An article in The Guardian tells the story of the effects of climate change on Alpaca breeders in Peru. In a past episode of Chat Cinema we also spoke about environmental consequences on the precious fashion textile. Utama, from director Alejandro Loayza Grisi is a film on a life under threat.
The Summer of Strikes hit Hollywood with a loud bang on Friday. The entertainment industry stopped. Following Writers Guild of America, the actors union, SAG-AFTRA ordered work stoppages around the country. This means not reporting to sets additionally, no promotional work including red carpets or press junkets.
In an emotional speech from Los Angeles SAG-AFTRA head Fran Drescher made the call to her 160.000 members. There is a misunderstanding about Hollywood. A list actors get to go to the big parties around but most actors earn a regular living paying a mortgage taking their kids to school. The minimum an actor needs to earn to qualify for insurance is $26.000 a year. That is getting harder and harder with the new media content models. But their is a bigger question. Why should you have to earn money to deserve health care coverage?
“The jig is up”, “The Nanny” star said on Thursday. The business model has changed by streaming and AI. The old agreements no longer works. Before streamers, a series order was twenty episodes, today that is now eight to ten. Performers earn less money in a production season. The other battle with streaming services is financial transparency and residuals. Residual checks in the past were based on viewer counts and ads, on streamers it is based on subscriber numbers. My advice to SAG, “Good luck trying to get real numbers from a technology company.”
AI is a big bone of contention as productions could soon replace actors with artificial performers or their likeness. Reusing the image in different films, shows or commercials without paying the actor. Would a studio exploit talent too such a level? Ask the decedents of the Three Stooges about their relationship to Columbia Pictures.
A war of attrition is now being fought. Studios on one side and talent on the other. The new media moguls are just as imperial as their predecessors. Disney honcho Bob Iger told CNBC the union demands are not realistic. Meanwhile, the corporate head got a $4 million annual raise to $27 million with additional options, not bad if you can get it. Of course he gets to use the corporate jet.
Make no mistake, a lot is at stake, an industry coming to terms in a new reality. Workers are tired of being exploited. Corporations under pressure from Wall Street to pay dividends. Throw in new technologies that could swallow them all. These elements could be a Hollywood Blockbuster script.
Asylum seeking in Europe is a hot topic on the continent. Lisa Gerig explores the subject through reenactments of the process in Switzerland.
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What is happening in Hollywood? It was suppose to be easy. The business model was based on acquiring Intellectual Properties, then turn them in media franchises across every platform. Simple. A movie here, a television show there, spin off’s in every directions. Audiences would pay to see their favorite characters in new adventures time and time again.
Apparently the audience did not read the memo. One major release after another has stumbled. The big studios have hit a box office wall of underperforming films or out and out flops. It was not suppose to be this way. It is one thing when a movie disappoints, it’s a panic attack when a eco-system faces collapse.
The Disney and Lucasfilm’s INDIANA JONES and THE DIAL of DESTINY recently opened with a soft $60 million weekend in take. The $300 million production needs to earn over $700 million to break even. That number seems unlikely given the drowsy reviews of the James Mangold film. Harrison Ford’s fifth and last outing as the iconic adventurer seemed set to be a spinoff for a more modern story. Unlikely given Disney could lose as much $500 million on the time traveling saga. Disney head Bob Iger’s having acquired George Lucas’s creations for over $4 billion in 2012 has fans asking what was the point? Four STAR WARS productions each one worse than the other, now the nail in the coffin, a below average Indy movie.
The other Burbank powerhouse studio, Warner Bros finds itself moving into pray mode. The $200 million dollar THE FLASH struggled to cross the $100 million mark at the US box-office. The CGI heavy DC Comic production did not click with ticket buyers. Given that parent company Warner Discovery is in $50 billion debt, certainly alarm bells are ringing in the head office. After all, colorful tight pajamas were written in as a major revenue asset for the media giant.
It is looking more and more fatigue is taking hold of cinema goers. The lack of originality and pandering works have driven away ticket buyers to screaming on social media about Hollywood’s dismal releases.
Hollywood has learned, again, there is no such thing as a sure thing. Will this make studios change course? Disney announced new STAR WARS films. I would almost rather be on Alderaan watching the Death Star hover than sit through another instalment of the now soul less galactic saga.
What is the expression? “Be careful what you wish for.” It might come true. CYPHER could be a cautionary work about modern fame and its downside. Tierra Whack from Philadelphia, found online fame rapping on the streets. Her journey to the top had a fairy-tale angle, a young lady from the wrong side of the tracks goes on to become famous. Director Chris Moukarbel observes the double edge of fame, from the adulation to the cra-cra. As the Cypher unfolds, rooting for the rapper suddenly goes to “Girl, you are in danger!”
Gentrification has hit every urban area in the world. Finding affordable housing in any city is the same as trying to guess seven winning lottery numbers. MOUNTAINS by Monica Sorelle tells the story of a Miami affordable neighborhood being gentrified. Atibon Nazaire stars as Haitian Xavier Sr., a man contemplating a foggy future for him and his family. Atibon strong presence balances subtle performance as a man looking at an oncoming storm.
Not that we needed a film about how strange the world was during Covid and the lockdowns. Brazil’s A STRANGE PATH captures the moment by showing the peculiar monotony of life of doing nothing and waiting with a feeling of fear and seeking out comfort. Lucas Limeira stars as a filmmaker returning home only to be confined to a dingy hotel room during the closures while a dysfunctional relationship with his father goes beyond repair.
Why was I drawn to IT’S BASIC? The political headlines of Dr. Cornel West announcement of his candidacy for president of the United States in 2024. As poverty and inequality grow in America, a desperate populace is looking for new answers. Marc Levin points his camera at subjects weighed down by an unsympathetic system. The “working poor” in the country have been ignored. Cities finding themselves unable to ignore the harsh realities of neo-liberal government policies have come up with new solutions to address the problem of an ever larger underclass: a basic income.
An honorable mention goes to DEEP SEA. China’s ambitious underwater animated adventure from Xiaopeng Tian. I had problems with the fast pacing and lack of sympathetic characters, but the visuals were top-notch.
Canada’s HEY VIKTOR got so silly I started to laugh out loud. Cody Lightning’s comedy about self-serving comeback while making a low or no budget film had moments.
Tribeca Film Festival runs until June 18th.
The 73rd Berlinale European Shooting Stars Awards were presented at a festive gala on 20th February, 2023. The evening awards recognizing new talent were moderated by journalist Nadine Kreutzer. During the weekend before the event, the ten Shooting Stars nominees participated in promotional interviews. Black and Paper talked to three of them.
Judith State from Romania had classical ballet training and is now a professional actress, choreographer and dancer. She says, “I always see myself first and foremost as a dancer.” In 2016, State made her screen debut in Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada. She considered her involvement in the film as a “beautiful accident”. After premiering in Cannes, she was also nominated for a Romanian Gopo Award for Best Supporting Actress. She adds, “Ever since that moment I have been involved and have been lucky to now combine my careers in dance and film.”
State received a Gopo Award for Best Actress in Marius Olteanu’s 2018 debut film Monsters, and Cristi Puiu’s Manor House in 2020. Both films premiered at the Berlinale and Cristi Puiu also won the Encounters Award for Best Director. In 2020, State also starred in Daniel Sandu’s The Father Who Moves Mountains and Liviu Marghidan’s Refuge. The dance film Zenith, by Hungarian director Gyuri Kristoff, followed in 2021. In 2022 she played the lead role in Cristian Mungiu’s R.M.N., which premiered in Cannes. Otherwise, State doesn’t feel Romania appreciates home grown films despite international awards, adding “It is quite painful!”
Gizem Erdogan’s Turkish parents moved to Sweden in the 1970s, where she was later born. She studied at the Conservatory in Sweden then did a couple of years on stage. In 2014 she got the part in her debut feature film Dream On. For the film, Erdogan was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Guldbaggen Swedish Academy Awards. In 2020 the TV series Caliphate made her a national star. She has since won three Best Actress awards and says, “Caliphate was a breakthrough role for me.”
This is Erdogan’s first participation at the Berlinale. However, she confessed, “I had been dreaming about Shooting Stars since I went to drama school.” She also admitted that it is a busy schedule for the participants. Erdogan added, “I hope Shooting Stars will give me the opportunity to do international co-productions.” One such co-production is scheduled soon, but is something she can’t talk about at the moment.
Thorvaldur Kristjansson started out in the theatre, admitting there were initially less opportunities in film. His first film role was Black’s Game in 2017, earning him a nomination for Best Actor at the Eddan Icelandic Film and TV Awards. In 2020 Kristjansson won Best Supporting Actor for The Minister, a TV Series. Roles followed in the locally popular films I Remember You and Life in a Fishbowl. He then provided voice-over for the 2021 animated short Yes-People, the film receiving an Oscar nomination. In his latest film, A Letter from Helga, he adapted the Lee Strasberg method acting style. The film topped the Icelandic box office in 2022.
Last year Iceland had four films at the Berlinale but nothing this year. Kristjansson explains, “We are a growing industry but it’s such a small market, funded by the government.” However, he is happy they are now making independent productions, hence more variety. Currently based in Stockholm, Kristjansson is focusing on his film and TV work. He says, “I am afraid of going back to the theatre, to be honest. It is a muscle that you have to exercise.” However, with film, he adds, “You have to be in a perfect mode of focus. You need to go out and then go in (again).”
Meanwhile, at the Berlinale, Finnish stage, TV, and film actor Alina Tomnikov won the European Shooting Stars Award for 2023. Her current film is the comedy drama The Worst Idea Ever.
By Steven Yates
Director Wes Anderson hits Cannes this year with ASTEROID CITY. The all-starrer work promises to be typical Wes complete with quirky characters, jelly bean production values and off kilter storyline.
Cannes Film Festival starts May 17th.
Actress, Director Greta Gerwig’s BARBIE trailer has taken the Internet by storm. The Margort Robbie, Ryan Gosling lead flick hits cinemas this July 21st. Based on the iconic children’s doll, the trailer wowed professionals at CinemaCom, the Warner Bros release could be a summer blockbuster for the Sacramento born filmmaker.
Actor Keanu Reeves returns to theaters this weekend as Super Assassin John Wick in the third sequel of the hit franchise.
In 2020 we produced a Chat Cinema episode on the actor trying to dissect the appeal of the actor.
For Chat Cinema Podcast guest filmmakers Tom Berkeley and Ross White talked about their well received film ROY, character driven story of loneliness. The duo looked poised to make the next step. Fast forward to March 12th, Tom Berkeley Ross White won the Best Film Short at the 95th Academy Awards in Hollywood for AN IRISH GOODBYE.