about four black gay men living in Los Angeles into the channel's first feature film.
Logo, the Viacom-owned cable channel aimed at gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender viewers, aims to have the film in theaters by 2008. Distribution plans for the film still are being firmed up, a Logo spokesman said.
"Noah's Arc" bowed on Logo shortly after the channel's mid-2005 launch and wrapped its second season late last year. The film is expected to pick up where the sophomore season's story line left off.
" 'Noah's Arc' has so many dimensions and possibilities, so advancing to the feature film format is an exciting way to motivate our loyal fans and engage an even wider audience," Logo president Brian Graden said.
Patrik-Ian Polk, creator and executive producer of "Arc", is developing the feature adaptation and is expected to produce alongside series co-executive producer Carol Ann Shine.
Logo, the Viacom-owned cable channel aimed at gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender viewers, aims to have the film in theaters by 2008. Distribution plans for the film still are being firmed up, a Logo spokesman said.
"Noah's Arc" bowed on Logo shortly after the channel's mid-2005 launch and wrapped its second season late last year. The film is expected to pick up where the sophomore season's story line left off.
" 'Noah's Arc' has so many dimensions and possibilities, so advancing to the feature film format is an exciting way to motivate our loyal fans and engage an even wider audience," Logo president Brian Graden said.
Patrik-Ian Polk, creator and executive producer of "Arc", is developing the feature adaptation and is expected to produce alongside series co-executive producer Carol Ann Shine.
- 1/24/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The moderately interesting directorial debut of Irene Turner -- a USC graduate, Orange County, Calif., native and co-producer of "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss" -- "The Girls' Room" sets out to compare and critique its two lead characters, college roommates who are polar opposites in most respects and headed for hard lessons about what it takes to be a young and smart woman in this complicated world.
A premiere at the Santa Barbara (Calif.) International Film Festival in March and unspooled locally Thursday in the American Cinematheque's Alternative Screen series at the Egyptian in Hollywood, "The Girls' Room" stars Soleil Moon Frye ("Punky Brewster"), in full goth-meltdown mode, and Cat Taber ("Beverly Hills 90210") as a WASP princess in need of a little anarchy. Unfortunately, the low-budget item is not distinctive or well-executed enough to go far beyond cult status and limited theatrical exposure.
In its raw-languaged approach to the college-dorm milieu, newcomer Amanda L. Beall's screenplay snaps and crackles and pricks, with neither lead character coming off as likable for most of the film. The film tries to reach audacious and challenging levels of bad-girl/good-girl dynamics, but it becomes repetitive and unengaging despite the efforts of the cast.
Set at a Southern college, the drama and darkish comedy springs from the jealousy and overall bad attitude of slutty underachiever Casey (Frye) and the superior attitude and looming marriage of Grace (Taber).
Saving herself for fiance and upright fraternity guy Charlie (Wil Wheaton), prissy Grace is an easy target for gloomy screw-up Casey, and the "good" girl decides to get revenge.
Ramifications of their unpleasant and tedious class warfare include Grace spending a lot of time with "nice" guy Joey (Gary Wolf), while sorority girl/shopper Paige (Michelle Brookhurst) and swinging Sweetie (Crystall Carmen) are loyal friends and coaches to the main combatants. Turner keeps the pace fairly brisk, but the intermittently convincing scenario lurches between slim fiction and tiresome sociological fable, with Grace and Casey barely surviving thesexual/emotional cross fire from all sides.
THE GIRLS' ROOM
Menemsha Entertainment
Director: Irene Turner
Screenwriter: Amanda L. Beall
Producers: Carol Ann Shine, Barclay DeVeau,
Irene Turner
Director of photography: Cort Fey
Production designer: Tijana Agic-Gaudio
Editors: Jeff Betancourt, Robert C. Winn
Costume designer: Julia Bartholomew
Music: Alan Ari Lazar
Casting: Ricki G. Maslar
Color/stereo
Cast:
Casey: Soleil Moon Frye
Charlie: Wil Wheaton
Grace: Cat Taber
Joey: Gary Wolf
Paige: Michelle Brookhurst
Sweetie: Crystall Carmen
Nana: Julianna McCarthy
Shepp: Jay Underwood
Running time -- 101 minutes
No MPAA rating...
A premiere at the Santa Barbara (Calif.) International Film Festival in March and unspooled locally Thursday in the American Cinematheque's Alternative Screen series at the Egyptian in Hollywood, "The Girls' Room" stars Soleil Moon Frye ("Punky Brewster"), in full goth-meltdown mode, and Cat Taber ("Beverly Hills 90210") as a WASP princess in need of a little anarchy. Unfortunately, the low-budget item is not distinctive or well-executed enough to go far beyond cult status and limited theatrical exposure.
In its raw-languaged approach to the college-dorm milieu, newcomer Amanda L. Beall's screenplay snaps and crackles and pricks, with neither lead character coming off as likable for most of the film. The film tries to reach audacious and challenging levels of bad-girl/good-girl dynamics, but it becomes repetitive and unengaging despite the efforts of the cast.
Set at a Southern college, the drama and darkish comedy springs from the jealousy and overall bad attitude of slutty underachiever Casey (Frye) and the superior attitude and looming marriage of Grace (Taber).
Saving herself for fiance and upright fraternity guy Charlie (Wil Wheaton), prissy Grace is an easy target for gloomy screw-up Casey, and the "good" girl decides to get revenge.
Ramifications of their unpleasant and tedious class warfare include Grace spending a lot of time with "nice" guy Joey (Gary Wolf), while sorority girl/shopper Paige (Michelle Brookhurst) and swinging Sweetie (Crystall Carmen) are loyal friends and coaches to the main combatants. Turner keeps the pace fairly brisk, but the intermittently convincing scenario lurches between slim fiction and tiresome sociological fable, with Grace and Casey barely surviving thesexual/emotional cross fire from all sides.
THE GIRLS' ROOM
Menemsha Entertainment
Director: Irene Turner
Screenwriter: Amanda L. Beall
Producers: Carol Ann Shine, Barclay DeVeau,
Irene Turner
Director of photography: Cort Fey
Production designer: Tijana Agic-Gaudio
Editors: Jeff Betancourt, Robert C. Winn
Costume designer: Julia Bartholomew
Music: Alan Ari Lazar
Casting: Ricki G. Maslar
Color/stereo
Cast:
Casey: Soleil Moon Frye
Charlie: Wil Wheaton
Grace: Cat Taber
Joey: Gary Wolf
Paige: Michelle Brookhurst
Sweetie: Crystall Carmen
Nana: Julianna McCarthy
Shepp: Jay Underwood
Running time -- 101 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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