Scene It In Detroit

ValloNicka Films (Sometimes in Life, The Mongol King) was one of six Detroit-area finalists for the Mobiflicks competition as part of the Motown PAH-FEST 2008 at Madonna University in Livonia on July 14-20.  PAH-FEST (Project Accessible Hollywood) is a traveling film festival and the brainchild of Christopher Coppola who is the brother of Nicolas Cage and nephew of legendary film director Francis Ford Coppola.

 

PAH-FEST is a digital media festival that travels to cities throughout the US and abroad.   PAH-FEST encourages visual storytelling, fosters community engagement and promotes the production of fictional and documentary videos that will be shared globally.

 

For the Mobiflicks competition, director Anthony Vallone had three days to shoot, edit and complete a six-minute short film with coaching and equipment from the PAH-FEST team.  The ValloNicka team shot Granny Panties, based on the original short story Why the Granny Panty Told the G-String to Stick It written by Lee Runchey.

 

Granny Panties is a unique narrative written from the point-of-view of a wise, elderly Granny Panty who is hanging on the wall of a laundromat while a young woman is washing her g-string underwear.

 

The story was originally published in The Connecticut Review, a prestigious literary journal whose pages have featured authors including Pulitzer-prize winner John Updike.

 

Vallone is also the director of Sometimes in Life, the Michigan-made, independent feature that premiered on June 27 at the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival.  Sometimes in Life is a story of life, love, loss and an unlikely friendship between two lost people whose lives are stuck in a rut. Jill is a young fashion designer who suspects that her lesbian girlfriend is cheating on her while Rob mourns the loss of his father.

 

The film stars Sara Stepnicka, Eric Morrison, Gunhild Giil and Jon E. Livernois.  Wayne David-Parker, Angela Roberts, Emily Rose, Ethan Helmann-Scherrer, Carol Pierangelino and Sharon Emigh complete the cast.

 

Sometimes in Life explores the dynamics of gay/lesbian and straight relationships in a new way. In the film, Director/Producer Anthony Vallone and Producer/Leading Lady Sara Stepnicka present the lesbian relationship between the women with the dynamic of a straight couple while simultaneously presenting the dynamic of the straight couple (Eric and his straight, platonic roommate) in a gay direction.

 

Sometimes in Life also features music from two-time Grammy winner Ozomatli, Modest Mouse, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Presley and Anilore. In addition, listen for made-in-Detroit artists Amp Fiddler, Jamie McCarthy, Cetan Clawson, Bedford Drive, The Bloids and Mindizade. 

 

ValloNicka Films originally signed a deal with CreateSpace as part of the 1,000 HD DVD Indies Project to present Sometimes in Life to the Sundance Channel for possible broadcast on their network. Although the deal had to be canceled after the announcement earlier this year that HD films would no longer be a standard, industry format, ValloNicka Films is currently discussing the film with other distributors.

 

For more information about Sometimes in Life, and to see the trailer, visit www.sometimesinlifethemovie.com or www.myspace.com/sometimesinlifethemovie.

 

Sometimes in Life is also an official selection of the 2008 Trinity Film Festival with a free screening on Saturday, August 2 at 1:45 pm at Studio 601 in Detroit.  For more information, visit www.trinityfilmcoalition.com.

 

Sometimes in Life is the second feature from ValloNicka Films. Their first movie, The Mongol King, joins Robert Rodriguez’s groundbreaking film El Mariachi as one of the five lowest-budget films ever to receive a distribution deal.

Get ready Detroit ... casting directors for "The Amazing Race" are coming to Detroit for an open casting call at Spring Arbor University in Dearborn on Tuesday, May 27 from 4 pm to 7 pm.  Pairs must be 21+.  For more information, visit http://wwjtv.com/events/casting.8.724150.html.

Location details:
Spring Arbor University
23400 Michigan Ave., Suite P20
Dearborn, MI 48124

Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Time: 4-7pm

Detroit is rolling out the red carpet for some of its own at the Detroit Oscar Film Festival on January 12 and 13.

The Music Hall and Prince Igor Productions presents a night of Oscar-nominated films made by Michigan filmmakers who will be in the house for Q&A sessions.  Featured filmmakers include Pamela Conn (Oscar winner), Heidi Ewing (Oscar nominee), Sue Marx (Oscar winner) and Jeannine Claudia Oppewall (Oscar nominee).

The festival starts on Saturday, January 12 at 7 pm at the Garden Lofts in Brush Park in downtown Detroit for a special launch party with food and drinks from local restaurants, wines from Barefoot Wines and a fashion show featuring designs from G by GUESS, En V Us Couture and the Intrinsic Collection.  21+ are welcome.

The festival continues on Sunday, January 13 at the Music Hall with the film screenings.  For more information, visit www.igorfilms.com.

 

 

IFC and Comcast are sponsoring Michigan Festival Shorts, a special screening of six short films from Michigan filmmakers, at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak on Thursday, November 29, at 7:30 pm.

 

All of the films are official selections and award-winning shorts at various film festivals.  From hometown favorites to a locally-made film that screened at a festival in South Africa, watch for these six films:

 

Snapshot, Kate Caldwell

John “Skippy” Kolar, Mark Einhaus

RED SEVEN, AE Griffin

Detroit Unleaded, Rola Nashef

Demeter: Surrender, Mike Madigan

Shooters. Get the picture., Maggie Patton

 

Visit www.myspace.com/michiganindie for details.

 

 

 

More than 40 original costumes worn in period movies by stars such as Kate Winslet ("Finding Neverland"), Gwyneth Paltrow ("Emma"), Renee Zellweger ("Miss Potter"), and Johnny Depp ("Finding Neverland") will be on display through October 7 at the Somerset Collection North in Troy.

The costumes are on loan from Cosprop, a London costume house.

Cinematic Couture is a free exhibit and open to the public during mall hours. Somerset Collection North is located at Big Beaver and Coolidge Hwy. in Troy.

For more information call 248-643-6360 or www.thesomersetcollection.com.

Broken, the award-winning film shot in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Cleveland by Derek Justice and David DeLeon for Top 250 Productions, celebrated a big weekend at the Trinity Film Festival in Detroit and The Indie Gathering film festival in Cleveland.  Count it down ...

FOUR nominations for Best Feature Film (Trinity), Best Drama (Trinity), Audience Award (Trinity) and Best Crime Drama (The Indie Gathering)

THREE awards for Best Drama (Trinity), Audience Award (Trinity) and Best Crime Drama (The Indie Gathering)

TWO film festivals in two states (These were also the first two festivals that the directors enterered this year)

ONE big weekend.

Broken has also been generating buzz after big premieres in Detroit and Cleveland.  The micro-budget film was made for only $985 and the screenplay advanced to the top 250 finalists (of about 7,000 entries) for season one of Project Greenlight, the Bravo TV series sponsored by Miramax, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

What's next for Broken?  The directors are discussing the project with distributors, investors and film studios.

For more information, and to see the trailer, visit www.broken-movie.com or www.myspace.com/brokenmovie.

Other winners at the Trinity Film Festival included The Death of Michael Smith, directed by Dan Casey (Best Feature), and Detroit Unleaded, directed by Rola Nashef (Best Short).

 

The Trinity Film Festival rolls out the carpet for a three-day event in Detroit from August 3-5. 

The festival begins on Friday, August 3, with a special screening at Marygrove College of "The Death of Michael Smith", the Michigan-made feature that took second place in its category at the Slamdance Film Festival this year.  After the film, the party continues at Prive with a special performance by Charm.

On Saturday, check out the latest independent films at the Marriott Renaissance Hotel including work from Michigan filmmakers Cate Caldwell, Eric Edwards, A.E. Griffin, Derek Justice, Mike Madigan, Rola Nashef, Maggie Patton, Matt Peach, Shawn Woddard and more.  The films run from 9 am to 5 pm and all screenings are free.

On August 5, the festival closes with an awards brunch at Greektown Casino.  The best feature film and the best short film will win $1,000 each.

For more information, visit www.trinityfilmcoalition.com.

Hollywood isn't the only town that's gearing up for a summer of big film premieres.  Detroit filmmakers are doing the same.

"Broken", directed by Derek Justice and David DeLeon for Top 250 Productions, is a feature film shot mainly in Detroit and Grand Rapids.  It's a sex, art and drugs film about The Boyfriend, The Junkie, The Girl and three lives full of secrets.  "Broken" stars David Gries, Aziza Amy Poggi (Of the prog metal band Dendura) and Steve Hopton  The screenplay for "Broken" also advanced to the top 250 finalists for Season 1 of "Project Greenlight", the prestigious Bravo TV series sponsored by Miramax, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Nearly every one of the 450 seats was filled for the "Broken" premiere at the Emagine Theatre in Novi on May 17 at 8 pm.  Moviegoers who came early also saw "Peep Show", a pre-game collection of shorts/trailers from Michigan filmmakers including Doug Acker, AE Griffin, Michael McCallum, Rola Nashef, Frank Nemecek, Sean Snyder, Sara Stepnicka, Tim Krynicki, Anthony Vallone and Jon Worful.

"Broken" received a standing ovation after the premiere and a couple of girls actually left the theatre in tears because they thought the ending was so emotional.

In addition, watch for the premiere on "Little Red Devil" on June 7 at the Emagine Theatre in Novi.  Tommy Brunswick of The Skeleton Company directed this suspence/horror flick that stars Daniel Baldwin in the title role as well as Dee Wallace, James Russo and Jim Lewis as the main charactor, a small-time crook who gets an offer he can't refuse.

Detroit exports more than techno, garage rock and a few cars.  Now, two films that were made in Detroit are making their global premieres in the UK and South Africa.

"The Sleepy Guy", directed by Frank Nemecek ("Checking In"  The Story of the Book Cadillac Building"), is a short about a man who can't wake up.  The film premieres next week at the Global Fusion event in Liverpool, England.  "The Sleepy Guy" stars former WKQI DJ Hugh Holesome ("Mr. Holesome") in the title role and actors Sonja Ribicki and Mare Costello who play a pair of nurses.  Maverick/Warner Brothers recording artist MoZella, award-winning vocalist Mary Abraham, Leah Andreone and Bricktown Station also contributed music to the film.

Meanwhile, Rola Nashef's short "Detroit Unleaded" (DU) is barely out of the starting gate and it's already screening at film festivals in Michigan, Grand Haven, CT, Phoenix and Seattle.  DU is also showing at the Everglades Film Festival in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa on June 17.  DU is the story of Sami, an Arab American teenager who works his first midnight shift at the family gas station in hopes that he'll get a visit from his sweetheart Naj.  Meanwhile, Sami's cousin Mike, the manager, see the gas station as a path toward upward mobility as he sells fake perfume and rolling papers.