New filmmakers given Stateside showcase

Most independent directors and producers would probably concede that making a film these days only constitutes about 1% in the overall struggle to actually get it seen. The modern battle to secure any kind of distribution can be as bloody and chaotic as the D-Day landings. Consequently showcase events like New Filmmakers Los Angeles are a vital aid in getting new movies before an audience.

At Indie Movies Online, we are delighted to work with emerging film-makers like Pat Higgins, Louis Melville and Carlo Ortu and bring such movies as The Devil's Music, Man Who Sold the World and The Killers to an online audience. Plus we're always interested in events that are willing to give up-and-coming movie-makers an opportunity to screen their work. Because let's face it, unless you're Louis Leterrier or McG, and you've got a studio-signed guarantee that your latest magnum opus will open in thousands upon thousands of multiplexes then festivals and special screenings still offer perhaps the most obvious route to getting people to initially see a film.

Getting people to see films is the whole aim of New Filmmakers Los Angeles, a non-profit group whose raison d'être is to give emerging movie-makers the opportunity to screen their work. Like some indie movie Trojan Horse, NFMLA operates from a former hothouse of studio power, being based at Sunset Gower Studios, home to Columbia Pictures during the Golden Age of Hollywood. They invite open submissions from directors who wish to be involved their screening programs, with those screenings being staged on a monthly basis in the Stanley Kramer Theater at Sunset Gower.

The next scheduled batch of Los Angeles screenings are due to take place on 8 April, with the below movies being featured (synopses are taken from the NFMLA website):

Documentary Program (starting at 6pm)

A Harlem Mother (dir: Ivana Todorovic)

In 1998, 18 year old Latraun Parker made a documentary about the harshness of growing up in Harlem. Eight years later he was shot dead on the street. Today his mother Jean fights youth gun violence and helps other parents survive the pain. 'A Harlem Mother' tells its story from the dual perspective of Jean and Latron, using footage from his own documentary.

Dig Comics (dir: Miguel Cima)

When most people think of comic books, they think of lowbrow entertainment for duller minds. Fact is, this art form is the most exciting and vibrant medium happening today. Check out what you’ve been missing! 

Eye to Eye (dir: Hannah Taylor, Andrea Capranico, Breanna Wing, Nicholas Wiesnet)

In the paradise of Cameroon's rainforest, chimpanzees and gorillas face imminent extinction at the hands of bushmeat hunters. Courageous conservationists lead the battle for survival of man's closest relatives in the animal world before it is too late.

Short Film Program (starting at 7.30pm)

Poi Dogs (dir: Joel Moffett)

Poi Dogs is the story of two local Hawaii teenagers who take a small step towards love by moving beyond their desires to act cool.

Love in Bulk (dir: Andrew Rubin)

Two lonely and insecure shoppers experience the entire cycle of a relationship during a single outing to Bulk N’ Buy Superstore.

One Step Forward Two Steps Back (dir: Monique Carmona)

The hilarious exploration of one woman’s bumpy ride on the road to recovery and the quirky characters she meets along the way. Laura, the newcomer decides to share at the neighborhood women's support group, after all it has been a rough week. As the semi circle of support gets thinner we find out she's met someone she thought she could trust, rushed blindly into a no win situation and topped it off with a nice dose of no turning back. 
Hey, who wouldn't need a little support after what she’s been through?

Napoleon's Charm (dir: Stefano Cipani)

Napoleon's Charm is a film that takes place in the days before The Battle of Waterloo. A young soldier, Francois, is trying to find a way to escape death, but there is none, and only one person is to blame... only one casualty needed to finish the war.

Short Film Program (starting at 8.45pm)

Seven Songs About Thunder (dir: Jennifer Reeder)

When a young woman with remarkable and hilarious coping skills finds the dead body of a teenage girl in the woods she is forced to reconcile her greatest fear--her fantastically failing life. This is a dark comedy about a mother, a daughter, a liar and her therapist.

Coffee & Cream (dir: Matthew Koppin)

8 years after leaving his family, a father returns home to try to reconnect with his son.

Zlatá Rybka/The Goldfish (dir: Jacob Mendel)

Set in Prague at an indeterminate time, the lives of a man, a cat, and a goldfish intersect in unexpected ways.

The Whiskey Priest (dir: Thomas Rennier)

After cleansing the town of priests by any means necessary, a warped barber of southern Texas gets a great surprise when one final priest comes to him.

Blindsided (dir: Mark Cabaroy)

The beautiful blind psychic Carly St Johns is on a quest to track down the dangerous career criminal Randy Meyers with the help of her police department liaison Lieutenant Razzinksy. When fate traps Randy and Carly in the same hotel room, they must match wits in a psychological game of cat and mouse to see which one of them will get out alive.

The duration of these films ranges from between 7 to 25 minutes, and each screening is followed by Q & A sessions with the directors.

A sister NewFilmmakers event also takes place in New York at the Anthology Film Archives each week, with this east coast operation having started back in 1998. They have since showcased more than 2000 short films and 600 features (including The Blair Witch Project and Zero Day), and they are currently gearing up for New Filmmakers Spring Fest 2010, which takes place between 2 and 7 April.

Showcased features at the event will include Katie Madonna Lee's Women's Prison, Charles Wall's Road Rep, Amy Greenfield's Club Midnight, Moniere's Xenation, and Philippe Orlando's Happy Anniversary. So if you're in the Big Apple during the period in question and in the mood to check out some independent cinema action, the details of which you can subsequently employ to clobber cinematic smart alecks at future social events, then head over to the Spring Fest 2010 page and check out times and venues.