Spring means independent cinema this month at the Center for Film Studies. The Independent Filmmaker Speaker Series presents five contemporary films, with a diverse group of guest speakers who are newcomer and veteran independent film writers, producers, and directors (including Oscar nominee Jason Reitman and Miguel Arteta ’89), who have found success while creating films with an independent voice. The series was coordinated by the film department and the Film Board and made possible by a grant from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
The series showcase the wide variety of what can fall under “independent cinema” – including “Up in the Air,” a George Clooney vehicle, and “Wah Do Dem,” which was produced on a minimal budget.
The series’ first speaker, Sam Fleischner ’05, has had a rapid and unconventional path to success. When his co-creator Ben Chace won a cruise to Jamaica in a raffle, Fleischner and Chace decided to use the free trip to make a film and began brainstorming plot ideas. They brought two actors and a producer with them on the cruise, and then stayed in Jamaica for two weeks. “Wah Do Dem” film tells the story of Max-a young Brooklyn resident who wins a cruise to Jamaica. According the film’s website, during the course of the movie “Max escapes the tourist zone as fast as he can…and finds that the cultural divides he thought he could transcend are not so simple. Naked and broke in a foreign country where he stands out like a sore thumb, Max begins to make his way toward the American Embassy in Kingston.”
In the next film, “Frozen River,” which is being shown on April 8, writer/director Courtney Hunt tells the story of an impoverished single mother drawn into smuggling illegal immigrants across the St. Lawrence River from Canada to the United States.
“[Hunt] made a movie with no money, in a little town in upstate New York, which went to Sundance and then got picked up by Sony Pictures Classics,” said David Laub G ’10, a film graduate student who helped organize the series. “It was nominated for two Academy Awards and won the grand jury prize at Sundance. It was the story [of independent film] that was more prevalent in the 1990s, of a film gaining overnight success at a festival. [“Frozen River”] truly represents an independent spirit, and it’s great storytelling.”
Acclaimed director Jason Reitman, the director of “Juno” and “Thank You for Smoking,” will speak after “Up in the Air” (showing April 15), an Oscar nominee starring George Clooney as a corporate drone who spends his life traveling on airplanes between terminating employees for companies that contract him to do their dirty work.
“Reitman is a great crossover success,” said Laub. “They are his movies and his vision. He had heard the reputation of the school and he loves talking to students, so I am extremely excited that that came together.”
Miguel Arteta ’89 will be returning to campus on April 22, fresh from the success of his comedy “Youth in Revolt,” which stars Michael Cera as a teenager who constructs a rakish alternate identity to impress a girl. After Wesleyan, Arteta began in film by independently releasing “Star Maps,” received critical attention for “Chuck and Buck,” and has since continued to write and direct unique, authentic stories while operating under the divisions of larger film companies such as Fox Searchlight and giving Hollywood actors like Jennifer Aniston (in “The Good Girl”) and Cera a chance to flex their acting muscles.
The last film, “The September Issue,” (showing April 29) goes inside the production of an issue of Vogue Magazine. The documentary, which gained critical success when it came out last fall, follows controversial and polarizing editor Anna Wintour as she and her staff prepare the most important issue of “Vogue” to go to press. Sadia Shepard ’97, an author and producer of the film, will share her experiences working on the documentary.