Tuesday October 27 at 5:30pm
Cathedral of Learning, G24
Pittsburgh Filmmakers alumnus and Academy Award-mominated editor, Douglas Crise (Babel) will be speaking on campus. He has also worked in the editorial department of such other films as: 21 Grams, Good Night and Good Luck, Traffic, Oceans 11, Oceans 12 and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
Cosponsored by Film Studies and Steeltown Entertainment Project
University of Pittsburgh ~ Contact Jennifer Florian, 412.624.6564 or jrf16@pitt.edu
Pittsburgh Filmmakers welcomes four new students this semester from overseas — Mr. Juri Fantigrossi (22), Mr. Michele Giacardi (age 22), Mr. Antonio Paolucci (turning 22 next month), and Ms. Flavia Tiberi (age 23). All are from L’Accademia dell’ Immagine in L’Aquila, Italy. Their school was severely damaged in the recent earthquake that affected the Abruzzo region and is now being rebuilt.
Pittsburgh Filmmakers was able to discount their tuition for the semester. The
students’ tuition and lodging are being covered by UPMC, which originated this arrangement as art of its strong and ongoing relationship with Italy. Some scholarship support has also come from the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of the Provost to make this project feasible. Additional funds are being raised by local Italians and Italian-Americans to cover board, supplies, travel, and other aspects of the students’ routine expenses.
The students have a tentative agreement with RAI, the Italian television network, to broadcast work they will be making here. As of this writing, they are expecting to meet with RAI’s Piero DiPasquale, in town for the G20, for more details and guidance. Each student is enrolled in four classes this fall at Pittsburgh Filmmakers, plus one at UPitt. We hope to provide updates on their projects and progress during their academic visit.
At our sister center, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the tradition (ongoing since 1949) of Artist of the Year continues.
Tim Kaulen is the 2009 Artist of the Year, and Dylan Vitone is 2009’s Emerging Artist.
Opening reception for these shows and two others is Sept 25, 5:30-to-8:00pm.
More at the PCA website.
According to Tim:
The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 2009 Artist of the Year Exhibition offers exciting challenges. It is my intention to propose an equally creative solution using elements of sculpture, both organic and architectural, recycled materials and objects, and the play between history and the contemporary world. I am honored to present the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and surrounding communities of Pittsburgh with the opportunity for the public to engage in outdoor sculpture and this historic setting at Mellon Park.
I wish to create a series or family of large-scale public sculptures using classic American wooden and tin toy designs as the central theme. The grounds of Mellon Park are an excellent option for this concept as it flanks environments where play or play-like activity occurs on a daily basis. A final, topiary element will be used to physically blend the structural geometry of the toy theme to the landscape itself, giving the pieces a slow but changing personality.
The relationship this particular site has to the 19th century urban industry lends itself to connecting with mechanical toys of that era in both a whimsical and celebratory manner. There is a natural fit and relationship between the two, the site and the concept, which will further be exemplified through the work itself as it celebrates the glorious past of Pittsburgh, the evolving present, and the exciting future of urban spaces and man-made elements fusing with the natural world.
A new 75-second version of our “Arts and Citizenship” video is online now. Please take a minute (plus 15 seconds) to watch it, then write your representatives.
All state funding for PA Council on the Arts is in real jeopardy.
Budget negotiations are ongoing now, and your action on this issue is needed!
Let your state senator, state representative, and the governor know how important funding for the arts is to you. Phone calls and hand written personal notes get the most attention.
Governor Edward G. Rendell’s Office, 225 Main Capitol Building, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120. Or phone: (717) 787-2500. Or fax: (717) 772-8284.
To find the legislators that represent your district, please click here.
This week we’re doing something a little different with our profile. Instead of speaking to an artist or local organizational notable (not that Andy isn’t notable), we talked to a lifelong cinema lover, Andy Horbal. He shared with us a ton of tips and tricks for keeping up-to-date on the film world, deciding what to see, and told us what he was looking forward to. 
When we asked Andy how he first got into film, he somewhat sheepishly laughed and said two words. “Star Wars.” After we reassured him that this was a completely acceptable answer, he revealed that when he was 15, he saw the original trilogy rereleased in theaters and thought it was the “greatest thing in the world”, seeing it 15 times. Star Wars transitioned into Starship Troopers, and then he and his friends were hooked on seeing movies. After high school, he attended University of Pittsburgh, tried his hand at filmmaking at Filmmakers, and ended up with a degree in Film Studies.
He then shared with us his techniques for figuring out when films are screening in Pittsburgh, “knowing where and when to look.” “Movie showtimes come out on Wednesday or Thursday,” he said “so you can get a jump on what’s coming up.” He also credited his advance knowledge to working at the Stark Media Services Center at Pitt’s Hillman Library. More suggestions? Talk to the people who organize showings, and see what they’re doing next, and check out the Andy Warhol Museum calendar regularly.
However, showtimes and calenders aren’t useful unless you know what you want to see. True to his film studies background, Andy says he reads tons of criticism before seeing movies. Before films hit theaters, he checks out Beyond the Multiplex, Andrew O’Hehir’s indie film blog at Salon and Karina Longworth’s postings at Spoutblog, which provide occasionally caustic but hilarious remarks on films people are currently talking about. For recent DVD releases, he recommends Dave Kehr at the New York Times, who helps put films in historical context. For more academic criticism, he mentioned Cinema Scope, an indie film journal that helps him “think things through.”
With all that research, one would expect Andy had never seen a bad movie. But when we asked him, out of curiosity, about the worst movies he’s seen recently, two came to mind. Redacted, by director Brian De Palma and Diary of the Dead, the most recent Romero film. Both integrated new media style web-cam clips and mimicked an informal, indie documentary look, and Andy felt that they came off as insincere, “substituting novelty for substance”.
After getting off that depressing subject, we talked about theaters in Pittsburgh that are worth checking out. Andy said that Regent Square really is his favorite place to see movies (and no, we didn’t pay him at all), but also has a soft spot for the Squirrel Hill theaters. He recommended would-be-moviegoers check out South Side Works on Mondays, for their 5 dollar films, and the Maxisaver in West Mifflin, which offers dollar movies, packed with excited high school students. CMU AB Films and the University of Pittsburgh sponsored films also got an honorable mention, as they tend to attract an “enthusiastic and knowledgeable crowd”. He also plugged Jefferson Presents, a series of abstract films played at different local venues.
Finally, we asked him the most important question on our list- what movies he was looking forward to. In terms of stuff that will be showing soon, he mentioned Alien, which he’s “been meaning to rewatch for a while”, Tulpan and Made in the USA (Showtimes). More long term, he gave a shout out to Jacques Audiard’s new film festival favorite, A Prophet and Alain Resnais’s Wild Grass. On the American/Hollywood side, he mentioned the new Sherlock Holmes, which he said “has got to be terrible, but I love Robert Downey Jr and the momentum of Guy Richie movies.” Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, as something he’ll see because “it will probably be a reflection on cinema.”
As our interview was coming to a close, we probed about one of his other interests expressed on his blog- food. He recommended we check out culinary scientist Harold McGee’s yogurt recipe, as an awesome kitchen project that cuts down food expenses and produces amazing greek style yogurt.
Want to know more about Andy? Follow him on twitter @andyhorbal or check out his blog here.
These videos on “Greening Up Pittsburgh” were made by students in the Heinz Endowments’s 2009 Summer Youth Philanthropy Program, with guidance from Susan Howard, director of Filmmakers at the Center.
Watch the videos online at pghfilmmakers.org.
This week’s artist profile features former Pittsburgh Filmmakers student Andrew Batista.
Here at filmmakers we are lucky enough to help students along on their path to whatever they have ambitions to do, and we also get to keep an eye on those who stand out. Andrew Batista is a noteworthy up and coming filmmaker/ photographer, who is worth getting to know a little better. His film “Piano Story” recently showed at the 2009 annual Art and Technology exhibition opening, receiving compliment after compliment. I know I found it impossible to walk away from the film, even in the midst of a party.
He describes how his relationship with the movies began when he was a little boy living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He would browse through the films the U.S Embassy had to rent, then watching each over and over…enjoying them as a connection to the U.S. The importance of film in his life really began a little later on though, when he was in High school in Pittsburgh and bought his own video camera. He frequently found himself completely immersed in his projects, so he enrolled at Pittsburgh Filmmakers to continue learning.
When asked to mention someone who really has influenced his work, he points to esteemed Hollywood director Robert Rodriguez who wrote the book “Rebel without a Crew”. After reading that book, a career in film seemed more possible and attainable.
His latest big project “Piano Story” is a love story, which Andrew had never done before. He describes his creative process as starting with the image of a man at his piano, and then crafting a love story around that. He pictured the whole thing in a very classic style, taking place in the 1950s, which he feels is a good era to lend to a certain innocence the story has. He also feels that setting a film in a different time gives the audience a kind of permission to escape into the story, and out of the “real world”.
He also was lucky enough to work with New Perspective Productions, doing their Filmmaker in Residence program, which provided him with space and equipment that was invaluable to producing the film.
Right now Andrew is writing a lot, thinking up ideas for his next project which could be anything from a Western to a Horror film. In the meantime he’s been keeping busy with photography and a collaborative video project with fellow PGH Filmmaker graduate, Matt Robison. For fun, they write, shoot, and release weekly 1-minute shorts. You can see them at www.Misterab.com
Also you can find him on Vimeo and get a little sample of his work, http://vimeo.com/user1980533.
and his film “Piano Story” has its own website that will be up soon, thats www.PianoStoryMovie.com.
Keep an eye out for his next step, I know we will be.
The annual August hiatus is upon us. Let us reflect, then, on the previous year of Film Kitchen. With great help from Pgh City Paper, WYEP-FM, Digital Video Development, and DH Creative this year Film Kitchen reached a milestone.
In the over-10 years since Film Kitchen began, over $25000 has been given in honoraria to exhibiting regional film and video artists!
The annual contest was on the theme “Old Wives Tales and Urban Myths,” and was held this year on June 9th at the Harris Theater as part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival, where a juried selection of entries were shown.
The Winners for the 2009 Film Kitchen Annual Contest were:
1st Place – The Dream by Eli Kurlfink
2nd Place – Back Mask by Justin Crimone
3rd Place – Tootsie Pop Who? by Jen Bennett
Audience Choice – Kissy Kiss Cole – C. Leonardo
Here are the evening’s judges and winners and hosts. See you in September!
We don’t just show great independent and foreign films — our School of Film, Photography and Digital Media offers one of the most comprehensive artistic and professional media arts curricula in the United States.
We are an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), offering classes to university students and the general public. Because they are part of a fine arts program, all classes stress aesthetics and the use of techniques to create polished works of art.
Not currently enrolled in college? Register during August and save $40 on any course. Register online or by phone today. Call for a tour of our great facility, anytime. Photo by Richard Kelly.
Pittsburgh Filmmakers School of Film, Photography and Digital Media
477 Melwood Ave, Pgh 15213 / 412-681-5449
I’m sure by now all of you reading this are familiar with the fight over arts budgeting in Harrisburg. Just in case you aren’t, this week we spoke to Ryan Freytag, the Manager of Cultural Policy and Research for the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. GPAC (and Ryan) have been incredibly involved in fighting for arts funding for Pennsylvania.
Ryan followed an interesting path to get to his position at GPAC. He did his undergraduate degree here in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon, in Art.
One of Ryan's more recent collages.
We asked him to tell us a little bit about what GPAC did in his own words, and he said “everything but put on art.” In addition to fighting for arts funding and raising awareness about the importance of art in the local community, they connect artists and arts groups with legal and business volunteers, regrant money, and run a ticketing service. They also have a partnership with the City of Pittsburgh through their Office of Public Art (funded by the Heinz Endowment), which helps with city planning and creating and preserving public art spaces. Current projects include a behind the scenes look at G20 for members, so stay tuned for info on that.
Ryan also gave us the lowdown on the current budget in Harrisburg. In short, the state House and Senate can’t agree on the budget to pass- the current Senate budget does not include funding for “non-essential” programs, like the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. The House budget does. Yesterday, the House voted to nonconcur with the Senate budget, which means it will go into conference committee, a place where Representatives and Senators will reach a final compromise on what is and isn’t in the budget. The current budget has been mostly split along party lines, with Democrats voting with Governor Rendell to keep funding, and Republicans slashing “non-essential” programs, like cultural funding.
Rally for arts funding in Harrisburg last week, partially organized by GPAC
What you may not know about the budget fight is that if the proposed arts-less budget goes through, Pennsylvania artists will no longer be able to receive national funding as well. The National Endowment for the Arts distributes money through the state arts council, and if it goes away, so does any chance of deserving PA artists getting federal grants. We would be the only state in the entire country without a arts agency. In short, this budget cut has real implications for every Pennsylvanian. Arts organizations would suffer setbacks from having to cutup to 30% of their staff to disappearing overnight.
What you should do is keep up the arts advocacy. As Ryan said, it’s “amazing how many people are now involved, and how much this brought people together.” However, what he stressed to us is that artists and organizations always need people who are willing to speak about how important arts are to their lives. Just because the budget fight is almost over doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still call your representative, stop by their office or invite them to your new opening. The arts always need defending, so as he said, “stay involved.”
For more info on the budget and for updates, you can go to the GPAC website (http://www.pittsburghartscouncil.org/). You can also follow them on twitter at PGHArtsCouncil. You can follow Ryan at stormy7.
