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In the Fall of 1974, I was at Behrends, Inc. on Ohio Street preparing to make a television commercial when I ran into cinematographer Robin Rutledge. After we exchanged pleasantries, Robin mentioned he was going to begin principal photography on a low budget feature film--THE LAST AFFAIR--in about a month. At that time very few if any features were being shot in Chicago.

A statement by director Mania Akbari of ONE.TWO.ONE (screening in the Festival of Films from Iran) in response to the Iranian government’s September 20 arrest and imprisonment of Katayoun Shahabi, the distributor of the film.

Artists are the world's treasures

Creating THE TRUTH ABOUT BEAUTY AND BLOGS was a hilarious challenge. Once my idea for the lead character Vanessa came to me, I couldn't stop writing. I’d suddenly churned out 13 pages that had to be crammed into a one day shoot. Fortunately, my character is, well, a character! She talks a lot! Much of the script was a monologue narrated to the camera for her webshow. This allowed for some of the shots to be simplified. But my director still says we were crazy to attempt what we did in a 12 hour day!

This short film, set in the city of Luanda, tells the story of a man with the ‘simple’ dream of trying to stay with the person he loves. In this town, where chaos and peace, beauty and ugliness, corruption and honor meet, Matias will have to do whatever it takes to get what he wants.

You would think that seeing a producer knocked unconscious was the biggest obstacle to overcome on the most challenging shoot day of my career, but you would be wrong. That was just the first hour on set.

I grew up in a middle-class suburb of Richmond, Virginia, during the 1960’s and ‘70s, during one of the most turbulent periods in American history. I was too young to perceive the radical changes going on right outside my family’s door, as the civil rights movement came to the South, but I recall my Vermont Yankee mom organized a Saturday morning racially “mixed” doubles match at the segregated Byrd Park tennis courts. Traffic backed up as gawkers took in the scene, though the significance of the event would not dawn on me until years later.

One of the main challenges in making THE THREE WAY was to expose the complicating factors of an intimate relationship in decline. How can the film visually depict the small moments and intriguing human flaws in the characters in a very real way and at the same time captivate and stimulate an audience? Put simply, what is the most poignant approach to telling the story?

ROAD TO NOWHERE was and is a unique experience for everyone involved. From almost the beginning the movie took on a life and mind of its own. Except for the character of Laurel/Velma, all the major roles were cast, and then ultimately needed to be re-cast for varying reasons . Scenes were spontaneously changed or freshly created based on the inspiration of the moment. And new material was discovered having been shot by an actor using one of the cameras as a prop.

They say that art imitates life. When I started writing Incredibly Small I had just graduated college, was making peanuts bagging groceries at Whole Foods and fresh on the heels of a painful breakup. Basically, I was living the American dream. I wanted to write a story that embodied the experiences I was going through but I wanted to do it differently than usual. I was bored with the traditional "early 20's coming of age" stories that were out there. I wanted to make a movie that more accurately portrayed the trials of tribulations of my generation in all it's haphazard, middle-class glory.

The Closing Ceremony of the 64th Cannes International Film Festival took place today in the Grand Theatre Lumiere in the Festival Palais at 7:15 pm French time.