David LowThe Jewish Museum (Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, 212-423-3200, www.thejewishmuseum.org) in New York City will present Jem Cohen: NYC Weights and Measures, a video installation, from Nov. 4 to March 25, 2012 in the museum’s Barbara and E. Robert Goodkind Media Center. In his 2006 video (6 minutes, 15 seconds long), Jem Cohen ’84 captures the noise and bustle as well as the beauty and tranquility of city life. His work incorporates an intricate soundscape and juxtaposes such moments as a ticker-tape parade, subway riders’ daily commute, and a man pausing for a cigarette. Cohen says, “Sometimes I just wander…
Visiting instructor in film studies Sam Wasson ’03 conducted a fascinating Q&A about Blake Edwards’ classic American film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which was shown on Sept. 28 at the Goldsmith Family Cinema as part of the ongoing Adaptation Series, a collaboration between the Friends of the Wesleyan Library and the Center for Film Studies which examines the translation of literary works to the screen. Wasson is the author of The New York Times best seller Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Dawn of the American Woman, the first complete account of the making of the beloved movie…
Writer and journalist Alex Kotlowitz ’77, best known for his book There Are No Children Here, has co-produced a powerful new documentary, The Interrupters, directed by Steve James (Hoop Dreams), which was released in select theaters around the country in mid-August. Based on a 2008 New York Times magazine piece by Kotlowitz, the film follows the lives of three members (called “interrupters”) of the Chicago-based anti-violence organization CeaseFire, who risk their lives as the perform violence mediation on the streets of some of Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods. The film follows the three interrupters upclose on the street and in offices,…
David PesciAmong the individuals nominated for 2011 Emmy awards: Sasha Alpert ’82, producer, Project Runway, nominated for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program. Bill Wrubel ’82, co-executive producer, Modern Family, Outstanding Comedy Series with 17 nominations. Shari Springer Berman ’85, co-director, Cinema Verite, Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special (film is also nominated for Outstanding Movie); Matthew Weiner ’87, creator, writer, producer for Mad Men with 19 nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Writing Jim Margolis ’93, co-executive producer, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series Matt Senreich ’96, executive producer and writer, Robot Chicken: “Star Wars Episode III,”…
Cynthia RockwellTim Cavanaugh of Reason.TV interviews writer Nancy Rommelmann '83 about her newest work, The Bad Mother, a short (144-page) piece of fiction set on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Wilcox. The plot follows the lives of three homeless girls—one a pregnant teen— and their friends, over the course of six months. Rommelmann, who is an award-winning journalist, makes it clear to Cavanaugh that this is entirely fictional, despite a style that seems reportorial, and a topic—the homeless who show up in the glamorous city of Los Angeles, hoping for a better life—that is not dissimilar to other stories which…
The recently released indie film, Fly Away, written and directed by Janet Grillo ’80, explores the question every parent faces—how to learn to let go when the child becomes a teen. However, Grillo ups the emotional ante: Jeanne (Beth Broderick) is a single mother, and her daughter, Mandy (Ashley Rickards) is severely autistic. As Grillo begins the film, it becomes clear that all the coping strategies, all the interventions that Jeanne had developed for Mandy when she was a child, are no longer effective. Released in mid-April, the film had its world premier in mid-March at the prestigious South-by-Southwest (SXSW)…
Cinema Verite, a new film directed by Shari Springer Berman ’85 and Robert Pulcini (The Nanny Diaries, The Extra Man, American Splendor), premiered on HBO on April 23. The film stars Diane Lane, Tim Robbins, and James Gandolfini and explores the making of the 1971 PBS 12-episode documentary series, An American Family, which chronicled the lives of “a normal American family” living in Santa Barbara, California. The series is now considered a precursor to current-day reality television shows as it invaded the privacy of the family, revealed the dissolution of a marriage, and showed an openly gay character for the…
Noah Hutton ’09 has directed and scored a new documentary, More to Live For, which was shown recently at the Dallas International Film Festival. According to Glenn Hunter in the Dallas-based D Magazine, the film focuses on “three cancer victims searching for the bone-marrow transplants that could save their lives. The three are Dallas entertainment-insurance executive James Chippendale; Nigerian athlete Seun Adebiyi; and multiple-Grammy-Award-winning saxophone player Michael Brecker, who eventually died. Brecker’s widow, Susan Brecker, and Chippendale co-produced the film, which is intended to raise awareness about the importance of bone-marrow donation.” Hutton is currently a creative director at Couple…
Lynn Chen ’98 writes on the blog, Thick Dumpling Skin, which she co-founded with Lisa Lee: "If you read my food blog, you know that I struggled with binge eating and anorexia for many years. Although it’s no longer a real day-to-day battle for me, I remember the feelings all too well and thought I would share with you what my eating disorder looked like. "I binged probably once a week for most of my late-twenties. It started off as my “cheat day” – I was in the midst of my trying-every-diet-under-the-sun phase and I liked the idea of a…
The latest film by director Miguel Arteta ’89, Cedar Rapids (Fox Searchlight Pictures), opened to positive reviews in mid-February after being well-received at the Sundance Film Festival. The comedy, written by Wisconsin native Phil Johnston, stars Ed Helms (The Office) as an earnest insurance salesman who is asked by his small town firm to attend an insurance convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he learns about life in a weekend as he befriends a motley bunch of party-loving conventioneers played by John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. (The Wire). In her New York Times review, film critic…
Wah Do Dem, the delightful and often surprising indie film directed by Sam Fleischner ’06 and Ben Chace, is now available on DVD, after a successful theatrical tour in June. The film centers on a young man named Max (Sean Bones) who lives in Brooklyn and is abandoned by his girlfriend (Norah Jones) two days before they are set to take a cruise they won to Jamaica. Max winds up alone on the high seas navigating through crowds of grey-haired cruisers. When the cruise liner docks in Jamaica, he quickly escapes the tourist zone, loses track of time and his…
Cinema Blend writer Katey Rich ’06 recently interviewed director Jon Turteltaub ’85 about his latest film The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which stars actor Nicholas Cage, who has worked with the director on several other projects. The movie—which opened nationwide last weekend—deals with Balthazar Blake, a master sorcerer (Cage) in modern-day Manhattan who has to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Balthazar needs help, so he recruits a reluctant protege (Jay Baruchel). Both Rich and Turteltaub were Wesleyan film majors. Here is an excerpt from the interview: Katey Rich: What’s the working relationship like between you and Nic…