cinema italiano screening focaccia blues on april 15

Received via email:

Screening of Focaccia Blues at Cinema Italiano

Friday, April 15, at 7 p.m.
Italian Club of Tampa in Ybor City
1731 East 7th Avenue

The film Focaccia Blues (2009), directed by Nico Cirasola, is the story of two bakers from Altamura (Apulia region) who put the local McDonald’s out of business by stealing away their customers, enticing them with the local version of fast food: delicious focaccia topped with goodies like fresh tomatoes, meats and cheeses. Altamura is well known for its doughy delicacies. Road signs welcome visitors to ‘‘The City of Bread’’ upon entering the city limits.

The film was awarded the distinction as Best Picture from the Association of Italian Film Critics. Based on a true story chronicled in a 2006 New York Times article "The Bread Is Famously Good, but It Killed McDonald’s," the tale of two bakers able to defeat a McDonald’s has become the stuff of legends.

Introduction and Q and A with USF Professor Patrizia La Trecchia.

Admission is free.

Espresso, dolci and popcorn will be available for purchase.

For more info, contact the Italian Club of Tampa at 813-248-3316 or email alice[at]italian-club.org.

stormy weather



Next door to my apartment complex.

 Wow.  Nothing will make you appreciate the convenience of modern technology more than a tornado skipping through your neighborhood and knocking your power out for one day and taking your wireless router down for several days.  Lots to catch up on, it seems.

gasparilla international film festival march 24-27, 2011

The fifth annual Gasparilla International Film Festival kicks off next Thursday, March 24, and will run through Sunday, March 27. The schedule on the GIFF website still says "coming soon," but the GIFF Facebook page posted a link last night to this GIFF schedule. There aren't very many movies listed, so it looks like the schedule is still in the process of being updated.

The GIFF Facebook page also has links to purchase tickets to the closing night party, a recent Tampa Bay Business Journal article, and a call for volunteers.

website upcomingdiscs.com

I ran into former Tampa Tribune film critic Bob Ross at a screening last night. He's just started writing for the DVD review website upcomingdiscs.com. In addition to reviews, upcomingdiscs.com has contests, podcasts and a message board. I've only had time to give the website a quick look, but from what I've seen so far I'll be spending lots of time there in the future.

burt reynolds at tampa theatre march 23

Turner Classic Movies has chosen Tampa Theatre as one of the ten U.S. cities for its Road to Hollywood tour. TCM host Ben Mankiewicz and Burt Reynolds will host a free screening of Smokey and the Bandit at the Tampa Theatre on March 23. Tickets will be available beginning March 9. (NOTE: These dates have changed -- the original screening date was March 21 and tickets were going to be available starting today.)

tampa theatre to host 12th oscar night america on february 27

Received via email:

Tampa Theatre to Host 12th Oscar Night® America – Tampa Bay Party One of Only 50 Officially Licensed Oscar® Events in the Country

The excitement and glamour of Hollywood are coming to Tampa Theatre on Oscar night. Guests can experience the thrills and surprises of the 82nd Academy Awards® on Sunday, February 27, at Tampa Bay’s own Oscar Night® America – Tampa Bay. The Tampa Theatre party is one of only 50 official parties sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that will be held across the country on Oscar night.

Red carpet festivities and the reception begin at 6:30 p.m. and the live telecast of the Academy Awards begins at 8:00 p.m. The event will benefit the not-for-profit Tampa Theatre Foundation which supports the theatre’s artistic and education programs.

Tampa guests will be feted like Hollywood stars. Guests will be whisked around the block in a limousine, cheered by fans screaming for autographs on the red carpet, hounded by the paparazzi, and interviewed by our own zany red carpet hostess, "Roan Jivers." There will be complimentary food and wine samples during the reception, plus free popcorn, soda and coffee throughout the evening.

Tickets are on sale now at www.tampatheatre.org and at the Tampa Theatre box office, 711 N. Franklin Street, Tampa. $30 General Admission; $25 Tampa Theatre members; $25 groups of 8 or more (each); and $15 student (with valid student ID). For $10, guests may also purchase the same official program distributed to guests at the Oscar® presentation at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center® in Hollywood.

"Oscar night has always been an opportunity for friends and families to gather together and cheer for their favorite films and stars," said Academy Executive Director Bruce Davis. "This nationwide network of fundraising parties is a natural extension of that shared experience." Oscar night parties last year raised more than $3 million in 51 cities. All money raised stays in the local community.

Learn more about the Academy Awards® at www.oscar.com.

Oscar Night® America – Tampa Bay is possible because of the generosity of these sponsors – ABC Action News, Lending Luxury, Paul Mitchell the School, Pizzaiolo Bavaro, Skyline Limousine, Tampa Bay Metro magazine, tbt* (*Tampa Bay Times), and The Wilson Company.

"Oscar Night is a great opportunity for us to give our guests the ultimate celebrity experience while raising money for Tampa Theatre," said John Bell, Tampa Theatre President/CEO. "We’re honored that the Academy has once again selected Tampa Theatre to participate in Oscar Night® America."

About Tampa Theatre: The quintessence of grand movie palace architecture, the Tampa Theatre was chosen as one of "America's 21 Wonders" and “One of the Top Ten Iconic Showplaces in the World." A beloved community treasure since 1926, the Theatre was rescued from demolition in 1978 and today hosts 650 events annually including first-run and classic films, concerts by touring artists, community events, summer camps and school field trips. A not-for-profit organization, Tampa Theatre succeeds only because of the generosity of the greater Tampa Bay community. Memberships, sponsorships and philanthropic gifts help support the Theatre's artistic and educational programs and keep the facility open and accessible year-round. The Theatre is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a Tampa City Landmark, and is a member of the League of Historic American Theatres.

Learn more at www.tampatheatre.org.

2011 environmental film festival at eckerd college kicks off february 18

Eckerd College's Environmental Film Festival runs February 18--26. Topics covered at the 2011 festival include "reincarnation, plastic bags, forgotten things, global warming, natural gas, independent farming, insect obsessions, astronomy and urban bird watching." All EFF screenings are free and open to the public. For the screening schedule, visit the EFF website.

movies for black history month

I came across this list of the 10 best Black History Month movies over at screenjunkies.com thanks to the Governor's Office of Film and Entertainment newsletter. Screen Junkies also has lists of the 10 best old black movies (obviously written by someone younger than I am, based on the definition of "old"), the 10 best black action movies, the 10 best black indie movies, the 10 best African-American history movies, and the 10 best black filmmakers.

2011 ybor festival of the moving image is now accepting submissions

Received via email:

Filmmakers!!--CALL FOR ENTRIES

9th Annual Hillsborough Community College

YBOR FESTIVAL OF THE MOVING IMAGE

March 23-27, 2011

The HCC-Ybor Festival of the Moving Image (YFOMI) invites all Florida filmmakers, both students and professionals, to send us your titles for possible screening at the festival in March, plus to be eligible for merit awards that total $2,000 in cash awards.

The awards are provided by Hillsborough Community College-Ybor City Campus, Atlantic/Pacific Productions of Tampa, and the University of South Florida, Tampa campus. This year the awards are divided into three categories for Florida student filmmakers and one for Florida independent filmmakers.

Deadline: Postmarked by March 1, 2011

Notification: On or about March 7, 2011

Student Entry Fee: $20.00 (one to four films per filmmaker)

Independent Filmmaker Entry Fee: $30.00 (one to four films per filmmaker)

All genres and run times are eligible. Format for entry: DVD Region 1 or 0 (16mm, Super 8 and 8mm projection available during festival)

CATEGORIES:

A) Florida Student Filmmaker: Hillsborough Community College Students: HCC-Ybor Festival Award

Best in Category: $200.00
Merit Award: $100.00
Merit Award: $100.00
Merit Award: $100.00

B) Florida Student Filmmaker: University of South Florida Students: Atlantic/Pacific Productions Award

Best in Category: $200.00
Merit Award: $100.00
Merit Award: $100.00
Merit Award: $100.00

C) Florida Student Filmmaker: **Florida Student filmmakers: Atlantic/Pacific Productions Award (**All student filmmakers other than HCC or USF)

Best in Category: $200.00
Merit Award: $100.00
Merit Award: $100.00
Merit Award: $100.00

D) Florida Independent Filmmaker (non-student): Atlantic/Pacific Productions Award

Best in Category: $200.00
Merit Award: $100.00
Merit Award: $100.00
Merit Award: $100.00

Judges:
*Carolyn Kossar, HCC-Ybor Art Gallery Director, Tampa, Florida
*David Audet, Festival Director, Hillsborough Community College
*Charles Lyman, President, Atlantic/Pacific Productions, Tampa; Professor Emeritus of Film and Electronic Media, University of South Florida
*Shawn Cheatham, Digital Video and Electronic Arts, School of Art and Art History, University of South Florida
*HCC-Ybor City campus student, Tampa, Florida-TBA
*USF campus student-Tampa, Florida-TBA
*Lisa Scherer, tampafilmfan.com, Brandon, Florida
*Nancy Cervenka, filmmaker, Gulfport, Florida
*Chris Rish, filmmaker, Tampa, Florida

Judging Process:

The judges will select a number of qualified films for each category. These films will be classified as an “official selection” and screened at the festival. All films selected for screening will be eligible to win a cash prize. All filmmakers will be notified of entry status (accepted/not accepted) on or around March 7, 2011.

All filmmakers entering the festival competition are invited to attend the festival’s opening night, Wednesday, March 23, when the winners will be announced. This event is free and open to all filmmakers and the public.

All judging decisions are final. Entering a film into the festival does not guarantee a screening. If accepted, the filmmaker agrees to allow his/her title to be screened one to four times as the schedule allows. NOTE: While a film may have adult content/language, this will restrict screening opportunities. Films previously screened at the festival are not eligible. The festival will also accept "rough cuts" for screening, but these will not be eligible for prizes.

Deadline: Postmarked by March 1, 2011

Student Entry Fee: $20.00 (one to four films per filmmaker)

Independent Filmmaker Entry Fee: $30.00 (one to four films per filmmaker)

All genres and run times are eligible.

Entry Process:

Send a DVD (Region 1 or 0)) of film(s) to the address provided below. Include your name, contact information (email/phone), title of film(s), running time, and indicate the category you are entering. Make check or money order (USA currency) payable to Hillsborough Community College. The college is not responsible for lost or damaged entries. To have the DVD returned, please include an envelope with the return address and correct postage.

A waiver of the entry fee cannot be considered this year. Filmmakers are allowed to send up to four titles (films) for the flat fee of $20.00 or $30.00 depending on your category. Students must provide a photo copy of student I.D. from a Florida educational institution, or certificate from a Florida film camp. Filmmakers must either live in Florida or have lived in Florida when the film was made. Filmmakers will be contacted by YFOMI staff upon arrival of their package and receive confirmation that the entry satisfies eligibility requirements. Upon acceptance into the festival, filmmakers will be immediately notified and asked to provide an electronic press kit including; bio, crew, synopsis, links to the website (if available) and several digital photographs.

Send DVD(s) and requested information with entry fee to:

David Audet
Festival Director
Hillsborough Community College
2112 N. 15th Street
Tampa, Florida 33605
813-259-6419
daudet[at]hccfl.edu

Visit www.yborfilmfestival.com to learn more.

2011 clearwater film festival will be september 29 -- october 2

The dates of the 2011 Clearwater Film Festival have been announced. Mark your calendars for September 29 -- October 2! For all you filmmakers out there, the CFF is currently accepting submissions.

orlando's ophelia hellfire

There's some good stuff happening over in Orlando these days too:

Ophelia Hellfire is a celluloid collective of friends, founded in 2010, that have banded together to redefine cinema for the new century by remembering that the past is prescient in a new world where technology constantly forces the narrow-minded to only look toward the future.

With the rise of the internet, camcorders, digital cameras and even cell phones, it’s easier than ever to flip a switch, hit a button and suddenly you’re an independent filmmaker. But what does it mean—to be a filmmaker in a world where no one shoots on film?

Digital filmmaking has become the garage band of the new millennium. In some respects anyone with even the smallest micron of talent can make a movie. But the means to create without the foresight to have lasting impact has created a generation of mediocrity.

So few filmmakers have any true understanding of what it means to have vision. The few that do are exceptional and unwavering in their vision. Ophelia Hellfire is our direct stand against the public proliferation of filmmaking. It is our unfettered vision on the screen. Love it or hate it, revere it or revile it. It should never be said that a film by Ophelia Hellfire is insipid or uninteresting.

Ophelia Hellfire is an attitude born of punk rock, and crossbred with the experimental nature of the avant-garde and the anarchy of Dada filtered through trash and transgression. It is not veiled in baseless self-masturbatory theory but is instead a virulent act of prostration in the name of art.

-Tim Anderson, Producer/Director

They are currently raising funds through Kickstarter for their experimental horror short film La Fleur de Mort.

tyler holland is the new rough cut president at the art institute of tampa

Congratulations to new Art Institute of Tampa Rough Cut president Tyler Holland!

local news and notes

*The new local film The Message premiered January 10 and is currently being marketing to churches.

*Hampton Arts Management has launched Philanthropic Young Tampa Bay (PYT), which "engages the young professional community of Tampa Bay in cultural philanthropy through networking events and unique cultural experiences."

The first event of PYT takes place on Thursday, February 17, from 7-9 pm at the Tampa Museum of Art (120 West Gasparilla Plaza) and features a private tour with TMA Executive Director Todd Smith. This launch event is followed by monthly networking events on the 2nd Thursday of each month at some of the coolest venues across Tampa Bay. A $5 donation is requested at the monthly events; the launch event is free.

Upcoming networking events will take place at The Independent in Seminole Heights, The Bricks in Ybor City, Fly Bar in Downtown Tampa, and a TBA venue in South Tampa. Each event includes a drink and food special and a unique cultural program that is thematically tied to the goals of the first project. Programs include a showcase of local video artists, led by independent curator Kurt Piazza and Tempus Projects member Ashley Niven, presentation by video artist and University of Tampa associate professor Santiago Echeverry, a program of art house films organized by film curator Brian Taylor, and a showing of works from Salvador Dali’s experiments in film.

A complete events calendar can be found at www.pytampa.org.

*The local documentary Strip Club King:The Story of Joe Redner is now available on Bright House Movies on Demand as well as Time Warner, Comcast and Cox Cable, and was recently reviewed in Shock Cinema magazine.

dvd review:14 hours

14 Hours is an intriguing little film. Obstensibly it's about a man named Robert (Richard Bayheart) perched on the 15th-story ledge of a New York City hotel deciding whether or not to jump, but it's really about relationships: the would-be jumper's relationships with his parents and his girlfriend, his parents' relationship with each other, his newly-forged relationship with the cop (Paul Douglas) who tries to talk him down off the ledge, the cop's family relationships, and the various relationships of the various people watching around the city as the drama unfolds.

The plot is simple -- arguably thin -- but well executed. The casting was great and the perfomances are superb. (Plus there are lots of before-they-were-famous famous faces throughout, including Grace Kelly and Ossie Davis.) Despite this, 14 Hours seemed sort of bland and unsatisfying for me the first time around, with no real explanation being given for why Baseheart's character Robert was contemplating suicide. Then I watched it again while listening to the commentary track by film noir historian Foster Hirsch. Wow.

Hirsch theorizes that 14 Hours is about a crisis in masculinity and that the reason Robert is on the ledge is because he's secretly gay and very conflicted about it. This theory sheds a whole new light on Robert's love/hate relationship with his histrionic mother (Agnes Moorehead), the phallic imagery of New York City skyscrapers, the vague explanation Robert's girlfriend (Barbara Bel Geddes) gives about their break-up, the happy "normal" heterosexual spectators who fall in love while standing on the street together observing the potential suicide, the mysteriously vague reason given for Robert's actions and more. Hirsch's commentary definitely caused me to see the film differently and enjoy it even more on the second viewing.

Film Fan Finding: B+

DVD Extras:

*Commentary by film noir historian Foster Hirsch
*Interactive pressbook gallery
*Theatrical trailer
*Fox Noir (other trailers)

sunscreen film festival presents a night of food and film february 4

Received via email:

Celebrate Clearwater's Fashion and Arts Week as Sunscreen Film Festival Presents A Night of Food and Film

Friday, February 4

Cleveland Street District in Downtown Clearwater

5 p.m. - midnight

Starting at 5 p.m. on Cleveland Street: Enjoy dinner specials at the following downtown restaurants:

*Casanova Restaurant and Lounge
*Tony's Pizzeria and Ristorante
*Chiang Mai Thai and Sushi
*Green Organic Cafe and Wine Bar
*Cafe 421

Attend a special pre-screening party at the studio of System Productions at 34 N. Garden Ave. See short films from previous years and enjoy refreshments and some schmoozing with some of your favorite local filmmakers, actors and creative types.

Then at 7 p.m. at the Capitol Theatre: Join us at the historic Capitol Theatre (405 Cleveland Street) for a screening of some of the hottest short films being produced here in the Tampa Bay area, including the mixed martial arts film Caged Dreams.

And finally at 9 p.m. - afterparty!: Hop across the street to Tony's Pizzeria for an afterparty and meet and greet with your fellow film lovers - our hosts will provide some nosh, as well as drink specials. Live music until it is time to go home.

Tickets to the Capitol are $8 for the night of short films. The parties are free and open to the public.

Tickets are available through Ticketleap.

art institute of tampa senior richard inman raising funds for his senior film

Art Institute of Tampa senior Richard Studebaker Inman is raising money to complete his senior thesis film, a "whimsical story about what it takes to gain courage" called Blueberry Pale Ale.

To make a donation or to learn more, visit Inman's website.

lebowski fest in tampa february 25-26

Local Achievers, listen up:

Lebowski Fest is coming to Tampa February 25 and 26!

I bet local Dude Steve Persall (the St. Pete Times' film critic) has already packed his bowling shoes.

Dude.

director jim bigham screening his movie for once in my life at the university of tampa february 7

For Once In My Life screening with director Jim Bigham
Monday, February 7, 6–9 p.m.
Reeves Theater; Vaughn Center, second floor; University of Tampa
free and open to the public

Directed by Jim Bigham,For Once In My Life is a true story about a special group of people and their dream to make music. This is a journey toward the greatness within each of them. Members have a wide range of mental and physical disabilities—as well as musical abilities that extend into ranges of pure genius. In a cinema verite style, the film explores the struggles and triumphs, and the healing power of music. Bigham's credits include producer of feature film SweetLand for which he received the 2007 Independent Spirit Award for best feature. Documentary credits include the Grammy-nominated Chasing the Dream for the Turner Network, several documentaries produced for the Hallmark Channel, and three documentaries running permanently in the New World Museum. Bigham is a graduate of the London Film School and is currently based in South Florida.

(h/t University of Tampa)