Sundance Film Festival: Triumph of the sundance kids

The News Review:

- Sundance Film Festival: Triumph of the sundance kids
- Theater Review | The Magic Flute Reworking Mozart misses some magic
- Man shot killed on Capitol Hill

Sundance Film Festival: Triumph of the sundance kids
Telegraph.co.uk – Jan 26, 2008
But there is a reason that Hollywood is now such a tangible presence at Sundance a reason why the major studios are so keen to snap up the best of the independent talent on offer. The mainstream movie industry is about to undergo a huge change brought on as it has been in the music industry by the internet. Just as the downloading of music has rendered obsolete the business model that for 50 years has underpinned the music industry so the downloading of movies is about to do the same for film. The international sale of DVDs has been propping up the big studios for some time. And just as the era of the CD is surely coming to an end so too the DVD’s days are numbered. I went to Utah last weekend for the opening of the festival to follow the fortunes of an old friend a British director trying to sell his self-financed debut feature film. The upheaval in the music world has tipped the balance of power away from the big corporations and towards the artist: the small-scale is thriving… Now 41 and father to ex-girlfriend Geri Halliwell’s baby Gervasi decided two years ago to make his own movie using the money he had accumulated from writing for Hollywood. This is a classic example of “defensive directing”: the best way to retain artistic control over a script you’ve written is to direct it yourself. For his subject he went back to his teens and to Anvil a heavy metal band he had adored and eventually worked for as a roadie. Briefly big news in the ’80s the band had long faded into obscurity but when Gervasi discovered that they were still gigging and recording 25 years on he sensed that there was a story to tell. And so his documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil was born. In Australian Rebecca Yeldham whose two most recent films are the acclaimed The Kite Runner and The Motorcycle Diaries Gervasi found himself an outstanding independent producer and put together a team who were prepared to work for nothing on a project that inspired them. He entered the film for Sundance and out of 3000 applicants it was chosen to be one of the seven films in the festival’s prestigious Spectrum strand for documentaries judged to have the broadest appeal.

Theater Review | The Magic Flute Reworking Mozart misses some magic
Columbus Dispatch – Jan 26, 2008
Mozart’s The Magic Flute was composed for the theater not the opera house and as suchcan withstand a lot of gimmickry and stage business. Yet its themes of love loyalty purity andhonesty are to be found in every note. The composer might have been only a few months from death atits 1791 premiere but his optimism and spirit pervade this music almost as if he was still theinnocent wunderkind who had charmed Europe. The new updated production of the The Magic Flute by hio State University pera and Musical Theater program which openedlast night at the Thurber Theatre in the Drake Performance and Event Center decidedly treats thepiece as theater first and music second. This not-so-subtle focus in stage director Peter Kozma’sall-student version might make for a light-hearted fun evening of entertainment. But in the end itundermines the potential and significance of this truly magical gem by not lovingly respecting thework’s beauty and deeper meaning. That said the production has many strong points beginning with Kozma’s clever rewrite of thelibretto into something funny and comprehensible by any age group today.

Man shot killed on Capitol Hill
Seattle Post Intelligencer – Jan 26, 2008
Hours after the shooting police detectives still had yellow safety tape up in the area. Some detectives searched bushes in the area. While violence at some Seattle clubs and the stabbing death of a woman on New Year’s Eve have many people concerned about neighborhood safety a manager at a nearby store said he was not particularly concerned. “There’s police around here all the time” said Alex Pouliot the 22-year-old manager for Your2Feet. “Recently bicycle cops have patrolled this block. I’ve never felt threatened. The Baltic Room is a popular neighborhood club neighbors said… I’ve never felt threatened. The Baltic Room is a popular neighborhood club neighbors said. utside the club on Friday night many people drove by with their music turned up one person said. P-I reporter Brad Wong can be reached at 206-448-8137 or.