Shooting By Docuwallah
As a film, I found Shootout At Lokhandwala, to be rather meh. The only new thing it really does, at least by Bollywood standards, is weaving flashbacks into a present day narrative via having certain police officers recount the events leading up to the shooting in front of their superior. If anything, I found the title to be far more memorable than the film itself. However, it looks like there was a behind the scenes documentary that might actually be really interesting. Andrew O'Hehir lists his top discoveries of the recently concluded South By Southwest Film Festival and amongst them is:
"Shot in Bombay"This fast-paced, immersive documentary from London-based American Liz Mermin (whose last film was the peculiar and compelling "Beauty Academy of Kabul") plunges you into the off-kilter chaos of Bollywood filmmaking, behind the scenes at an atrocious-looking action-adventure based on an infamous 1991 Mumbai shootout between cops and gangsters. The film's star, Sanjay Dutt -- a beloved Indian cinema icon run slightly to seed -- is himself under indictment on a weapons charge that's dragged through the courts for 13 years, and the crew spends more time with Dutt's double than with him in person. Mermin navigates between the film and the real-life crime story behind it, between Dutt's legal problems and his lengthy troubled-heartthrob career, with remarkable flexibility and sharp, dry humor. (Here's director Apoorva Lakhia, after every take, no matter how bad it is: "Cut! Mind-blowing! Let's move on!")
Mind blowing! I love it! Reminds me of John Cleese's clueless Scottish director from Monty Python's "Scott of the Antarctic" sketch:
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- March 13, 2008 8:08 PM // Bollywood , Film
Diaspora vs Avant Garde
In an interview with the Guardian, Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akın has this to say about his audience, in particular the Turkish diaspora vs those in Turkey itself:
This can make pleasing everyone a bit tricky: his films tend to meet with a better reception in Turkey itself than among the emigres, perhaps because any uprooted traditionalists are more liable to be rubbed up by Akın's unvarnished, street-level portraits. He sees it as purely a matter of numbers, the same problem faced by any director working outside the mainstream: "It's just the avant-garde who like my films. In Turkey, you have 60 million people and an avant-garde of a couple of hundred thousand. But in Germany, you have just 2.5 million. Most came here for economic reasons and work, and they're not from well-educated circumstances - so the audience for my films is probably only 2,000 to 3,000."
This is a challenge faced by any diaspora filmmaker. Take South Asia - are desi diaspora films likely to do better amongst NRIs in the USA or in India directly? NRIs tend to be better educated, yet their tastes tend to stick to whatever fare they were seeing back in India. However, those in India are likely to be more adventurous. Akin's argument about the sheer numbers making an avant garde audience possible even more the case here. Lack of box office numbers and the weak rupee prevent my listing any diaspora films that did better in India than abroad though. Perhaps Hyderabad Blues?
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- February 19, 2008 10:47 AM // Diaspora , Film
Designing A Denzel Poster
Flickr user littletinycowboy has analyzed all the Denzel Washington movie posters in existence so that you don't have to. His findings:
1) The bigger the head, the better.2) Brown and gold color scheme. Red if you must.
3) Full body shots should show Denzel doing nothing in particular.
4) Two facial expressions to choose from:
--- a)Confused--- b)Badass
5) Vague movie title.
Too funny!
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- January 11, 2008 3:59 PM // Film
Pyaare Posters II
Happy New Year everybody! There were a couple more posters I wanted to share, so here goes. First, we have David Fincher's Zodiac. It's become cliche for any Bay Area related visual to feature the Golden Gate bridge in some way, shape or form. We've seen the bridge in twilight, at night, in the morning and various points in between. Yet, the poster for Zodiac, which takes place in San Francisco, still manages to take a familiar landmark and imbue it with a sense of atmospheric dread. Very fitting for a film about a serial killer.
On a much lighter and saucier note, here's the poster for The Rules of Attraction. Ideal if your idea of fun involves stuffed toys in various compromising positions. Yet, given that the film concerns itself with the shenanigans of over-hormonized students at a New England college, pictures of bunnies getting it on are not entirely inappropriate!
The third poster, Shaft In Africa>, is more straightforward and straight outta the blaxploitation movement. Sticking it to the Man indeed!
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- January 6, 2008 6:50 PM // Film
Some Movie Posters
What better way to say Happy Holidays than some cool movie poster designs (by way of Flickr and friends)? I'll try to avoid the more obvious ones (i.e. no Jaws, Clockwork Orange, The Shining etc).
First, Get Carter, the British version that is, not the Stallone atrocity:
Manhattan comes next:
The German version of Breakfast at Tiffany's follows. Just love the color scheme:
Choose Trainspotting, a lesson in how to make an arresting poster just out of words:
Continuing with the rebellion theme, here's Big B in Deewar . There are better Bollywood posters than this but this one is pretty representative of the '70s:
Finally, going back to the 1930s, here's the poster for Bringing up Baby, one of the all-time great screwball comedies:
That's it for now. Next time, I'll limit myself to posters from more recent times.
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- December 26, 2007 5:49 PM // Film
Press For Devi Brown
Sandip Roy writes about the new Bollywood (The New Bollywood: Slick, Sophisticated and High-Tech) in New American Media and we're in it! Go read the article, it's good. Not because we're in it mind you but because it's a succinct summary of the current state of affairs in filmiland. First, some excerpts to set the context:
“The films are definitely far more slick and technically really smooth,” says Ivan Jaigirdar, artistic director of 3rd I, whose annual festival of South Asian cinema opens today in San Francisco. A festival that showcases “independent South Asian cinema” might once have turned its nose up at Bollywood’s crass commercialism. But no longer. “Bollywood is definitely part of the language of cinema coming out of South Asia,” says Jaigirdar.
And
Globalization has been good for Bollywood,” says India-West’s Tsering.It’s opened up a whole new market in the diaspora. It’s also opened up the industry to a new pool of talent. Indians, like Manish Acharya, who went to film school in the United States, are returning to India with new ideas and tech savvy.
That's a good thing. In addition to there being more Acharyas in the industry (sadly, Manish is no relation - although I am certain if we spoke at greater length, somewhere some connection might emerge, particularly if he goes on to attain Shyamalan levels of success :-), the influx of talent from abroad and the emergence of multi screen film complexes has allowed the proliferation of multiplex films, something I've talked about before.
However, there are consequences. In addition to increased audience fragmentation,
“Rural India has fallen off the map,” says Shyam Benegal, probably India’s most famous art house director, who made a landmark rural quartet of films in the seventies. “When your revenues come from overseas or from the cities, it influences the kinds of films that are being made.”
Finally, there are issues such as external audience perception and others that crop up regularly in dishumdishum entries. This is where we come in:
But the bigger issue is Bollywood’s image. “Even the term Bollywood implies it’s a copy of something,” says filmmaker Soam Acharya. Bollywood’s image in the West is still all about camp and kitsch. Soam gave up on Bollywood years ago until his wife Shari reintroduced him to the films as a condition of their marriage.Now their short film, Devi Brown, a blaxploitation-style twist on Bollywood action films of the seventies, plays with everything that he once hated about the industry. Stripping the macho hero out of the plot and overdubbing it, the Acharyas created Devi Brown, kickass heroine out to avenge the loss of both her honor and “her famous egg biryani recipe.” At four minutes, Soam says Devi Brown is “the deconstructed Cliff notes version” of a Bollywood film that has mayhem, romance and everything else. But more importantly, it’s been a way for a new generation to come home to an old faithful.
To be mentioned in the same column as Shyam Benegal and other industry heavyweights? We're still pinching ourselves.
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- November 18, 2007 9:49 AM // Bollywood , Devi Brown , Diaspora , Film
Vanaja Part II
Earlier, I wrote about Vanaja, the little indie Indian film that could. Even though it's budgeted at around $20K, I'd always wondered how such a film would be able to recoup its costs, thinking it to be tales of credit card debt and blood donation money that the director would later recount in his (or her) memoirs. I was speaking to Ivan Jaigirdar from 3rd I the other day and he pointed out Vanaja might have earned back its initial outlay already. "How?", I hear you ask. Well, film festivals pay you a small honorarium once they accept your film which is typically around a couple of hundred bucks. Multiply this by the 85 or so festivals where Vanaja played and you can see why Ivan was right. There's serious chump change involved here. Of course, this only really works with microbudget films but still!
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- October 6, 2007 9:33 AM // Film
Vanaja
A word of praise here about Vanaja, probably the most successful Indian film to come out in quite a while. Never heard of it? Well, very few folks in India have either. That's because I'm defining success by film festival acceptance. Toronto, Berlin, Vancouver, Cairo ... the list goes on. I counted 85 on the website alone. And Vanaja has racked up the awards too including "Best Debut Feature" for director Rajnesh Domalpalli at Berlin. However, coverage of it in the Indian papers have been limited. Why is that?
We saw Vanaja earlier this year at the San Francisco International Film Festival and were blown away. However, I can understand the recalcitrance of journalists in hyping a film of this type. It's a complex effort that defies categorization and its frank exploration of teenage needs makes it even less of an easy sell, particularly in India. It is also absolutely astounding coming from a first time director. As a wanna-be myself, I am suitably envious. At first, the story seems to be about Vanaja, a lower caste girl in rural South India, who somehow persuades the local landlady to give her dancing lessons. "Aha!," I remember thinking, ""Flashdance" in Telugu!" Hardly. Quickly, the plot changes when landlady's son comes back home and subsequently takes advantage of Vanaja's youth and inexperience. "Aha!," I remember thinking again, ""The Accused" in Telugu!" Wrong again. Regardless, with its constantly shifting plotlines and lovely visuals, Vanaja is a slow burn film that stays with you long after the last reel has unspooled.
The story behind the film is interesting as well. Rajnesh was an Engineer in the Valley prior to quitting and leaving for film school in Columbia U. Vanaja is his thesis film cast exclusively with non-actors. In the QA following the SF screening, I remember Rajnesh describing the setting up of a lengthy workshop at his village house in India dedicated to training his cast. That reminded me of a similar process used by Mira Nair in Salaam Bombay. The dedication showed by the filmmaker in setting up his film is also reflected in his tireless promotion of it (as evidenced by the number of festival screenings!). It is playing in select US cities and the hard work is starting to pay off with critics like Roger Ebert lavishing praise. Whatever happens next, Mr. Domalpalli has already made room for himself as a filmmaker to watch.
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- September 16, 2007 9:53 AM // Film
Foreign Films In India: 2007
"Arr mateys, prepare to be boarded!". Hollywood is having a banner year in India for 2007. Variety reports:
Boosted by other hits including "Spider-Man 3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," Hollywood's market share is tracking at around 8%-10% this year. That's whammo in a country with an all-powerful tradition of watching Bollywood and other local-language movies. And it compares well with a short while back when 3%-4% for Hollywood would have been considered good.
And why?
What's making the difference is India's hurtle toward economic modernity and the willingness of distribs to mix it up and experiment with such things as multiple-language dubbed versions.The multiplexing of India is making more screens available, and an increasingly world-wise Indian population doesn't want to wait for entertainment that is available elsewhere.
As five or six screeners replace single theaters, there is much more choice for cinemagoers and room for programming diversity.
I wrote about relatively low budget desi multiplex films benefiting from this trend but it looks like Hollywood is starting to make inroads as well. And they're not the only beneficiaries:
Korean record-breaker "The Host" grossed a solid Rupees8.39 million ($208,000) in its maiden week in Indian cinemas.Release, thought to be a first for a Korean movie in India, was handled by indie Indo-Overseas Films.
Interestingly enough, I wonder if the low budget horror films by Ram Gopal Verma ("Bhoot", "Darna Mana Hai") intended for multiplexes actually opened up the audience to fare of this type. In any case, competition is good for the consumer - the resulting pressure will hopefully force Bollywood to raise their own game.
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- August 11, 2007 10:33 PM // Bollywood , Film , India
Three Films: Fanaa, Guru and Nishabd
Whereas New Zealanders might be the world's most enthusiastic cinema-goers, writes the Economist, it is the Indians who made the most visits to the movies in 2005 - 1.6 billion. At 1.5 per person, that makes for a skimpy per-capita average, but hey, it must be the quantity that counts, not the quality, right? Maybe. As for the films themselves, I finally got a chance to catch up with three of Bollywood's more recent releases. Here goes.
Fanaa is pure old school masala served up a in spanking new thali. This is a typical Yash Raj production where characters spend hours exchanging Urdu couplets and extolling the glory of Pyaar (Love) with a capital P. In Yashland, parents are always madly in love with each other, every smile is intended on moving factory loads of Pepsodent, security guards are called Jolly Good Singh and house roofs are color coordinated to match the dupattas worn by their inhabitants. Plotwise, all you need to know is that Aamir Khan plays a Kashmiri terrorist who, while masquerading as a Delhi guide, falls for the innocent blind Kajol. Three hours of moping, sermonizing and mewling later, Kajol must make a terrible decision. I am not saying the film is without its bright points, chiefly the stunning cinematography and exceptionally high production values, but diabetics be warned for your condition is likely to worsen with the sugar shock.
I won't deny it - I had high hopes for Nishabd, a Ram Gopal Verma quickie where he tries to continue the rehabilitation of Amitabh Bachchan the actor. Sadly, Ramu's take on a robbing the cradle type tale whereby sixty year old photographer falls for eighteen year old girl is no Lolita, Venus or American Beauty. Though the acting overall is top notch, what could have been a provocative work is scuttled by the stylistic choices. Too often the camera swoops and soars and the music crescendoes to climaxes that aren't actually there in the scene itself. Both the music score and camerawork belong in a horror movie, not a mood piece like this. It's overkill for so slight a plot, reminiscent of playing ping pong with a cast iron saucepan. Though the creative team deserves hosannaas for sticking to their guns and producing a flab free film with a desolate ending that doesn't feel like a copout, I am still hoping Ram Gopal Verma can return to form with his next one.
The last effort of Mani Ratnam I saw, Yuva, fell below his usual standards. An attempt to follow the lives of three separate couples in Kolkata, Yuva was too bogged down by the weight of its ambition. Abhishek was a standout there though and, wisely, Mani Ratnam makes him the titular character in his latest, Guru. Abhishek does not disappoint - his performance is the best thing about Guru, one of the biggest hits in India this year. In my mind, it marks his coming of age as an actor. Guru relates the saga of Gurukant Desai from his days as a village school dropout to a textile tycoon. A thinly veiled re-telling of the story of Dhirubhai Ambani and his Reliance conglomerate, it's easy to understand why the struggles of Guru to grow his business despite crushing government bureaucracy really resonated with the Indian audience. Mithun Chakraborthy has a nice turn as a newspaper owner who gives Guru his first big break but turns against him. Their fallout and subsequent bizarre relationship forms the emotional core of Guru. Certain scenes involving peripheral characters seem out of place, but overall it's worth watching if only to see the son step out of his father's shadow for good.
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- June 17, 2007 8:53 PM // Bollywood , Film , Review
Apu vs Abby II
So, post Apu vs Abby, a reader asked my reasons as to thanking Quentin when Naveen Andrews appears in the Robert Rodriguez directed section of Grindhouse, Planet Terror and not Death Proof, Tarantino's segment. Well, from all accounts, this was very much a joint project and, yes, Rodriguez has done a tremendous amount for the hispanic commiunity in terms of casting and more power to him. But, Quentin's gone out of his way in the past to create the United Colors of Benetton with his picks (Sonny Chiba, David Carradine, Lucy Liu, Pam Grier ... do I really have to go on?), so giving him the benefit of the doubt seemed the right choice. Plus, we have this:
Maybe actor Naveen Andrews has been "Lost" on a hit television drama for the past three seasons -- but he's not so far out of reach that a huge fan of the show can't pluck him off the mysterious island for a few hours to enjoy a wild trip to the "Grindhouse."The fan is none other than pop culture nut Quentin Tarantino, who along with filmmaking buddy Robert Rodriguez has effectively recreated the experience of the B-movie dives of the 1970s '80s with the aptly-titled "Grindhouse." The bloody, back-to-back horror thrillers -- with fake trailers thrown in-between the double feature for good measure -- opens Friday in theaters nationwide.
Andrews, of course, plays Sayid on "Lost," one of the pivotal characters on the show since its inception in 2004, and he's thrilled that Tarantino's been tuning in.
I know that Robert was aware of 'Lost,' but Quentin was and is a big fan of the show," Andrews said in a recent @ The Movies interview.
There you go - straight from the brotha himself.
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- April 8, 2007 5:23 PM // Film
Apu vs Abby
Hold on to your hats folks, 20th Century Folks have come up with one cunning plan to promote the new Simpsons movie. It involves none other than the 7-Eleven chains:
To help hype July's "The Simpsons Movie," the studio is working to enlist 7-Eleven to turn several of the chain's stores into Kwik-E-Marts. The fronts of about a dozen stores would be transformed to look like the cartoon's famed convenience store, and shoppers could pick up everything from Krusty-Os cereal and Buzz Cola to Slurpees dressed up in cups that say Squishee.
Yessiree, Yankee marketing at its best! Will there be lifesize Apus working the counters, dripping hair oil into the slurpee machine, one wonders? Thank you, come again.
On the other corner, we have Naveen Andrews (Lost, The English Patient), appearing in Grindhouse as Abby, an ass kicking zombie body part collector.
Thank you, Quentin.
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- March 31, 2007 9:30 PM // Film
Odd Titles
From the Beeb comes this entry about a contest for odd book titles. The finalists are:
Love it, particularly the one about the seaweed. These titles reminded me of a game of movie charades I played in my grad school days. When came my turn, my adversary, his grin a mile wide, whispered in my ear, "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl."
"What?"
"You heard me."
This being an informal game and with my pride at stake, I had no choice but to proceed. Needless to say, nobody understood a single gesture I made. Adding insult to injury. many guffaws could be heard during my contortions. But, when came my tormentor's turn, I was ready. Thank you Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean for helping me get revenge!
In general, Indian film titles tend to be terse. With that in mind, here's the longest/oddest one that I know of. Cue drum roll...
It's Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Ata Hai (Why Is Albert Pinto Angry?). This 1980 examination of the life a typical Indian Christian sank without much fanfare shortly after its release. But the title alone ensures its place in desi film folklore.
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- March 11, 2007 7:48 PM // Books , Film
Netflix, "Watch Now" and Bollywood
Netflix made waves last month by launching "Watch Now", their snazzy Video On Demand feature. The New York Times reports
Netflix-by-Internet, in other words, is deliciously immediate, incredibly economical and, because it introduces movie surfing, impressively convention-shattering.It will not, however, change the way most people watch movies in the short term, for many reasons.
First, it works only on Windows PCs at the moment; a Macintosh version is in the works.
Second, only 1,000 movies and TV shows are on the Play list. There's lots of good, brand-name stuff here -- ''Zoolander,'' ''Chinatown,'' ''Jaws,'' ''Sleepless in Seattle,'' ''Twister'' and so on -- but Netflix's lawyers and movie-studio negotiators have a long way to go before the number of movies online equals the number of DVDs available from Netflix (70,000). Still, the company says that at least 5,000 movies will be on the list by year's end. So far, the sole holdout among major movie studios is Disney, perhaps because of its partnership with Apple's movie service.
Netflix is rolling out the service over several months, so not all subscribers can access it the first time around. For those wishing to jump the queue, however, Hacking Netflix describes a possible workaround. It worked for me and I was able to check out the service. First, kudos to Netflix for an impressive start and a very cool online viewing model - I've now upped my subscription level to five discs out at a time. Next, Netflix wasn't kidding when they said the number of online titles are limited. I actually counted them last weekend (my list of all the "Watch Now" titles are here) and it came to around 750. This includes such classics as Mulva 2: Kill Teen Ape! and Bad Movie Police Case #2: Chickboxer. Okay, okay, I'm kidding! As NYT points out, there is good stuff (and many documentaries and old Doctor Who episodes) in there. The good news is Netflix is continually adding new titles. Consequently, this week I see new items such as Round Midnight that I didn't find last week. I was surprised, however, by the Asian fare on offer. Here are the Indian related films I could find on the "Watch Now" list:
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Aadmi Sadak Ka (1977)
Aamne Saamne (1967)
Aas (1953)
Abhimaan (2000)
Barsaat Ki Raat (1960)
Basant (1960)
Baton Baton Mein (1979)
Bhagam Bhag (2006)
Bollywood / Hollywood (2002)
Charno Ki Saugandh (1988)
Charulata (1964)
Chhalia (1960)
Chhote Nawab (1961)
China Town (1962)
Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan (1959)
Dayar-E-Madina (2006)
Dharkan (1972)
Door Ki Awaz (1964)
Dus Lakh (1966)
Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka (1975)
Ek Phool Do Mali (1969)
Ek Ruka Hua Faisla (1986)
Ek Saal (1957)
Ghar Ek Mandir (1984)
Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani (1970)
Howrah Bridge (1958)
Immaan Dharam (1977)
Inaam Dus Hazaar (1987)
Jaali Note (1960)
Jai Santoshi Maa (1975)
Joi Baba Felunath (1978)
Kapurush (1965)
Kitaab (1977)
Lakhon Ki Baat (1984)
Lakhtar Ni Ladi Ne Vilayat No Var (2006)
Maa-Baap (2006)
Madhubala Song Compilation (2006)
Madine Ki Galian (2006)
Mahal (1949)
Mahapurush (1965)
Mamta (1966)
Meharbaan (1993)
Nanha Farishta (1969)
Nayak (1966)
New Delhi (1956)
Night in London (1967)
Prem Geet (1981)
Pyaar Ka Saagar (1961)
Pyar Mohabbat (1966)
Ram Aur Shyam (1967)
Rishta Kagaz Ka (1983)
Sara Akash (1969)
Saraswati Chandra (1968)
Swarg Narak (1978)
Swarg Se Sundar (1986)
Swayamwar (1980)
Thodisi Bewafaii (1980)
Us-Paar (1974)
Vachan (2006)
Zahreelay (1990)
That's about 61 titles out of 750, or about 8%. Not too shabby, particularly as the number of non-desi Asian titles on offer are minimal. As a matter of fact, I only counted Ghost In The Shell and Ninja Scroll but there could be more by now. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised by the Satyajit Ray films available online (Nayak, Kapurush, Mahapurush, Joi Baba Felunath, Charulata). The print on these will, hopefully, be better than the scratchy VCD transfers.
Look at the Bollywood titles, however, and a pattern starts to emerge. There are some real oldies here. Don't be fooled by the release dates on some of the titles - those aren't correct. In fact, there's nothing here from the past ten to fifteen years. Other than Abhimaan and the Satyajit Ray films I didn't see very many of what you would call classics either. In fact, it's mostly filler.
I'm sure a lot of this is due to the difficulties in obtaining broadband rights from the distributors. However, as I noted earlier, desis tend to be tech savvy in these things (just check out some the desi torrrent sites if you don't believe me) and, in fact, were early Netflix adopters. "Watch Now" can be a real trendsetter here too. If I was a desi grocer depending on renting out Bollywood titles for a lot of ancillary income, I wouldn't be worried just yet. But that could change soon if Netflix play their cards right.
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- February 10, 2007 7:56 PM // Bollywood , Diaspora , Film , Technology
Brown Power or Kung Fu? - Hollywood Tries To Pick
Variety writes about the ongoing debate in Hollywood regarding where to invest next. India or China?
Nearly a decade ago, Sony opened a Chinese-language production office in Hong Kong. But the unit has had trouble finding success on the scale of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." In fact, it hasn't made a movie in the past two years.By contrast, India has proven bountiful for Sony Entertainment Television, which has become an established TV player in the country and is now expanding from movie buyer into local production.
Kaiju Shakedown elaborates more on the difficulties facing Hollywood in China:
China is the world’s biggest movie market but with four times the population of the United States it only has 2,396 movie screens, one fifteenth of America’s 38,000. Hollywood is eager to sell movies to what it views as an underserved market, but China only allows 20 foreign movies to be imported each year. Hollywood wants to increase the screen count by building multiplex chains across rural China, but China won’t allow foreign companies to own more than 49% of cinemas outside of the seven major cities. Hollywood is desperate to stamp out piracy, but China’s efforts to cooperate are sporadic at best. And so China is the beautiful, unattainable market that drives Hollywood crazy.China does its best to flummox its suitor. Their State Administration of Radio, Film and Television is a massive Mao-era bureaucracy that operates like an eccentric uncle.
They recently baffled the world by banning all foreign movies that mix live action and animation, such as “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and “Space Jams”. Then they ruffled feathers further by yanking “The Da Vinci Code” from theaters at the peak of its successful run, with no explanations given.
In addition to being more open, India offers a number of additional advantages. From Variety:
- Due to a wave of multiplex construction, the theatrical market is expanding. That's allowing the first steps toward nationwide (rather than state by state) releasing.
- The pay TV market may boom if mandatory set-top decoders allow subscription revenues to flow to rights owners, rather than mom-and-pop cable pirates. The country is expected to have five DTH satellite platforms by the end of 2007.
- The development of an organized retail sector of chain stores and supermarkets is driving growth of home entertainment, even as it looks wobbly in the rest of the world.
- With cell phone numbers growing at more than 5 million per month, mobile entertainment is delivering real gaming and music returns. Because TV penetration is low compared with other, more developed countries, including China, some analysts expect mobile ownership to even outstrip TV.
Other distribution channels like Madhouse and SeventyMM are also emerging. Both adopt the Netflix model with one crucial difference - DVDs are not delivered by mail (the public mail service is utterly unreliable) but via private courier services.
However, as Variety notes, all is not peachykeen in the Indian market. Roadblocks remain:
India's big drawback has been that the level of overall economic development is significantly behind China and its entertainment industry is largely isolated from the rest of the world. Local-language movies account for 95% of the box office, and the soundtracks of Bollywood dominate the music industry....
Indian regulators are just as capable of infuriating congloms. Barely a month had passed after a new policy was put in place for mandatory conditional access systems, or set-top boxes, in order to curb cable TV theft by mom-and-pop pirates. But then regulators decreed that pay channels should not be allowed to charge more than 1 rupee (2 cents) per month, in order that the poor also can afford their shows.
Appeals are ongoing, but the notion that either country will enact reforms for the benefit of foreign interests is somewhat ridiculous.
In the big picture, however, the Indian film industry still lags behind that of China in the global sweepstakes:
Although Bollywood is bigger in absolute terms, the Chinese industry has been more successful on a world scale."The Chinese films generally have had larger success outside of China than the Indian pictures have had outside of India," says Sony's Michael Lynton. "The market outside India is largely people who are part of the Indian diaspora."
True enough. That's why, while all the cine buffs keep track of Zhang Yimou's latest release (Curse of the Golden Flower), events like Dhoom 2 racking up close to a million bucks in the USA over Thanksgiving weekend while playing in just a handful of screens, continue to surprise. I'm not saying the film is any good mind you - but it just goes to show the power of the brown dollar (and rupee for that matter) cannot be underestimated.
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- February 10, 2007 11:46 AM // Bollywood , Diaspora , Film , India , TV
Screenwriting For Dummies
In his memoir, Hollywood Animal, screenwriter and Tinseltown bete noire Joe Eszterhas, writer of such films as Basic Instinct and Flashdance, shares an anecdote about the Golden Age of Hollywood:
Charles MacArthur was a celebrated playwright/screenwriter who believed that studio executives were some of the dumbest people he'd ever met and didn't know anything about writing. So he decided to prove it.
At the gas station one day, he started chatting with the young Englishman who was filling up his tank. The young man lamented that he was only making $40 a week and Charles MacArthur asked him if he wanted to make $1000 a week. The young man said, "Whoever I have to kill, I will happily do it."
Charles MacArthur bought him a new tweed suit and a curved-stem pipe. He took him in to the studio head and introduced him as "Kenneth Woolcott, the well-known English novelist who is against doing any movie writing because he insists there's no room for creative talent in the movies."
The studio boss did everything he could to persuade Kenneth Woolcott, the well-known English novelist, to be a screenwriter at his studio. He finally offered him $1000 a week. The gas station attendant grudgingly accepted the offer.
The studio was so pleased with Woolcott's work that they kept him under contract at $1000 a week for a whole year. After which Kenneth Woolcott went back to pumping gas.
Later on in the book, Joe Eszterhas confirms our suspicions about LA - yes, everyone there has a script in development of some kind. Consequently, though he lived outside LA and flew in for his meetings, he stopped taking cabs, mainly due to desperate drivers who staked out the lobbies of the hotels where he was staying, waiting for an opportunity to ambush him with their masterworks.
Their Mumbai counterparts, on the other hand, are still apparently too busy terrorizing their passengers and hapless pedestrians with their kamikaze tactics to worry about plot points and story arcs - whatever Bollywood dreams they have are still confined to starring in films, not writing one. But that may change soon. As DNAIndia reports, desi screenwriters, that long neglected arm of Bollywood, are finally getting more than chai and buttertoast for their services, sometimes as much as 25 lakh rupees (that's $50K) a script!
Industry observers point out that till recently, anybody could have scripted a Bollywood "formula" film with its trademark twists and turns. The concept of a script did not exist in the industry for the longest time. So, there was no real need for writers, says trade analyst Amod Mehra.
The script, however, is changing in Bollywood and the storyboard is moving in a new direction.
Though, scriptwriters are yet to get the recognition they deserve, they are suddenly sought after. And new voices are being heard all the time. As producers churn out films for different, even niche audiences, the opportunities for scriptwriters are increasing.
"A screenplay is now being viewed as the most important tool to make money," says Monga. This spells good news for writers who are paid better now-anything between Rs1 lakh to Rs25 lakhs, say industry sources, depending on the budget of the movie.
Time to reach into the desk drawer and dust off that screenplay,
methinks. If there's no screenplay, why, a foreign hit DVD will do nicely for "inspiration." And invest in a tweed jacket and hookah.
PS - Thanks to Amar Parikh, as always, for the tip.
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- August 4, 2006 10:12 AM // Bollywood , Books , Film
Lady In The Waterloo?
Many moons back, the Society For India (SFI) at Cornell held a screening and QA for a thesis film from a fresh out of school NYU filmmaker. Only about ten folks showed up. The treasurer and president had a heated discussion afterwards about whether precious funds should be spent on events with such poor attendance or whether such monies were better utilized on organizing meat market .. ahem .. social gatherings on campus. The filmmaker himself was quite a nice, approachable guy and was clearly happy to receive his $500 honorarium. The treasurer remembers writing out the cheque himself. As well he should. M. Night Shymalan has yet to make that film, his first, Praying With Anger available on video but it's safe to say he no longer has to trudge up to college towns in the dead of winter and cadge speaking engagements for a living.
Following The Sixth Sense in 1999, it was impossible to meet a desi who didn't have a connection with Manoj. I remember meeting the proprietor of the Manali Cafe in Ann Arbor who swore she and Manoj's mum were best buddies. Likewise for a resident doctor at the University of California San Francisco - why she'd had dinner with Manoj and his entourage just the other day! And so it went. He was the guy who had defied his parents' wish that he become a good little doctor boy and had followed his dreams to the pot of gold lying at the end of the rainbow. What desi kid could possibly quibble with that? And he'd done it on his own terms, staying back in Philly when it clearly would have been better for him to be with the movers and shakers in LA. He was living proof that an NRI filmmaker could find a massive worldwide audience without kowtowing to the nacha-gana obsessed feudal families that had hermetically sealed off Bollywood.
But somewhere, all of that began to change. Perhaps it was the fact he kept putting himself in his films instead giving chances to other struggling desi actors who could definitely use the break. Perhaps it was his insistence on promoting himself as a brand a la Hitchcock or Spielberg. Perhaps it was that American Express commercial. Maybe at some point he began believing in the myth he'd created around himself. Who knows? What I can tell you is last week, on Friday 21st, on the eve of the opening of Lady In The Water, a couple of us held a heated e-mail roundtable on all topics Water and Night.
Prem kicked it off with:
It's getting horrible reviews and the book about his rift with Disney is being deemed an unintentional laugh riot. Newsweek even suggests it's time for an intervention (I thought so too after I saw Signs). Has the next Spielberg hit the iceberg? Apparently he got his knickers all bunched up because a Disney exec didn't give the LITW script the proper respect and eventually he fled to Warner Bros. Does he expect studio heads to perform elaborate Vedic rituals to honor his supernatural offerings? Shyam-a-crazy like a mental patient or crazy like a fox? Maybe neither. I think his problem is more
mundane. In terms of creativity he hit the skids after Unbreakable. But perhaps the same self-belief and faith in his inner voice that served him so well early in his career is also making him blind to his creative decline.
But if I was a studio exec I'd let him be -- at least for now. I may cringe watching his recent efforts or, better yet, sneak out the back door at the private screening, but his movies are a great business bet. They are modestly budgeted compared to your average summer flick and the built-in audience for the Shyamalan brand generates solid returns. That's as good a bet as there is in Hollywood.
What do you guys think? If you go see the movie let me know your opinion.
Devdoot replied:
I read an article about him in E Weekly (an excerpt from the book) where it described a meeting between the Disney execs and Shyam at a restaurant in his beloved Philly. At the end of the meeting, he had decided to take the script elsewhere and after the execs left, he began to cry uncontrollably. Um, wow...so I ordered the book - can't wait to read it.
But you make a good point Prem. Leave him be for now -- his movies come in at budget, the built in audience spans the globe, and returns on the investment are healthy.
I pointed out that the bidgets on his previous films were as follows:
Lady In The Water (LITW): $75M The Village, Signs, Unbreakable: all around $70 - $72M Sixth Sense: $55M
With the possible exception of the Sixth Sense, these weren't "modest" budgets. Prem's ripose:
Certainly not Wayans brothers-cheap, but for a major summer movie still quite reasonable. The fact that average Hollywood movies cost $60-70 mil is ridiculous, but we can save that for another day.
I read somewhere his movies have grossed 2.5 billion. He has lost street cred among hollywood-types, but that town is still all about the bottom line and as long as he's bringing in the profits there will be a studio willing to let him continue drinking his own kool-aid.
He added:
He needs to stop talking to the aliens and fairies in his head, step out of the supernatural environs of his Pa. mansion and mingle with the earthlings again. But if LITW does good BO I'm afraid he will use the critical slams and Hollywood putdowns as fuel to continue down the creative deadend.
Devdoot did something funny amidst all of this back-and-forth. He actually went out and saw the movie in question.
In the spirit of this roundtable discussion, I went out and just watched LITW.
Spoiler alert: do not read any further if you will be seeing the movie.
OK, so I didn't dislike the movie as much as I expected. Surprisingly funny, although his use of the stereotypical Korean girl as a means of explaining the fairy tale was nothing but a weak way to get through the exposition.
A lot of fine actors like Bill Irwin and Jeffrey Wright are way underutilized.
The numbers came in on Sunday night and they weren't particularly encouraging. From boxofficeguru:
Suffering his worst opening since becoming an A-list director, M. Night Shyamalan saw his latest thriller Lady in the Water struggle in its debut grossing an estimated $18.2M from 3,235 theaters. The PG-13 film about a mysterious creature from the water who must return to her world averaged $5,629 per site. The opening was less than half the size of the $50.7M bow of Shyamalan's last film The Village and less than one-third of the $60.1M that his previous film Signs took in when it opened in 2002. Critics panned Lady which was promoted as being a "bedtime story" as the Oscar-nominated filmmaker earned the worst reviews of his career.
Ouch! So, what do you think we as a roundtable did next? Yes, it was true Night needed to come to grips with his roots and all of that but it was possible to take that sort of stuff way too far. In typical desi style, we were hardly short of advice. From Prem:
He's been obsessed with magic realism for so long one wonders if he can make the transition to stories rooted strictly in an earth-based reality. Hey Night, can you create characters who are NOT leading tortured lives, burdened with knowledge of other dimensions? Can your characters NOT mumble awful lines in hushed, portentous tones...for the length of the entire friggin' movie! Just for a change, ya know. Mix it up a little, dude.
Anyway, I hope he can recover from this because I'm a sucker for comebacks.
As am I. As is the USA for that matter. Actually, I have no doubt M Night will return in full force in his next production - he's too talented not to. However, it is possible to go too far in the opposite direction from magic realism i.e. urban in-yo-face-ism. Consequently, we came up with a list of films that Manoj should absolutely not be doing next. Here goes:
- The Seventh Sense - I See Rich People: A tough, tell-it-like-it-is thriller from the mean streets of Philly where LaShawn and Devawn are carjackers with hearts of gold - they only rob SUV driving people who deserve it. Plus no one actually sees Devawn 'cause he's a ghost! But he doesn't know it yet.
- Unbreakin' II - Electric Vindaloo: After failing for the umpteenth time to get "AtMan", a desi soul food joint, going in Center City, PA, Devi Shah hits upon a curry recipe guaranteeing wild gyrations for three hours upon consumption. Alas, AtMan is located next door to a Pottery Barn and Devi's clientele is really testing their "if you break it you own it" policy. Hilarity ensues.
- Signs 'N' The Hood - Somebody's been scrawling wild graffiti on the SEPTA buses in Philly and those are attracting some really freaky riders.
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- July 28, 2006 12:31 AM // Diaspora , Film
"How Comfortable!"
In Lost In Transcription, I wrote about the poor quality of subtitles in an Indian film. Those, along with bad dubbing are also mainstays of Hong Kong cinema (and parodied in Wayne's World, amongst others). In Once Upon A Time In China, Jeff Yang's concise history of cinema from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China, there's this:
Of course, any Anglophone who's watched a subtitled Hong Kong movie knows that the process is far from perfect. Often hastily produced based on half completed (or nonexistent) scripts - and sometimes without even basic knowledge of the storyline - translations have ranged from amateurish to comical. Some problems are due to inherent linguistic differences: Spoken Chinese uses few gender-specific terms, so subtitlers often must make arbitrary pronoun choices based on context. Sometimes errors are due to poorly translated idioms, with curses and expressions of affection or lust the most frequent victims. For the most part, however, enthusiasts say that learning "subtitle English" is like picking up a specialized dialect. Experienced Hong Kong movie fans know that "How comfortable" is an expression of sexual pleasure, while "How come?" is what people say when faced with something shocking and inexplicable.
The book is fascinating - I've always wondered how cinema from that part of the world has been able to shine so well on the global stage while offerings from India continue to be consistently mediocore, with occasional exceptions. I hope to share some of my thoughts later.
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- July 8, 2006 8:26 AM // Film
Lost In Transcription
Make no mistake, Being Cyrus is an effective little indie thriller and has a chance to find accepting urban audiences everywhere, desi or otherwise. But not with the English subtitles on the DVD release. The film itself is mostly in English but I usually have the titles on by default when watching stuff from India. I was fishing around for my remote when I realized something wasn't quite right with the onscreen words.
Right at the beginning of the film, our anti-hero, Cyrus (played by Saif Ali Khan), presents himself to an aged Parsi couple, Dinshaw (Naseeruddin Shah) and Katy Sethna (Dimple Kapadia). "I've come regarding your poetry school," he says. Except, the Sethnas actually run a pottery school. Otherwise, the subsequent scenes of Cyrus massaging mud doesn't make sense - unless the director was trying pass an oblique comment on the virtues of verse.
I was willing to let one typo slide. But just after that, Cyrus claims some of Dinshaw's works are on display at the "grooving museum" in New York as opposed to, oh, the Guggenheim. That's when I realized either the subtitlist had either partaken of some strong herb or his ability to transcribe English was sadly deficient or he was hard of hearing or he had performed his duties inside the engine room of a steam locomotive. Perhaps all of the above. Whatever it was, his (or her) transmissions from Spaceship Ganja definitely added an extra dimension to our viewing experience.
For example, did you know that Mars was a "marshal planet" and that your half baked aspirations could turn into "half day desperations?" Katy could be played like a "vilon" and, given Dimple Kapadia's continuing oomph, I want to know what a "vilon" is and how does one play it. Apparently, it was also possible to "live like a popper" and you could do so in a place called "Punch Gun" which, presumably, is not far from Panchgani, the initial setting of the film. This must be a magical place because in order to bite the hand that feeds them, you had to "buy 100 feet." Hope they use deodorant over there.
As the film progressed, the transcriptions grew more poetic, wistful even. "He has a very bad sprain" became "he has a very bad spring." A police officer complained death was "starring at him all the time." Must be tough to play second fiddle to the Grim Reaper. In his presence, "handcuffs" morphed into "hand coughs" and "you have a way with words, inspector" soared to "you have ways to hit the words, inspector." Indeed.
The language grew more heated towards the end and our intrepid subtitlist spared no efforts in hiding our blushes. "Sweet old bugger" was censored to "sweet old baba." Frustrated teens might argue they are one and the same but still! Apparently, you also cannot make an "amlate" without breaking eggs. And, once you've made a mess thus, do you clean with "meticulous care?" No, our man felt you have to clean with "medicare." Strong comment on the lamentable state of US healthcare perhaps but a little out of place in a thriller from Mumbai. Finally, being a bit of a showman, our man saved the best for last. Towards the end of the film, a character emoted with great sadness, "no matter what happens during a chess game, the king and the porn always go back to the box."
Intent as our transcriptor was in deciphering the mysteries of the universe, he had an omission I found quite perplexing. In some parts of the film, the dialogue shifts to non-English. Those had no subtitles.
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- May 11, 2006 7:04 PM // Film , Select
Local Productions
Catching up on local productions, we start with Hijra, a production by the New Conservatory Theatre Center . The Chronicle has the goods:
Ancient gender-bending traditions of South Asia reach into the New York of the Indian diaspora in Ash Kotak's "Hijra" at the New Conservatory Theatre Center. Sometimes funny, at times enlightening and generally engaging, the handsomely designed American premiere that opened Saturday is a mildly promising effort a bit too weighed down by sitcom ideas and filmic structures to take flight onstage.What's most interesting about "Hijra" is the extent to which Kotak sheds light on its titular subject. This is "hijra" not as one of the more common alternate spellings of the "hegira" of Muslim history, but as the ancient group of male-to-female transgenders of mysterious origin and long tradition who often appear, uninvited, to dance at and bless weddings in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The role of hijras in South Asian customs is apparently a blend of Islamic and Hindu traditions, and many held high positions in the courts of the Muslim kings.
Though the review of the production itself is lukewarm, Dishum Dishum patron Maya Capur escapes unscathed. To wit:
It isn't always easy to tell how much in love Nils and Raj are supposed to be. Kotak's dialogue is much more quip- and plot-driven than concerned with character or emotional development, and neither director Andrew Nance nor his actors have been able to fill in the blanks. From Venkatesh's boyishly standoffish performance, it's hard to tell whether Nils has any more real interest in Raj than Sheila until late in the second act. By then, Raj, disguised as a woman, has arrived in New York -- and so have Madhu, Sheila and her ferocious mother (crisply played by Sukanya Sarkar).With an exceptionally nosy neighbor (a very nice turn by Capur) stirring the pot, Kotak sets the stage for farcical complications he only partly develops.
Way to go, Maya!
Meanwhile, could Carma be the first indie film to promote itself using a Flash mob? The idea involved four women dressing up as one of the characters from the film and chanting:
Normie Burns took an axe
Gave his mother 40 whacks,
When she saw what he had done,
She said proudly, "that's my son!"
This went down at a screening in Stanford last weekend. Here's a picture of the mob:
Also, FilmThreat has a review of Carma here.
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- April 17, 2006 8:11 PM // Bay Area , Film , Theater
3rd I Shorts At SFIAFF 2006
Not all films are created full length. Short films are what aspiring directors and producers create while waiting for the inspiration (and funding) for the big one. Though sites like youtube and ifilm have become popular outlets for mini-movies, a big screen at a festival is still a great way to soak in the latest and greatest. In particular, the 3rd I shorts program at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival offers an excellent opportunity for catching up with the emerging South Asian directors. Here are some brief thoughts on the pieces featured in this year's festival.
Girni
India 2005 | 22 mins
Director: Umesh Kulkarni
Shot and set in India, this is the story of a boy and his mother trying to make ends meet by purchasing a grain grinder on loan. The sounds of the girni, however, eventually starts to drive the boy insane.
Probably the best of the batch. I particularly admired its use of sound. A scratchy print but well worth catching nonetheless.
In Whose Name?
USA 2004 | 11 mins
Director: Nandini Sikand
A well meaning work that tried to sound warnings against religion corrupting politics in India. It started off strongly but ended up being too earnest in tone (and too jumpy in narrative) to make a serious case.
Lucky
UK 2005 | 20 mins
Director: Avie Luthra
A Zulu boy is sent to live with his uncle in Durban, South Africa. His mother has just died of AIDS and his uncle barely tolerates the kid, warning him to "avoid the colored woman down the hallway. She hates Zulus. She'll eat you. With Curry."
That the colored woman and the kid will form a link is a given. But the story arc is handled with grace. It did feel like an excerpt from a more full length work though. Still, nicely done.
Viva Liberty!
UK 2005 | 20 mins
Director: Dishad Husain
Poor Woody Ali finds himself in the USA's notorious Camp Liberty detention center. All he did was pick up a kid's water pistol by mistake on the plane ride over to the USA. Some start to his dream vacation!
This had a great premise and started off really well. But it failed to sustain the momentum and what could have been a great update of the antics of General Buck Turgidson from Dr. Strangelove petered out like a plateload of cold puris.
Time And The Hour Run
USA 2005 | 15 mins
Director: Samir Patel
From director Samir Patel comes this entry about an old motel owner in the middle of nowhere. A recent widower, he continues to be haunted by visions of his late wife and of celestial beings from the Hindu pantheon.
More a mood piece than anything else, I found it to be wonderfully moving meditation on death, loneliness and grief. I particularly enjoyed the way the widower's visions were handled. Grafting Indian iconography into wide open western plains is not an obvious thing to do but here it felt totally natural.
6 ft. in 7 min.
USA 2005 | 15 mins
Director: Rafael Del Toro
Hands down the most disturbing of the lot, 6 ft in 7 min. is a black comedy about an 18 year old kid who suddenly discovers he is the owner of a mechanical heart which, his parents casually inform him, will stop working in roughly seven minutes.
While the premise is wonderfully acid and was mostly well executed, overall it felt like an empty exercise in bravura filmmaking. Given the writer/director isn't of South Asian origin, his decision to set the story in a desi household simply seemed to be an excuse to spout a whole lot of guff about karma. This stood out in dire contrast with Time and the Hour Run which actually exhibited more of an understanding of death from a Hindu perspective.
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- March 22, 2006 8:02 PM // Film , Review
Punching At The Sun
USA 2006 | 82 mins | Super 16 | English
d. Tanuj Chopra
Indian Niggas ... Pakistani Niggas ... Bangladeshi Niggas ... haven't y'all heard? We're the new niggas! So starts Punching at the Sun, a film by Tanuj Chopra, that explores the lives of urban desi teens in New York City in the aftermath of 9/11. In the sweltering heat of a NYC summer special, Queens homeboy Mameet (Misu Khan) is struggling to come to terms with the death of his brother, local basketball legend Sanjay ("his jumpshot was icewater"). Sanjay was shot in the cornershop owned by their parents. Reasons for his death are never made explicit - it's not clear whether it was a hate crime, although that would be the natural guess, or something else entirely. Furthering Mameet's problems, his sister Dia is starting to run wild, his basketball coach refuses to let him start on court during actual games and his brother's legend follows him wherever he goes. His main source of relief is his girlfriend Shawni (Nora Edmonds) - if only he would let her in through his rage and frustration. His homies Parnav and Ritesh alternately calm him and drive him to distraction through their bickering. And finally, the ongoing rap fest at the local club, particularly the MCing of Uncle Sonny, punctuates the film with staccato musings on desis and politics in the Bush era.
Shot in Super 16 with a cast primarily consisting of amateurs, Punching At The Sun's scope far outweigh its budget, which, by the director's own admission, is "lower than you think" and which, as he joked in the QA, he financed by "selling samosas in the street." That it falls short is more a testament to the muddled narrative than heart or passion, which Punching has in spades. Nonetheless, there's much to savor here. The rapport between Mameet and his sidekicks is effortless. Their variation on the "ya mama" jokes ("Ya mama uses ketchup for her bindi", "ya mama wears a snakeskin sari and fedora" and "ya mama gives elephant rides around the Taj Mahal", amongst others) had the festival crowd in stitches. Their escapades could well have been expanded into a standalone comedy in its own right. Nora Edmonds is a natural presence and the film truly shines when she's onscreen. Finally, Uncle Sonny is electric on the mic - his enunciations are on point. I want to see the man in concert!
Choosing to set this film in a culture of NYC basketball and hip-hop was a brave decision. While it's wonderful to see a South Asian film avoiding the usual identity crisis cliches, I can't see such thematic material being palatable to first generation desis. But by inviting comparisons against urban classics like Do The Right Thing, He Got Game and Boys N The Hood, the film once again suffers as there isn't enough here to differentiate it from others in that genre. Excerpting a Bollywood film and mentioning Amitabh Bachchan don't quite count. Nonetheless, director Tanuj Chopra has clearly marked himself out as someone to watch and his next project, set in the Bay Area during the dot com boon and featuring an army of "super-desis", sounds intriguing.
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- March 21, 2006 6:40 PM // Diaspora , Film , Review
Carma Update #2
Carma, the Bay Area indie from Ray Wang, keeps rolling! From the festival circuit:
- Delray Beach Film Festival, Palm Theatre, Boca Raton Embassy Suites Hotel, 661 Northwest 53rd St, Boca Raton, Florida 33487, Tel: +1-561-994-8200 (Yelophant - Official Selection by Invitation, Carma - Official Selection by Invitation, Screening Back-to-Back on Friday, March 10, 2006 at 11:59 PM as a special midnight screening with FREE coffee, look out for legendary filmmakers Roger Corman and Julie Corman at the screening!). More news about Delray here.
- Stanford Alumni Association Special Screening by Invitation, Stanford University, Exact Venue TBA (Carma - 04/14/06 8 pm)
- Bare Bones International Film Festival, One of the "Best Truly Independent Film Festivals," Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide ( Carma - Official Selection - 04/22/06 10:30 PM, playing at the Roxy Theatre, in Muskogee, Oklahoma)
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