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CineSource Celebrates and Gives Awards
By Hildy Johnson
And oh, what a night it was! After nine months of hard labor - designing the magazine and website, putting out the eight issues physically and keeping all the relationships going (spiritually and financially) - CineSource celebrated. CineSource's Launch Party and Caligari Narrative Award Ceremony was held at West Oakland's sprawling Lobot Gallery, maintained by a crowd of 18 (!) communards and featuring an 18-foot curved wall, on which was projected The Maltese Falcon during the party.
Leo Maselli, winner of CineSource's First Caligari Narrative Award, for his team's "Lovely Adult Beverage," enjoys award-winning shrimp curry with budding actress, Larisa de la Torre, at CineSource's launch party. Photo: Myke Reilly
CineSource's mascot, Diane the Detective (the blonde femme played by talented stage actress and film director Diane Karagienakos) looked down from banners bearing CineSource's prescient slogan, "Some bad things have been happening 'round here, and I wouldn't want them to happen to you." It added to the tone set by Sam Spade, perfidious girlfriend Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and the nefarious Fat Man. Guests would look up and see key moments in the film, while hearing random words and sentences from the crowd around them that often matched the action perfectly. Eerie.
Real Life Detective Kala Lyons, real name something else, vamps in front of CS mascot Diane the Detective. Photo: I. BlairMoving further into noir, some thirty guests later packed into the screening room to see My Holocaust Vacation, a heart-rending doc about making peace with old ghosts in Poland. Directed and partially scored by CineSource publisher Doniphan Blair, the film follows his family back to Poland and the Czech Republic, to revisit his mother's life and wartime travails. His brother Nicholas (a New York DP) produced and filmed Vacation and it stars Blair's daughter Irena, who was on hand for the Q&A. With notable aplomb, the lovely and talented 27-year-old handled tough questions about overcoming grief and overbearing directors.
Continuing the contrasts, Irena and friend Karen Gorman had just dashed in, carrying five gallons of home-made shrimp curry, plus rice and salad. The curry earned accolades from appreciative guests already feasting on spanakopita, baklava, feta cheese, kalamata olives, and tyropita (Greek panini filled with cheese) from Daly City's famous Greek Imports.
More than 150 celebrants showed up to see and be seen, from various hopefuls to local film/video pros like DP Jeff Devereaux of Devereaux Camera and Stuart Dubey of DubeyTunes (both Caligari contest sponsors), Katie Carney of Snader & Associates and Michael Pickman-Thoon of Rough House (both CineSource advertisers), Casey Jones Bastiaans and James LeBrecht, manager and founder respectively of Berkeley Sound Artists, and esteemed local documentarians Karil Daniels (Voices of Dissent: Activism and American Democracy), Melita Tchaikovsky (Jaisalmer Ayo! Gateway of the Gypsies, currently working on a film about Darfurian refugees in Israel) and David L Brown (The Bridge So Far, Of Wind and Waves, Surfing for Life), who is also CineSource's main writer on the doc scene.
"This is a really good thing," Brown said of the party. "We need this sort of communication in the industry."
Chris Caswell, 2nd Place Caligari Winner, in front of Lobot Gallery. Photo: D. Blair
The effervescent production designer and cosmic character Doug Freeman (he was in the original San Francisco cast of Hair, see Local Hero, CS May08) showed up with a flourish. Upon arrival, he ran into Marty Jackson, a colleague he hadn't seen in 30 years (and we say it's a small community round here!) and soon was enthusiastically discussing musical production with Dana Harrison (producer of the rock opera, How to Survive the Apocalypse, loosely based on Burning Man). Propville's Teri Cundall, another activist of the film community, seemed to be everywhere at once, accompanied by noble assistant Kate Sabicer. AFTRA field rep Karen Lipney brought her very understanding husband (poor guy is never sure when she'll be called to the set by angry actors). Director Alex Soranno duly represented the local Director's Guild Executive Committee. Local stage and screen actress Bonnie Akimoto bounced in to survey the proceedings, and other actresses did some serious schmooze: Kari Wishingrad from Santa Rosa and Monica Murray from Sacramento. Also enjoying the party were filmmakers Sumit Manahar and Frynrare Fletcher (who just completed Mr Killerman).
At one point, director Rob Nilsson (1978 Cannes winner for Northern Lights, and producer of the gritty 9@Nite Series of films largely about Tenderloin junkies, prostitutes, and dreamers) was deep in conversation with documentarian Laurent Le Gaul (Burning Man: Voyage in Utopia) about how to seamlessly combine documentary and narrative filmmaking. Turning away from the shop talk (no matter how meaningful), CS writer/ Mills poetics student Monica Peck took to chatting with scriptwriting teacher Denise Bostrom. Bostrum was one of the Caligari Narrative Contest's esteemed judges, along with Rob Nilsson, film teacher Toney Merritt, and writer James Dalessandro. Also on hand were CineSource staff writers Roger Rose (maestro of the premiere-and-festival beat - see cover, Milk Premieres at Castro) and Tony Reveaux (doyen of the avant-garde - see cover, 60 Years of Tomorrow Today), and regular contributors like animation expert Karl Cohen (see p13), DP Art Adams, respected blogger Lincoln Spector (bayflicks.net - now found at cinesourcemagazine.com), and copy editor Todd Jones.
To Your Health: Celestine Star, video artist extraordinaire, offers her blessings. Photo: Monica Peck
"I loved the party, and seeing the Holocaust movie was very moving," noted Todd, who joined CineSource in September and hadn't met the full team yet. Among them were Cinesource's web crew, who emerged from the digital shadows to enjoy a little limelight: Jonah Cretser, IT analyst and programmer extraordinaire, Webmaster Jeremy Natividad, and his lovely and understanding wife Jennifer.
Of course, there were also the ubiquitous hot girls and friends-of-friends providing local color, including the flashing red lights of an ambulance - which video artist Celestine Star prudently called when metal sculptor and rigger Renaldo Ratto suddenly passed out on the dance floor. Fortunately, Ratto was only suffering from a long Friday and was back at the celebration an hour later, after being pronounced 'fit to party.'
The Caligari Narrative awards finally got going, after the ambulance left, with opening remarks by CS Executive Editor David Hakim. The winner was producer Leo Maselli, who tackled the project with professional singlemindedness, notably by hiring the talented writers David Asher and Skip Belleview. The outcome, A Lovely Adult Beverage, about a Chilean hedonist at his favorite bar and his intervention in a blind date gone bad, was rated the runaway best of the submissions by all four judges Bostrum, Dalessandro, Merritt, and Nilsson. Publisher Doniphan Blair joined Hakim to hand out the Caligari awards and profusely thank the CS staff, and readers - as well as advertisers and colleagues. Blair spoke eloquently about his plans to use CineSource to support local filmmaking, the new entity he is creating - CineSource Productions, which will provide the Caligari Prize's one day film crew, and another interesting idea, CineCash, or professional trade-dollars.
Caligari Award Third Place went to ChiahuiGao (right), a Taiwanese filmmaker, and DiPali Shah (not shown). Photo: I. Blair
Most of the contest winners were on hand to be applauded by the crowd as they picked up their prizes and CineSource t-shirts. First-prize winner Leo Maselli was visibly moved when he took the silver trophy cup, noting it was the only award he'd won since high school. Although the Caligari Narrative Contest was intended to nurture film students, first prize was arguably more appropriate going to Maselli - considering The Cabinet of Dr Caligari was also a great collaboration. Just six years after World War I, German producer Erich Pommer, director Robert Wiene, radical poet Hans Janowitz and fallen-aristocrat Carl Mayer joined to create the visionary narrative, drawing on everything from myth to modern psychology and ultimately predicting Nazism.
Maselli's talented amanuenses could not make the party - Asher was working his 'day job,' and Belleview was researching a script in North Dakota - but they were applauded by Maselli and the well-wishing audience. After thanking the crowd for their appreciation, Second-prize winner Chris Caswell, who hopes to switch from live-music engineering to the exacting science of studio engineering, took the opportunity get to know a few of the resident post-production sound experts.
Third-place was a tie between ChiaHui Gao and DiPali Shah, although they both undoubtedly won first place in the back story category. The pregnant Gao, who came with her husband, grew up in Taiwan, where she was an internationally shown traditional painter, before moving to the US to study video/film at the Boston Museum School. She is now adapting her first narrative short, Blue Fire, a major entry in the New York Asian American Film festival, as a feature (http://www.bluefirestudios.net). Gao enjoyed meeting colleagues and discussing future projects.
We have a Winner! CS publisher Doniphan Blair presents Caligari First Prize to visibly moved Leo Maselli. Photo: I. Blair
DiPali Shah, an Indian American who grew up in Silicon Valley, is a graduate student in fashion design at the Academy of Art University as well as an avid filmmaker. Having completed several documentaries, she recently won second prize (and a cash award) in the Academy's Hartman Scholarship for her short, The Hollywood Cowboy (on YouTube).
After the awards ceremony, the party turned to celebrating Scorpio (a traditional fiesta of A Media Graphics, Web & Video - the design studio that produces CineSource). According to Blair, who is also A Media's art director, "Most famously, Scorpio symbolizes sex and death - but it also includes resurrection, a metaphor which parallels the Obama presidency and a hopeful America in general. This resurrection is a fruitful topic for both narratives and documentaries."
With that, the Z-Trane Electric Band, led by Jeff Zittrain, guitar/vocals, with Fritz Mueller, bass, and Richard Dry, drums, kicked in a version of Peter Gunn soundtrack, and people took the dance floor. As the music continued past midnight, later swinging to the tropical sounds of guitarist Ray Cepeda and percussionist Hadley Louden, the ladies danced, the cineastes discussed and disputed, and laughter was heard from the front sidewalk to the rear screening room. It is definitely no exaggeration to say that a good time was had by all.
So good luck to CineSource on its next nine months of publishing the best film/video news in the Bay Area!
Posted on Dec 04, 2008 - 02:10 AM
By Hildy Johnson
And oh, what a night it was! After nine months of hard labor - designing the magazine and website, putting out the eight issues physically and keeping all the relationships going (spiritually and financially) - CineSource celebrated. CineSource's Launch Party and Caligari Narrative Award Ceremony was held at West Oakland's sprawling Lobot Gallery, maintained by a crowd of 18 (!) communards and featuring an 18-foot curved wall, on which was projected The Maltese Falcon during the party.
Leo Maselli, winner of CineSource's First Caligari Narrative Award, for his team's "Lovely Adult Beverage," enjoys award-winning shrimp curry with budding actress, Larisa de la Torre, at CineSource's launch party. Photo: Myke ReillyCineSource's mascot, Diane the Detective (the blonde femme played by talented stage actress and film director Diane Karagienakos) looked down from banners bearing CineSource's prescient slogan, "Some bad things have been happening 'round here, and I wouldn't want them to happen to you." It added to the tone set by Sam Spade, perfidious girlfriend Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and the nefarious Fat Man. Guests would look up and see key moments in the film, while hearing random words and sentences from the crowd around them that often matched the action perfectly. Eerie.
Real Life Detective Kala Lyons, real name something else, vamps in front of CS mascot Diane the Detective. Photo: I. Blair
Continuing the contrasts, Irena and friend Karen Gorman had just dashed in, carrying five gallons of home-made shrimp curry, plus rice and salad. The curry earned accolades from appreciative guests already feasting on spanakopita, baklava, feta cheese, kalamata olives, and tyropita (Greek panini filled with cheese) from Daly City's famous Greek Imports.
More than 150 celebrants showed up to see and be seen, from various hopefuls to local film/video pros like DP Jeff Devereaux of Devereaux Camera and Stuart Dubey of DubeyTunes (both Caligari contest sponsors), Katie Carney of Snader & Associates and Michael Pickman-Thoon of Rough House (both CineSource advertisers), Casey Jones Bastiaans and James LeBrecht, manager and founder respectively of Berkeley Sound Artists, and esteemed local documentarians Karil Daniels (Voices of Dissent: Activism and American Democracy), Melita Tchaikovsky (Jaisalmer Ayo! Gateway of the Gypsies, currently working on a film about Darfurian refugees in Israel) and David L Brown (The Bridge So Far, Of Wind and Waves, Surfing for Life), who is also CineSource's main writer on the doc scene.
"This is a really good thing," Brown said of the party. "We need this sort of communication in the industry."
Chris Caswell, 2nd Place Caligari Winner, in front of Lobot Gallery. Photo: D. Blair
The effervescent production designer and cosmic character Doug Freeman (he was in the original San Francisco cast of Hair, see Local Hero, CS May08) showed up with a flourish. Upon arrival, he ran into Marty Jackson, a colleague he hadn't seen in 30 years (and we say it's a small community round here!) and soon was enthusiastically discussing musical production with Dana Harrison (producer of the rock opera, How to Survive the Apocalypse, loosely based on Burning Man). Propville's Teri Cundall, another activist of the film community, seemed to be everywhere at once, accompanied by noble assistant Kate Sabicer. AFTRA field rep Karen Lipney brought her very understanding husband (poor guy is never sure when she'll be called to the set by angry actors). Director Alex Soranno duly represented the local Director's Guild Executive Committee. Local stage and screen actress Bonnie Akimoto bounced in to survey the proceedings, and other actresses did some serious schmooze: Kari Wishingrad from Santa Rosa and Monica Murray from Sacramento. Also enjoying the party were filmmakers Sumit Manahar and Frynrare Fletcher (who just completed Mr Killerman).
At one point, director Rob Nilsson (1978 Cannes winner for Northern Lights, and producer of the gritty 9@Nite Series of films largely about Tenderloin junkies, prostitutes, and dreamers) was deep in conversation with documentarian Laurent Le Gaul (Burning Man: Voyage in Utopia) about how to seamlessly combine documentary and narrative filmmaking. Turning away from the shop talk (no matter how meaningful), CS writer/ Mills poetics student Monica Peck took to chatting with scriptwriting teacher Denise Bostrom. Bostrum was one of the Caligari Narrative Contest's esteemed judges, along with Rob Nilsson, film teacher Toney Merritt, and writer James Dalessandro. Also on hand were CineSource staff writers Roger Rose (maestro of the premiere-and-festival beat - see cover, Milk Premieres at Castro) and Tony Reveaux (doyen of the avant-garde - see cover, 60 Years of Tomorrow Today), and regular contributors like animation expert Karl Cohen (see p13), DP Art Adams, respected blogger Lincoln Spector (bayflicks.net - now found at cinesourcemagazine.com), and copy editor Todd Jones.
To Your Health: Celestine Star, video artist extraordinaire, offers her blessings. Photo: Monica Peck
"I loved the party, and seeing the Holocaust movie was very moving," noted Todd, who joined CineSource in September and hadn't met the full team yet. Among them were Cinesource's web crew, who emerged from the digital shadows to enjoy a little limelight: Jonah Cretser, IT analyst and programmer extraordinaire, Webmaster Jeremy Natividad, and his lovely and understanding wife Jennifer.
Of course, there were also the ubiquitous hot girls and friends-of-friends providing local color, including the flashing red lights of an ambulance - which video artist Celestine Star prudently called when metal sculptor and rigger Renaldo Ratto suddenly passed out on the dance floor. Fortunately, Ratto was only suffering from a long Friday and was back at the celebration an hour later, after being pronounced 'fit to party.'
The Caligari Narrative awards finally got going, after the ambulance left, with opening remarks by CS Executive Editor David Hakim. The winner was producer Leo Maselli, who tackled the project with professional singlemindedness, notably by hiring the talented writers David Asher and Skip Belleview. The outcome, A Lovely Adult Beverage, about a Chilean hedonist at his favorite bar and his intervention in a blind date gone bad, was rated the runaway best of the submissions by all four judges Bostrum, Dalessandro, Merritt, and Nilsson. Publisher Doniphan Blair joined Hakim to hand out the Caligari awards and profusely thank the CS staff, and readers - as well as advertisers and colleagues. Blair spoke eloquently about his plans to use CineSource to support local filmmaking, the new entity he is creating - CineSource Productions, which will provide the Caligari Prize's one day film crew, and another interesting idea, CineCash, or professional trade-dollars.
Caligari Award Third Place went to ChiahuiGao (right), a Taiwanese filmmaker, and DiPali Shah (not shown). Photo: I. Blair
Most of the contest winners were on hand to be applauded by the crowd as they picked up their prizes and CineSource t-shirts. First-prize winner Leo Maselli was visibly moved when he took the silver trophy cup, noting it was the only award he'd won since high school. Although the Caligari Narrative Contest was intended to nurture film students, first prize was arguably more appropriate going to Maselli - considering The Cabinet of Dr Caligari was also a great collaboration. Just six years after World War I, German producer Erich Pommer, director Robert Wiene, radical poet Hans Janowitz and fallen-aristocrat Carl Mayer joined to create the visionary narrative, drawing on everything from myth to modern psychology and ultimately predicting Nazism.
Maselli's talented amanuenses could not make the party - Asher was working his 'day job,' and Belleview was researching a script in North Dakota - but they were applauded by Maselli and the well-wishing audience. After thanking the crowd for their appreciation, Second-prize winner Chris Caswell, who hopes to switch from live-music engineering to the exacting science of studio engineering, took the opportunity get to know a few of the resident post-production sound experts.
Third-place was a tie between ChiaHui Gao and DiPali Shah, although they both undoubtedly won first place in the back story category. The pregnant Gao, who came with her husband, grew up in Taiwan, where she was an internationally shown traditional painter, before moving to the US to study video/film at the Boston Museum School. She is now adapting her first narrative short, Blue Fire, a major entry in the New York Asian American Film festival, as a feature (http://www.bluefirestudios.net). Gao enjoyed meeting colleagues and discussing future projects.
We have a Winner! CS publisher Doniphan Blair presents Caligari First Prize to visibly moved Leo Maselli. Photo: I. Blair
After the awards ceremony, the party turned to celebrating Scorpio (a traditional fiesta of A Media Graphics, Web & Video - the design studio that produces CineSource). According to Blair, who is also A Media's art director, "Most famously, Scorpio symbolizes sex and death - but it also includes resurrection, a metaphor which parallels the Obama presidency and a hopeful America in general. This resurrection is a fruitful topic for both narratives and documentaries."
With that, the Z-Trane Electric Band, led by Jeff Zittrain, guitar/vocals, with Fritz Mueller, bass, and Richard Dry, drums, kicked in a version of Peter Gunn soundtrack, and people took the dance floor. As the music continued past midnight, later swinging to the tropical sounds of guitarist Ray Cepeda and percussionist Hadley Louden, the ladies danced, the cineastes discussed and disputed, and laughter was heard from the front sidewalk to the rear screening room. It is definitely no exaggeration to say that a good time was had by all.
So good luck to CineSource on its next nine months of publishing the best film/video news in the Bay Area!
Posted on Dec 04, 2008 - 02:10 AM
