‘Brix and the Bitch’ Offers Stronger Female Roles

By Julie Pendray

IDYLLWILD, Ca. — The story of a woman trying to escape an illegal fighting ring took top honors at Idyllwild International festival of Cinema in January. It was the first time  in the event’s  seven-year history that a “short” has won Best of Festival. “Brix and the Bitch” is just under 10 minutes.

The movie, which has garnered numerous awards at festivals across the United States, brought home the Best Director of a short award in Idyllwild for Nico Raineau . He’d been a finalist in Season 4 of HBO’s rebooted Project Greenlight right before he made this short.

In an interview after the Idyllwild festival, Raineau told me it marks a different direction for him.

“The Project Greenlight contest was very demanding and the experience very rewarding, but all the attention I received was for comedy. I felt myself being pigeonholed.”

So Raineau made the polar opposite: “Brix and the Bitch.”

“Rarely do we see films where women behave with the degree of raw violence as we feature in this one,” he said. “As a feminist filmmaker, boundaries need to be pushed in the pursuit of women having the same opportunities for creative expression as men, especially within the male dominated action genre, but I nonetheless recognized that the violence needed to be justified narratively.”

Nico Raineau directs Dre Swain (viewer’s left) and Alex Marshall-Brown in “Brix and the Bitch.” Photo courtesy Nico Raineau.

He said he wrote the film for actresses he already knew: Dre Swain and Alex Marshall-Brown . The women each won a Best Actress award among shorts at the festival. They tied with Academy Award winner Melissa Leo for her role in “Mother’s Day.”

“Brix and the Bitch” also won Best Editing and Cinematography  and Best Supporting Actor (David Carey Foster) in the short category.

Dre Swain (viewer’s left) and Alex Marshall-Brown tied for Best Actress in the Short category at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema in January. Still frame courtesy Nico Raineau.

Swain leads as the heroine known in the fighting circle as “The Bitch.”

She told me, “The roles were as challenging physically as they were emotionally – a rare combination to find for female roles. Our characters were not defined by our relationships to any of the men in the story. So many times it’s about whose wife, girlfriend, mistress we are. These ladies stand on their own and have their own compelling story to tell.”

Marshall-Brown, who plays The Bitch’s lover, Brix, said, “We’re in a new age for how women are represented in cinema.  As a society, we have not escaped the trend toward the manic pixie dream girl, the breathy voluptuous femme fatale, nor from those damsels in distress who frequently defer to the male hero’s ‘What’s next?’ plans.  However, the notion of a heroine, capable of garnering  her own salvation, is a fairly recent novelty which (gratefully) is gaining a more universal acceptance.”

Raineau said he was exposed to feminism from a young age by his mother, who raised him almost exclusively since his father’s work required him to travel a lot.

“She was an example of a strong woman who balanced parenthood, marriage, and being a business owner, and I think that influenced me quite a lot,” he told me.

Raineau said his girlfriend Lauren Schacher, a writer and filmmaker, also opened his eyes to gender inequality.

“She inspires me with her advocacy in the feminist movement,” he said. “She is very outspoken in the industry, not just in regards to feminism but also racial diversity. She is the co-host of a female oriented screenwriting podcast called Chicks Who Script.”

Marshall-Brown added, “Our focus on female empowerment was affirmed when the Connect Film Festival awarded us with The Bechdel Award.  We passed the Bechdel test proving that the success of the female characters driving our plot was not dependent on the influence of a man.  Winning that award was a great achievement for all of us.”

She said Raineau and Swain took great pains to develop The Bitch heroine.

“Allowing her journey to take shape in a hyper masculine environment, such as an underground fight ring, highlights the strength and ability for women to not only adapt but survive the obstacles intrinsic to our male driven society. She does not rely on someone to save her from her new-age indentured servitude. Yes, she does receive some help/guidance from her lover, but in the end she is responsible for claiming her own victory.  She has the power to buy her own freedom.”

Marshall-Brown said “The Bitch” is a “contentious moniker” worth discussing.

“It is most likely a label placed on her by the spectators within her fight ring, designed to belittle, degrade, and dehumanize her. Nevertheless, she claims it.  She stands strong within it, and grows empowered by the reputation she has built from it.”

Marshall-Brown came into this movie with a few years of martial arts under her belt.

“I’ve been training in Muay Thai (or Thai Boxing). It’s a system that utilizes punches, kicks, knees and elbows to engage in close combat.  I also have  a fair amount of combat training in other systems including kali, silat, and various performance-based weapons training.”

Swain trained with her in a gym to prepare for her performance.  She said the fight scenes are her favorites.

“I love getting to be physical as well as emotional, so when you put it all together, it’s an incredible challenge,” she said. “Exhausting, yes, but incredibly satisfying. I didn’t have any formal fight training going into the film. I was very strong and very fit and very active, but since I was playing a fighter (and sharing the screen with two actual fighters, Tim Storms and Alex), production put me in Muay Thai. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, prepping for this film. I changed my diet, my workout, my everything to get into the right shape to do Nico’s character justice. I’d wake up at 4:30 a.m., run, come home, shower, meal prep, go to my day job … weight lift after work, then go to fight training after lifting, then sprinkle in rehearsal, fight choreography, fittings, etc. It was the busiest, most exhausting, challenging time of my life. But I sincerely loved every second.”

Swain said her workout is still strict, though not as demanding.

“I run three days a week, weight lift five days a week and sprinkle in the occasional fight training/bouldering/dance class,” she said.

Swain said she kept up with the fight training because she fell in love with the workout, the discipline and the community. As far as diet goes now, she eats mostly paleo and keeps alcohol to a minimum, she said.

In some fight scenes, Swain appears almost like a gravatar due to the slow motion and fighting style, but Raineau said no digital effects were used.

“The visceral and realistic quality of the fights really comes down to the talented people involved in making the film,” he said.

Leo Kei Angelos was the fight director / stunt coordinator. He was a fellow Project Greenlight Top Ten Finalist with Raineau.

“Leo is a very talented director himself,” Raineau said. “We discussed the story and characters at length, and then Leo choreographed the fight sequence, beat by beat, with me interjecting to re-shape certain moves and moments to ensure the story was being told through the action and that each move was true to the characters.”

Marshall-Brown said Angelos has vast knowledge of physical dynamic movement.

“He built the fight around how our bodies move best,” she said.  “Also Dre did a phenomenal job of training beside me in a Muay Thai gym to build the necessary muscle memory to look like the ultimate fighter.  We rehearsed for a little over two weeks leading up to the shoot.  Once we got on set, we were a well-oiled machine. Some of the hits were masked to camera while others, like some of the stomach kicks, did involve direct contact.  Ultimately, we trained with safety as our primary focus.  All the blood that we shed was fake.  We did get fairly bruised up by the end of the shoot, but not much more than we anticipated.”

Nico Raineau directs Dre Swain in “Brix and The Bitch,” which won Best of Festival in Idyllwild. Photo courtesy Nico Raineau.

Makeup in the movie was realistic.

“Lili Kaytmaz was our kickass makeup artist,” Marshall-Brown said. “She made everything look more gruesome and brutally lifelike. That lady is crazy talented.”

Raineau said he met with Kaytmaz early in pre-production, once  the fight was mostly choreographed, and went through every movement of the fight to decide what the impact of each hit would look like.

“On set, we filmed the fight sequence in chronological order, stopping in between every few hits so Lili could add the proper make-up effects,” he said.

“Brix and the Bitch” won seven awards at Idyllwild. Photo courtesy: Nico Raineau.

John Gardiner was the award-winning cinematographer.

Scott Morris edited the movie. He was involved from the beginning, reading drafts of the script and providing feedback, Raineau said.

“I enjoy involving the editor in the story development process because, after all is said and done with shooting the film, the shaping of the story really comes down to the director and the editor sitting in a room together and deciding how the story is going to be told. Scott is remarkably talented and an intuitive storyteller, so he really helped bring this film to life.”

Swain, Marshall-Brown and Raineau are all based in Southern California. Swain grew up in Winfield, Kansas. Marshall-Brown describes herself as “a foreign service brat,” who grew up predominantly in the Caribbean and South Africa before attending boarding school in North Carolina. She later escaped the New York winters for more sunshine on the West Coast.

Raineau, a native of Mystic, Connecticut, started out as an actor in his high school drama club. Soon he realized he preferred directing.

In an interview for TheDay.com he said, “What I was so passionate about as an actor was embodying a character and getting to understand why someone does what they do and how they interact with the people around them. I realized that if you step back even further, a director gets to do that — but with all the characters. Then it becomes not just about psychology but also sociology. It just opened up a whole new world, and I haven’t looked back.”

At the Idyllwild awards ceremony, he gave perhaps one of the most heartfelt responses of the evening as he accepted a trophy for his team’s efforts.

“Being a film maker is f*****g hard,” he said in the spotlight. “We elevate each other.”

Judging by the inspiring stories of struggle and success that were socially shared by his peers during the festival, we can only imagine many in the audience could feel his “pain.”

You can view the official trailer for Brix and the Bitch on Vimeo by clicking here.

The movie will screen at these festivals in March and April:

Omaha Film Festival
March 8th – 13th
http://omahafilmfestival.org/

River Bend Film Festival
March 31st – April 2nd
http://riverbendfilmfest.com/

Phoenix Film Festival
April 7th – 14th
http://www.phoenixfilmfestival.com/

Copyright to Julie Pendray & SpecialsNotOnTheMenu.com . No permission is given for re-publication.

Carattini Wins ‘Outstanding Performance’ in Idyllwild

Australian actress Michela Carattini won an ‘Outstanding Performance” award at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema. Photo courtesy: Michela Carattini.

By Julie Pendray

IDYLLWILD, Calif. — One of the joys of Idyllwild’s festival of cinema is getting to know movie makers who return year after year from all over the world.

International actress Michela Carattini was among those who returned this year. She took home the Mary Austin Award for Outstanding Performance, based on her body of work. These awards are given to women in the industry.

“54 Days” won the Grand Jury Award for Best of Festival at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema 2015. Photo courtesy: Tim Lea.

Carattini is remembered as part of the 54 Days team from Australia that took home The Grand Jury Award for Best of Festival last year. It was her first time at the Idyllwild event. Carattini was nominated for best actress in the sci-fi drama, which portrays a group of friends taking refuge from a bomb explosion in a 1960s style Sydney shelter.

This year, the Sydney based actress appeared in three productions:  Le Matinal; Sweet Disposition; and The 33rd Wedding.

Michela Carattini in a behind-the-scenes shot from Le Matinal. Still frame courtesy: Michela Carattini.

In Le Matinal, a romantic short, Carattini leads as a Parisian backpacking to Sydney who falls in love with an Australian. She’s torn between him and her Parisian boyfriend back home. In its world premier, the short was nominated in several categories. Director Gavin Guan came to Idyllwild for the festival. He moved to LA two months ago.

In the short drama Sweet Disposition, directed by Carattini’s Parisian friend Kathleen Hrayssi, a confident ad man sees his life falling apart over a woman. Carattini plays a Sydney businesswoman. Sweet Disposition received a number of nominations in Idyllwild.

A behind-the-scenes shot from Sweet Disposition. Photo courtesy: Michela Carattini.

Carattini describes The 33rd Wedding as “a Woody-Allen style comedy with a mental health twist.”

Actress Michel Carattini appears in The 33rd Wedding, about a woman tired of waiting for Mr. Right. Photo courtesy: Michela Carattini.

“A woman throws herself a wedding-themed birthday party because she doesn’t believe she’ll ever meet Mr. Right,” she said. Carattini is one of the leads, playing a New York psychiatrist. The movie was awarded Honorable Mention in the Idyllwild festival, which was its U.S. premier. The producer, Jed Malone, was in town for the event.

How easy was it for an Australian to adopt a New York accent?

“I used my natural accent, which is Standard American with a hint of New York, where I lived for 8 years, so my own accent can go either way,” she told me in an interview in Idyllwild. “My father was Panamanian American and my mother is Australian, so my own accent is partly American.”

Her father, Charlie Carattini, passed away seven months ago. At the festival’s award ceremony, the actress paused to say one last sentence after her acceptance comments:  “Dad, I know you can see this.”

Carattini is expecting her second child this year. She doesn’t know the baby’s sex but her 4-year-old son, Zayed, has told her he wants to name the infant Zoe, regardless.

“He’s really into the letter Z right now,” Carattini said. “But I’ve told him I’m thinking of a different name and when he has a baby, he can name her Zoe.”

The actress, in her 30s, wants to impart a message to other women in the business.

“Don’t be afraid to live your life while you’re working on your professional goals. My life experience has made me a better actor.”

Three months ago, she shot a featurette in Italy, called Tendency to Love or Tendenza ad Amar. She used a Sardinian accent.

“I’m multi-lingual,” Carattini said. “I grew up in Germany. My dad was in military intelligence for the U.S. Army and my mother danced for the Australian ballet. She was dancing for the Frankfurt ballet when they met. He was stationed there.”

Carattini has two more movies in post-production. In Broken Hallelujah, she plays a U.S. ambassador’s wife who learns a “terrible secret” about him.

Unspoiled by Feminism is based on Carattini’s work as an anti-human-trafficking social worker and counselor in Prague.

“The movie isn’t about human trafficking though,” she said. “The title comes from the more mainstream acceptable world of introduction agencies. It’s about a date between a Czech girl and an Australian guy who meet through an online dating service.”

This movie is directed by her friend Kathleen Hrayssi.

Carattini will be in a major motion picture to be shot at the end of this year, she said.

“It’s a U.K production, filmed in Europe, and it’s an action movie about human trafficking,” she said.

“Modern day slavery comes out of desperation by traffickers and the trafficked people,” she said. “If we don’t create a market to consume and if we focus on developing other countries, there isn’t a need.”

Carattini is a singer, dancer and director, in addition to her film and stage acting career. Her first performance was at age 14, according to her profile on IMDB.com . She is a graduate of The American Musical & Dramatic Academy (NYC), Columbia University (BAPsych) and Sydney University (MCrim).

To see a full list of awards and nominations from Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, check out their web site.

Copyright to Julie Pendray and SpecialsNotOnTheMenu.com

‘Story Behind Nights in White Satin’ Up for Best Documentary

By Julie Pendray

IDYLLWILD, Ca. — When the ethereal strains of “Nights in White Satin” hit the airwaves in 1967, radio DJs knew there was something different about them. Eventually the public caught on to the symphonic and trance-like sound that included the deep tones of a new keyboard instrument, the mellotron, accentuating the crescendos of the heartfelt melody.

The Moody Blues were on their way into the psychedelic era with the groundbreaking album Days of Future Passed. They set the tone from then on with a style that was “elegant, artistic and complicated,” according to music and documentary producer David Minasian. It earned the British band the highest of praise from Rolling Stone magazine, which dubbed them The Sistine Chapel of Rock.

Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema will rekindle the public’s love affair with that hit song next month with “The Story Behind Nights in White Satin,” Minasian’s movie, which is nominated for Best Documentary.

David Minasian,music and movie producer. Photo courtesy David Minasian.

It’s Minasian’s first participation in the Idyllwild festival, which is coming into its seventh year. This week, in a phone interview, he said he’s “very excited.” The Hemet resident said he’s especially delighted that festival producer Trinity Houston is allowing time for one of his other movies, “Watching and Waiting,” too. Both highlight Moody Blues songwriter Justin Hayward.

Hayward was 19 years old when he wrote “Nights in White Satin.” He was facing the end of one love affair and the beginning of another. Soon after he penned the song, he joined The Moody Blues and offered it to them for the landmark album that became known as one of the first successful “concept” efforts.

Days of Future Passed was about the life of “everyday man” during one day, according to a BBC interview with Hayward in recent years. It also expressed humanity’s interest in the mystical. The band had been looking for fresh ideas and a new sound. They decided to drop acid to pave the way.

“We were searching for some kind of enlightenment,” Hayward said in the interview. (LSD) opened the door in my mind. I could see the world as it really was.”

An early performance of “Nights in White Satin.” Still frame courtesy of David Minasian.

In the “White Satins” documentary, we hear how the delay of a flight bringing The Supremes to a television show in France gave The Moody Blues an opportunity to go on-air with its brand new song that would become a mega hit.  The documentary shows the first time the group performed the song on film. It was shown on French television within days of the album’s release.

“The whole story of how this song became a hit is interesting,” Minasian said. “Days of Future Passed was a demo record to showcase stereo, which was just coming out. Decca wanted to show that stereo could be used for both orchestral music and rock. They decided to come up with an album that blended both.”

The album features The London Festival Orchestra.

“The song didn’t even reach number 1 on Billboard until 1973,” Minasian said. “Half the people at Decca wanted to release it and half didn’t. Some thought it was too long.”

“Nights in White Satin” expresses the sweetness and exhilaration of love, with the mellotron for grand dramatic effect. It was the single that propelled the album to fame.

“The mellotron hadn’t been used before,” Minasian said. “It was difficult to play. The only guy who could play it was Mike Pinder, the keyboardist in The Moody Blues, because he’d worked for the manufacturer. Nothing else sounded like it.”

The Moody Blues went on to sell more than 70 million albums worldwide, collecting 18 Platinum and Gold Discs.

Minasian’s documentary is one of an estimated 100 movies and shorts to be presented at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema Jan. 5 to 10 at various venues. Idyllwild is a mountain town between Palm Springs, Los Angeles and San Diego. The festival draws tourists and movie makers from all over the United States and the world.

“The Story Behind Nights in White Satin” will screen at 7 p.m. Jan. 6 at The Rustic Theatre. Minasian and executive producer Michael Pinkus will do a question and answer session with viewers after the movie, then there’ll be a screening of “Watching and Waiting,” a piece about a solo Hayward concert. For more information on the screenings and accompanying  VIP reception, click here.

Still frame courtesy David Minasian.

Minasian and Pinkus have worked with Hayward and The Moody Blues on a variety of projects. DVDs of some of the Hayward performances are available through PBS stations.

Today’s version of The Moody Blues band includes original 1964 drummer Graeme Edge, along with Hayward and bassist John Lodge from the 1966 lineup. They’ll start a 23-cities tour March 3 in Florida. For details, click here.

To see the schedule of the Idyllwild festival screenings click here. Tickets are available through the festival web site

Copyright Julie Pendray and SpecialsNotOnTheMenu.com

Making Movies Can Be a Family Affair

By Julie Pendray

IDYLLWILD, Calif.— One endearing aspect of Idyllwild’s film festival this year was watching a young family take Best of Festival, Audience Choice for a movie they’d made together. It was even more touching as the underlying story of their courage and commitment to the subject unfolded.

In After School, Adrian Moreira-Behrens portrays a victim of gang-related child prostitution who tries to rid himself of his unspeakable past. After gunfire is heard in the hallway of his school, the campus goes into lock down.

Adrian Moreira-Behrens in “After School.” Photo: True Form Films.

Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema awarded Adrian the Best Child Actor award for his performance. The movie also has won awards in Houston at Encuentro Mundial de Cine Latino and in Denver at the XicanIndie XVI film festival.

In an interview after the Idyllwild awards ceremony, Adrian said, “I hope that people will know the importance of children speaking up about abuse.”

After School was made by Adrian’s mom, veteran actress Yeniffer Behrens, as well as her life partner and business partner, Mauricio Mendoza, and producer DeWayne Cox, through their company True Form Films.

Mendoza and Behrens have individually accumulated many years of theater, movie, TV and commercial credits, including  Old Globe Theatre San Diego performances and guest appearances on TV’s C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation and General Hospital. They work in both the Latino and Anglo markets.

In After School, the couple co-produced and starred as a cop and a former guest teacher who had inspired Adrian’s character. Mendoza co-directed with Carlos Meléndez. Behrens’ and Mendoza’s daughter, Julianna , then age 11 months, appeared briefly on screen. Adrian’s father, Audomaro Moreira, was 2nd assistant director.

As they accepted their award onstage at The Rustic Theatre in Idyllwild, they all hugged and Adrian gave a concise statement of the rewards of moviemaking. “It makes my mom happy,” he said. The audience cheered and Behrens beamed.

Immediately following the awards, Behrens said in an interview, “It’s so wonderful being acknowledged by the audience. We feel so grateful and so blessed. We had so much passion for this subject. This says to me, ’Never give up.’”

Mendoza said in a later interview, “We want all our movies to have spiritual themes. We want people to be empowered, inspired. We’ve been in the industry a long time. What sells is violence, drama. There is a calling for faith-based stories but we’re going to spiritual cinema, not religious. We want broad appeal but we have to make it commercial to get people to watch. We want to teach communication. We are saying, ‘Parents, be careful who you let watch your kids.'”

Part of the inspiration for working as independent producers now, he said, is to create more roles and different roles for Latino actors, instead of the stereotypical service worker roles that Latinos are frequently offered.

Mendoza said he went to his close friend and writer Ruben Padilla to write the After School script. In video clip below, Padilla said he wrote it because, as an educator, he has seen children who need support.

“The script really touched our hearts,” Adrian said.

Adrian has been acting in commercials, TV shows and movies since he was 4 years old, he said.

He was 12 when his family made After School.

Mendoza said Adrian is a highly intelligent person who needed a challenging role.

“He’s an incredible talent. He’s a perfectionist. He just wants to get it,” Mendoza said. “Yeniffer wanted the movie to showcase him. We explained that to him.”

There are several scenes in the movie that imply violence and child abuse, without being graphic. The audience sees Adrian sobbing fearfully. We also see him carrying a gun at school in self-defense.

“He did those breakdown scenes in two or three shots each time,” Mendoza said. “We rehearsed a lot so he wouldn’t have to do it over and over again when we started shooting. We didn’t want to put him through that.”

They spent just two weeks shooting the movie in Los Angeles.

How does a child actor deal with that kind of intense subject?

Adrian said “it was tough.”

“My mom and everyone helped me,” he said. “I had a lot of emotional support. They all pushed me to my limit. It was a huge effort by everyone.”

Mendoza said, “Adrian had his family all around him. He always had a good friend on set with him every day too. We didn’t really know how it would work. There were days when Adrian just wanted to be home playing video games. We made sure he had his video games with him on set. We gave him breaks after his crying scenes in the movie to play his games, so he knew this is just acting, this isn’t real.”

“We’ve seen a lot of messed up people in this business,” Mendoza said. “We didn’t want to screw up our kids. We took him to Comic-Con (a comic convention) in San Diego for three days after filming and he had the time of his life.”

How does the family try to protect their children from adult situations they may encounter in the movie industry?

“I don’t think you can shelter them from the truth,” Mendoza said. “Life is hard. Yeniffer told Adrian that he is being of service. He will be a hero. He will make a difference.”

Adrian said he was in a movie at age 5 called Drive-By Chronicles: Sidewayz.

“I played Lil’ Sidewayz,” he said.

The movie is about a man trying to help his brother find a job instead of joining a gang.

Behrens and Mendoza met while doing a movie called Confession of a Gangster in Mexico.

“We learned we were both South American and we hit it off,” Mendoza said. “We had the same kind of agenda — to make a difference in the world. We were both working on bilingual projects at the time. We started producing together.

Mendoza said Yeniffer was born in Venezuela and raised in Miami. He was born in Davis, California and raised in Cartagena, Colombia. They’re now based in Los Angeles.

“I think, for Yeniffer and I, having the experience of living in two very different countries, it exposed us to so much more. It makes us see two sides in everything and, of course, our parents are very alike. They’ve taught us to think of others before our selves,” Mendoza said. “Yeniffer is pure love. She really does want to make a difference.”

Regarding the couple’s spiritual beliefs, Mendoza said, “Yeniffer likes to say she is all religions. We are imperfect beings trying to make sense of our day-to-day. If we all had more compassion for each other, more patience with each other and more love, imagine where we could be.”

What are the challenges of working as a family?

“It’s all a learning experience,” Mendoza said. “We have our moments. But when Yeniffer and I have artistic differences, I try to focus on  the fact that she wants the same thing I want. We are both opinionated leaders. We try not to let the crew see our breakdowns. Everybody has breakdowns, whenever you are working with other people. You have to try to get your egos out of the way. The show must go on. Dewayne Cox is great at defusing the issues between us and balancing us.”

“Look at the film festival, as an example,” he said. “We got to do that together as a family and  enjoy it.”

After the Idyllwild award ceremony, Behrens said in an interview that the honor was a validation for them as a family of movie makers.

Kenneth Castillo was the director of both movies Sidewayz and Confessions. He previously came to the Idyllwild festival with Counterpunch, in which Mendoza and Behrens were part of the cast.

Mendoza did part of his recent interview by phone after the family left Idyllwild, Julianna could be heard in the background wanting her “Papa.”

As for Adrian, where will he take his career now?

“Where the wind takes me,” he said. “I’ll keep auditioning. I have a great team supporting me.”

Copyright to Julie Pendray & SpecialsNotOnTheMenu.com

Moviemaking–A Struggle That’s Worth It

By Julie Pendray

IDYLLWILD, Calif. — We’ve all heard how movie making is highly competitive and often tortuous. Sometime it’s glamorous.

Most of the time, it’s a series of challenges that can drive you around the bend, according to actor, director and writer Wolfgang Bodison, who came to town last week to be Honorary Co-Chairman of Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema.

Bodison is most known for his role as Lance Cpl. Dawson in the 1992 Tom Cruise movie A Few Good Men. His other acting credits include Pretty Rosebud, Freeway, Joe Somebody, The Expert, Little Big League and Not Another Not Another Movie. He has written and directed five short films and is currently collaborating on a feature, while teaching acting at Playhouse West in Los Angeles.

When Bodison helped introduce the Idyllwild awards ceremony on Jan. 10, he gave a painfully honest summary of the bumps and hurdles along movie makers’ roads. Some people in the audience at the Rustic Theatre agreed later that Bodison’s honesty was helpful and refreshing.

During an after-party, he sat down for an interview about why people stay in the game despite the challenges.

“You have to love telling stories,” he said, “because you get told, ‘No,’ so often.”

“Writing the script is the easy part,” he said. “Getting the movie made is still fairly easy. Getting it seen, that’s the hardest part. The distribution deals are hard. The options … ” (sigh). “They may want rewrites. They may want to change the script. Everyone wants to put their stamp on it.”

As for fund raising, Bodison said, “It drives you crazy!”

“Most people start with shorts, because the feature is such a big animal. A short is 5 to 20 minutes. It’s harder to tell the story that way though. You have to be succinct. But you can cut your teeth on shorts. It’s best to make your mistakes there.”

As for finding money, that’s a different skill needed than that of the creative person, he said.

“You can spend no money at all or up to about $20,000 on a short,” he said.

“Money is out there. Crowd funding is popular. There are people who want to invest, just to say they helped make a movie,” he said. “Some like to be part of the creative process. You can also write a grant application to a non-profit organization that’s involved in the kind of subject you’re working on, for example.”

Movie Making in Transition

Bodison talked about big shifts in movie making brought about by technology.

“The cost of film and cameras used to be prohibitive,” Bodison said. “But now the digital platform is so much less expensive. People are making movies on their iPhone. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. We’re losing the art of cinematography. We used to have people who were painterly in the way they filmed. Directors of photography are getting out of the business now. Even sound, you can make anyone sound good with software now.”

“Everyone wants to post everything on the Internet,” he said. “With YouTube videos, we’re losing the art of storytelling. We’re losing the craft of telling the beginning of the story, doing the set up and then creating the end. People are watching shorter pieces now, like someone on his skateboard. There’s no story.

“Social media affects how filmmakers are treated when they submit to festivals now,” Bodison said.

“They’re looking for how many followers you have on Facebook or Instagram,” he said. “They want to get people into the theaters.”

Passion and drive

So, if the passion for storytelling is what keeps people in the business, despite all the obstacles, what’s the drive that creates and sustains that passion?

“Other people can connect with what we write or paint and maybe they can heal in a small way,” Bodison said.

“All my projects deal with forgiveness or redemption. I’m trying to work something out. I think we all (actors and writers) do it for our own personal healing.

“With any labor of love, you have to commit yourself to it. That’s hard on the people around you. There’s a lot of stress. Your partner doesn’t always understand the business.”

Bodison said his wife produces commercials, so she “gets it.”

“But generally spouses don’t want to hear our complaints. You have to find your own family,” he said.

Watching all the hugs and laughter at the festival parties, it seemed that, in spite of the competition, there’s a camaraderie among movie makers. Do fellow film makers become the “family” of which Bodison speaks?

“Yes,” he said.

“We share the same struggle.”

However, he said that couples who make films together often deal with issues of competition and control.

In general, giving up control is hard, he said.

“I’m currently working with a friend on a feature, so I know from experience. The movie is about changing a town’s culture.”

Part of the overall moviemaking struggle is reduced by the digital revolution and self-distribution, Bodison said.

“There’s a huge shift in how movies are being made, viewed and promoted,” he said.

“Everyone’s having to adapt.”

While some aspects may be easier, some have yet to be figured out, he said.

“For example, how do we pay residuals for Internet usage?”

During the Idyllwild awards ceremony, one actress acknowledged the effort that all movie makers at the festival had made, whether they won awards or not.

Michela Carattini, of the Australian-made 54 Days, which won the Grand Jury Award for Best of Festival, said, “I know everyone here worked just as hard.”

Michela Carattini, actress. Photo courtesy: IMDb resume.

In cafes around town the following day, Idyllwild residents reflected on the festival experience, as movie makers prepared to leave. Among them was local theatrical actor Doug Austin, who contributes the endowment for the festival’s Mary Austin Awards for Excellence by Women in Film Making. The awards are named after his late wife.

Austin summed up the “take away” from the festival, for people of artistic inclinations.

“The festival gave hope that people can be successful in their work.”

Copyright Julie Pendray & SpecialsNotOnTheMenu.com

Idyllwild International Film Fest Winners

By Julie Pendray

IDYLLWILD, Calif. — Two dramatic films made by culturally diverse teams have won big honors at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema.

“54 Days” won the Grand Jury Award for Best of Festival at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema 2015. Photo courtesy of “54 Days.”

54 Days,  about people surviving after a nuclear bomb explosion, was brought to the screen by an international team based in Australia.  It won the “Grand Jury Award, Best of Festival,” as well as Best Foreign Feature,  and Best Director, Best Cinematography in the Feature category.

After School,  an intense look at what happens when a child has to keep the secret of a prostitution ring, was produced by a Latino-American company, and won “Best of Festival, Audience Choice,” as well as Best Child Actor.

Yeniffer Behrens stars in “After School,” which won the Audience Choice for Best of Festival at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema 2015. Photo courtesy of True Form Films.

In 54 Days, five people are trapped in a 1960s nuclear bunker in  Sydney, Australia after a nuclear and biological attack. They are faced with the gut-wrenching decision of whether one person should die so the rest can live.

The movie stars  John Michael Burdon, Michael Drysdale, Dianna LaGrassa,  Michela Carattini and Gregory J. Wilken. It was written and directed by Tim Lea, originally of the United Kingdom, and produced by Nicholas Andrew Halls, Ravi Kambhoj and Zayed Al Otaiba.

After School  is the first feature produced by True Form Films, an independent movie company founded by veteran actress and producer Yeniffer Behrens, actor, director, producer Mauricio Mendoza and DeWayne Cox, a director and producer. It was written by educator, Ruben Padilla.

Yeniffer Behrens and Mendoza, as well as Behrens’ son, Adrian Moreira-Behrens, and Vance Valencia star in the movie.

Both movies were crowd funded.

This was the sixth year of Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, which draws moviemakers from all over the United States and beyond to this mountain village above Palm Springs. This year, 135 features/featurettes, shorts and documentaries from a variety of countries were offered.

To see the full list of nominations and award winners, visit the festival’s website.

Copyright Julie Pendray & SpecialsNotOnTheMenu.com