DIRECTORS ON DIRECTING: THEATER AND FILM
Liev Schreiber (The Mercy Seat, RKO 281, The Daytrippers) interviews writer/director Neil LaBute (The Shape of Things, Nurse Betty, In the Company of Men) about theater and film directing. (Light Breakfast served)
DIRECTORS ON DIRECTING: THEATER AND FILM
Variety reporter Deborah Young interviews director Julie Taymor (Frida, Titus) about theater and film directing.
MUSIC IN FILM
Vanity Fair Contributing Music Editor Lisa Robinson interviews celebrated film composers. Acadamy Award winner Elliot Goldenthal (Frida) and frequent Coen-brothers collaborator – Carter Burwell.
LOOKING FOR RICHARD: AL PACINO
Join Al Pacino on an actor’s journey. Mr. Pacino will discuss his 1996 film, Looking For Richard.
BLACK WOMEN ON FILM
A group of legendary women – film stars and filmmakers – from different generations come together to discuss their craft, their careers, and the contemporary climate for black artists working in mainstream American film.
Moderator: Anna Deavere Smith (The West Wing, The American President, Philadelphia)
Panelists: Ruby Dee (A Raisin in the Sun, No Way Out, Do the Right Thing), director Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou), Alfre Woodard (Miss Evers’ Boys, Down in the Delta, The Core) N’Bushe Wright (Blade, Widows)
ACTORS ON ACTING: THEATER AND FILM
Among Hollywood’s most frequently seen faces, there exists a core group who choose to hone their craft by working in theater as well as film. Film stars who seek theatrical roles discuss the appeal of being in constant turnaround from theater to film, and the impact on their craft that working in one medium brings to the other.
Moderator: Peter Bart, Variety Editor-in-Chief
Panelists: Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets, What Women Want), Paul Rudd (The Shape of Things, The Cider House Rules, The Object of My Affection), Edie Falco (Sunshine State, Judy Berlin) Holly Hunter (The Piano, Broadcast News, O Brother Where Art Thou?), Roger Bart (Stepford Wives; The Producers and You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown on Broadway)
BIOMECHANICS, QUANTUM INTERFERENCES DEVICES AND HOGWARTS: THE SCIENCE OF HARRY POTTER
Join the award-winning Harry Potter animator (and creator of Dobby) David Andrews and The Science of Harry Potter author Roger Highfield for a look at how science, technology and standard muggle physics becomes practical movie magic onscreen. Not just for little wizards.
Panelists: Harry Potter animator David Andrews, author Roger Highfield (The Science of Harry Potter) George Bugliarello. member of the National Academy of Engineers and former chancellor of Polytechnic University, and Timothy Helpin Healy, professor of physics at Columbia University.
THE RETURN OF THE SUPERHERO
It’s a bird, it’s a plane . . . no, it’s 6 foot 4, red-leather clad Ben Affleck, a.k.a. Daredevil, and he’s coming to save the world, or at least to kick some serious butt. Spiderman, X-Men, The Hulk – there is no doubt that the superhero is back. Is this resurgence of idealized crime-fighting saviors a response to our sense that the world is out of control? Or just Hollywood helping us to forget about it all?
Moderator: Joel Siegel, Entertainment Editor, Good Morning America
Panelists: screenwriter/director Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil, Simon Birch), Alan Cumming (X-Men 2, Spy Kids) & Kevin Misher (Welcome to the Jungle, The Scorpion King.)
THE INDIES GO TO HOLLYWOOD
Actors, filmmakers and studio executives discuss the indie-fication of the Cineplex.
Moderator: attorney John Sloss (Far From Heaven, Personal Velocity, Tadpole)
Panelists: executive Tom Bernard (Sony Pictures Classics), Patricia Clarkson (The Safety of Objects, The Station Agent, All the Real Girls), screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count On Me, Gangs of New York), Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Welcome to Collinwood, producer Christine Vachon (Far From Heaven, Party Monster) Isabella Rossellini (Roger Dodger, Big Night, Blue Velvet)
SOLVING THE MYSTERY: FORENSICS ON FILM
The crime scene, the coroner’s slab, a killer’s trademark calling card and a ticking clock. In the movies, it barely takes an hour to solve a hideous crime and on TV, even less. So just how realistic is all that blood splatter analysis and do coroners really eat lunch in the morgue? Join us to explore the world of forensics…on film.
Moderator: Chris Isham, Chief, Investigative Projects, ABC News
Panelists: Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic specialist and technical advisor (JFK), director John McNaughton (Henry: Death of a Serial Killer, Wild Things, Speaking of Sex), executive Rosalie Muskatt (Court TV, Vice President, Original Films), Dick Wolf (creator, Law & Order), Detective Hal Sherman, Forensics Investigation Division, NYPD, forensics consultant (The Bone Collector, Ransom, Clockers), Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: SVU, Oz, Murder in Greenwich)
WAR ON FILM: THE ULTIMATE REALITY PROGRAM?
No one goes to the Western for a history lesson…
-Kevin Brownlow, film historian
How is it possible to depict the ultimate conflicts of history within cinematic parameters? A daunting task, but perhaps, a cultural imperative? War films can provide a frame through which we may begin to comprehend historical events – or, just as importantly, they can generate dialogue. Filmmakers, writers, and actors discuss the often-harrowing process of creating a vision of war on screen.
Moderator: Frank Rich, The New York Times, Associate Editor and Arts & Leisure Columnist
Panelists: author Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down), author Anthony Swofford (Jarhead), producer Art Linson (Casualties of War) Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan, We Were Soldiers), executive Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Three Kings)
WHAT’S SO FUNNY? LAUGHTER IN THE MOVIES
From Blazing Saddles to Austin Powers to South Park: the shaping of American comedy.
Moderator: Lisa Birbach
Panelists: director Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet The Parents), screenwriter Paul Rudnick (Stepford Wives, In & Out), Nathan Lane (The Birdcage, The Producers on Broadway), Trey Parker & Matt Stone (creators, South Park, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut)
LIFE…OR SOMETHING LIKE IT
Award-winning screenwriters who found their material in the little details of everyday real life discuss fact, fiction and everything in between.
Moderator/Panelist: Stephen Schiff, New Yorker writer, screenwriter (Lolita, True Crime)
Panelists: Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich), Stephen Gaghan (Traffic), Ron Nyswaner (A Soldier’s Girl, Philadelphia) & Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry)
TRUTH & CONSEQUENCES (part of the Doc @ Tribeca Series)
From obtaining footage clearance to avoiding libel, the legal and ethical issues of documentary filmmaking . . .
Moderator: Attorney, Jonathan Gray (The Station Agent, Famous)
Panelists: director Nick Broomfield (Kurt & Courtney, Biggie and Tupac), director Nick Davis (The Innocence Project), director/producer Liz Garbus (girlhood, The Farm: Angola USA), director Jennifer Dworkin (Love and Diane), Eugene Jarecki (The Trials of Henry Kissinger)
STRANGER THAN FICTION: THE POLITICS OF JOURNALISM & FILM
One day it’s on CNN, and the next, it’s playing at a theater near you . . . Media responsibility, sensationalism and run-and-gun filmmaking in a world obsessed with breaking news.
Moderator: Marie Brenner, Vanity Fair writer-at-large, author of “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (source material for The Insider)
Panelists: producer Laura Bickford (Traffic), writer Robert Wiener (Live From Baghdad), Rick Kaplan, head of ABC news war coverage, Jim Sheridan (In America, Bloody Sunday)
SNAPSHOTS: DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN FAMILY
No family secret is sacred, the alternative is the norm and anyone can be a star. From the Louds to the Osbournes to the Friedmans, documenting the American family.
Moderator: Cara Mertes, Executive Director, P.O.V.
Panelists: director Andrew Jarecki (Capturing the Friedmans), director/producer Jennifer Fox (An American Love Story), director Tasha Oldham (The Smith Family), director Aaron Matthews (My American Girls), producer Craig Gilbert (An American Family)
ALTERED STATES: DOCS ON THE RISE
It’s a whole different Real World: documentary filmmakers gather to talk about the dawn of a new era in docs. Tradition (in the form of filmmaking technology, and standard theatrical release) makes way for new modes (lightweight, inexpensive equipment and wide releases on cable outlets) of launching docs into the world.
Moderator: Nancy Buirski (Executive Director, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival)
Panelists: producer Ken Burns (Jazz, The Civil War), director Alan Raymond (An American Family, Lance Loud! A Death in an American Family), director Chris Hegedus (Startup.com, The War Room), director D. A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back, Primary), Steve Rosenbaum, CEO & President CameraPlanet, Cara Mertes, Executive Director, P.O.V.
IN THE LINE OF FIRE: SHOOTING DOCS IN THE HOT ZONE
From dealing with local authorities and smuggling in film stock to crossing borders in the middle of the night, documentary filmmakers discuss the practical aspects of getting the job done while under difficult circumstances.
Moderator: Don Dahler, ABC News Correspondent, Nightline, Good Morning America, PrimeTime
Panelists: producer Martin Smith (FRONTLINE, Hunting bin Laden, In Search of Al Quaeda), producer/co-director Lisa Hepner (PeaceXPeace, Life Afterlife) Scott Anger, producer/photographer (FRONTLINE Saudi Time Bomb? Former Bureau Chief, Voice of America Radio/TV Islamabad, Pakistan)
