Figaro: Living in the Moment of a Character has been selected for the 2011 Derby City Film Festival as of December 15th! The press release and full list of selections are listed below!
NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kristofer Rommel
502-618-3192
derbycityfilmfest@yahoo.com
The Derby City Film Festival Announces Selections For The 2011 Festival held in February 67 films to screen during the three day festival, including 25 international films and 19 from Kentucky filmmakers LOUISVILLE, KY.
(December 15th) — The Derby City Film Festival is proud to announce the selected films for the 2011 edition.
In total 67 films will screen during the three day festival which will be held February 18th - 20th, 2011 at the Clifton Center. Of those screening, 41 of the films have been selected for competition. The festival will open with a short film screening group from The Bob Rogers Group (BRG), a production company based in Louisville. The BRG film program of 8 short films will be free to attend and begin at 6:00 PM on February 18th. The official opening night film at 8:00 PM will be “The Very Worst Thing” a film about the worst bus crash in US history which took place in
Floyd County, Kentucky in 1958. The film is from Georgetown filmmaker Michael Crisp.
In all, 20 films from Kentucky filmmakers will screen during the festival including four feature films and 16 short films. A “Kentucky Short Films Program” will screen on Sunday features short films from Kentucky filmmakers. Both the Saturday night Feature Films (“Almost Nothing Good Happens” by Tom Whitus & “Queens of the Dead” by Ray Cart) were produced and shot in Louisville and will be World Premieres. Other films from filmmakers with ties to Kentucky will screen during the festival as well.
“While this year’s festival is a great moment to showcase the talent right here in Kentucky, we also want to remind everyone that we are an international festival,” points out DCFF cofounder Kristofer Rommel, “in addition we are screening 25 films from international filmmakers and numerous films from other parts of the country as well. It’s a great showcase of independent film
in general.”
Films screening at the 2011 Derby City Film Festival include films from New Albany &
Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Georgia, Illinois, Oregon, New York, California, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, and Canada.
“It was a great group of films that were submitted this year,” says cofounder Ashley Rommel, “the selection committee had their work cut out for them and we all feel that those selected represent some of the best in independent film making out there.”
Films screening out of competition include the Bob Rogers Group short films and another 18 short films included in a short film program entitled “Cyber Bros.”; of which all the films are from Russian filmmakers. The festival has also partnered with the Jewish Film Festival which runs concurrently with the DCFF. On Sunday Feb. 20th the two festivals are partnering to screen “Voice Teacher” a documentary from New York. Don Roberts, the voice teacher and Daniel Mendelson, the director will attend and discuss the film. The festival closes Sunday February 20th with the feature film “Hitting the Nuts” from Cincinnati filmmaker Joe Boyd There will be workshops held during the festival that cover a wide range of topics including:
Writing for the Screen, Green Screen Techniques, Acting, and FX Make-Up. As well as filmmaker Q&A’s following many of the films.
Each of the workshops are hosted by leading regional professionals in independent film and are designed for the experienced filmmaker as well as those just beginning or who have an interest in learning more about the world of independent film. The workshops will be held Saturday and Sunday during the festival and are free for those who purchase a day or festival pass. The festival will bring back the audience vote for the next edition. Each audience member will be able to vote on their favorite film in each category and the votes will be tallied and will comprise 1/5 of the total jury vote. Awards will be given out following the festival conclusion. There will
also be an audience favorite award given out which all films are eligible for. Finalists in each film category will be announced in January.
The 2011 Derby City Film Festival runs February 18th - 20th at the Clifton Center in Louisville, Kentucky. The full festival schedule and film descriptions will be available January 1st, 2011,
which is also when tickets go on-sale through the festival website. More information on the jury, workshops and general festival information, can be found at the festival website: www.derbycityfilmfest.com or by calling the DCFF office at 502-618-3192
The following includes the full list of selected films, directors and origins that are in competition for the 2011 Derby City Film Festival. Kentucky and Indiana filmmakers are noted in BOLD:
Feature Films:
Almost Nothing Good Happens - Tom Whitus - New Albany, Indiana
White Knuckles - Zak Forsman - California
Queens of the Dead - Ray Cart - Louisville, Kentucky
Hell is Full - Steve Hudgins - Dawson Springs, KY
Hitting the Nuts - Joe Boyd - Cincinnati, Ohio
Mountain Mafia - Cherokee Hall - Lexington, Kentucky
Demons Rising - William Lee Ohio
Tow - Adam Newell - Indianapolis, Indiana
Deadlands 2: Trapped - Gary Ugarek Maryland
Documentaries
The Very Worst Thing -Michael Crisp - Georgetown, Kentucky
Our House - Greg King - California
Figaro: Living in the Moment of a Character - Dan Schaefer - Oregon
Mutton Buster - Bruce Claydon - Canada
What’s in a Smile - Andrew DeJohn - California
Miracle on 42nd Street NY, NY - Jerri Sher - California
Smolarze - Piotr Zlotorowicz - Poland
Fried Apple Pies - Natalie Baxter - Lexington, Kentucky
Short Films
Remaindered - Lee Goldberg - California
James Amnesia - Evan Sennett - Louisville, Kentucky
Knife - Matthew Rivera - Louisville, Kentucky
A Moment of Delusion - Steve Cleberg - Somerset, Kentucky
K (Between the Lines) - Nate Morguelan - Louisville, Kentucky
Hindsight 2020 - Bryan Dobson - Simpsonville, Kentucky
Afghan - Pardis Parker - Canada
Two Men, Two Cows, Two Guns - Pardis Parker - Canada
Implants - Pardis Parker - Canada
The Escape - Rajko Jazbec - Switzerland
Red Princess Blues - Alex Ferrari - California
Meth - Michael Maney - Cincinnati, OH
Marble Rye - Max Rosen - Missouri
<3 (Heart) - Josh Flowers - Cincinnati, OH
I Will Hurt You Some More - Gary Lynch - Georgia
Surviving Hunger - Balgum Song - California
The Singer - Josh Hope - Illinois
Crux - Jared Hardy - New Albany, Indiana
My Apologies - Andreas Goldfuss - Canada
Vitruvius Toybox - Dennis Michael Iannuzzi - Pennsylvania
The Mercy Seat - Jared Hardy - New Albany, Indiana
Bubbly - e.E. Charlton-Trujillo & Josh Flowers - Cincinnati, OH
Bots - John Cosper - Sellersberg, Indiana
Friday, December 17, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Figaro makes the Oregonian and Oregonlive.com!
The screening of Figaro has made it to several Portland/Oregon publications such as The Portland Mercury, Willamette Week and, as of Friday the 10th, The Oregonian and it's internet twin Oregonlive.com. The article appears below:
"Figaro": D.V. Schaefer has made two documentaries about the histories of two Portland sports franchises, the Buckaroos ("Kings of the Road") and the Trail Blazers ("Mania"). His latest and best work takes him far from the Northwest and athletics. "Figaro" follows the cross-cultural collaboration/experiment between university-level music academies in Louisville, Ky., and Kratowice, Poland, as both departments, working on a compressed schedule typical of professional companies, head to each other's turf to give performances of Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro." The camera extensively documents all aspects of production while capturing the giddy nervousness of the student performers.
7 p.m. Thursday, Whitsell Auditorium
"Figaro": D.V. Schaefer has made two documentaries about the histories of two Portland sports franchises, the Buckaroos ("Kings of the Road") and the Trail Blazers ("Mania"). His latest and best work takes him far from the Northwest and athletics. "Figaro" follows the cross-cultural collaboration/experiment between university-level music academies in Louisville, Ky., and Kratowice, Poland, as both departments, working on a compressed schedule typical of professional companies, head to each other's turf to give performances of Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro." The camera extensively documents all aspects of production while capturing the giddy nervousness of the student performers.
7 p.m. Thursday, Whitsell Auditorium
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Northwest Film Center Screening of Figaro set for July 15th!
The screening of Figaro: Living in the Moment of a Character is set for a July 15th screening at the Whitsell Auditorium in Portland Oregon. For more information on tickets go to: http://www.nwfilm.org/screenings/26/269/
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Figaro to Screen at Portland Art Museum
Figaro: Living in the Moment of a Character will screen in Portland on the 15th of July at the Whitsell auditorium. Members of the production team will be in attendance as well as Alice Baldwin who was the set designer who appears in the film. This will be the first time audiences in the west will get to see the finished film since it's debut in February 13 and screening on KET(Public Broadcasting) on the 25th of May.
Friday, May 21, 2010
89.3 FM News story by Elizabeth Kramer that appeared in February
Film about U of L Opera Project with Polish Academy Premieres
Elizabeth Kramer February 12, 2010
From 2003 through last year, the University of Louisville’s opera theatre program worked with a Polish academy to create a production that spanned two continents and instructed students in the new ways to perform opera. Now, that experience is in a documentary film premiering tomorrow. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer has the story.
In the documentary, the students from the University of Louisville and Poland’s Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music located in Katowice don’t sing their own language. They sing Italian in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” The film shows some of the logistics of mounting the production, from creating sets and costumes in Louisville, through rehearsals and two performances in Louisville and two more in Katowice. And it has plenty of music.
But there’s more to “Figaro! Living in the Moment of a Character” by filmmaker Dan Schaefer. It hits on the theme of the growing importance of acting in opera. And that’s expressed early in the film by Michael Ramach, co-director of U of L’s opera theater program.
“I find it ironic that all these years,” ramach says, “we’ve done these productions theatrically that have been quite boring, music wonderful, but theatrically boring, because the original composers would be horrified. They wanted singing actors.”
And the film shows Ramach working closely with these budding singing actors, who were cast for two different productions of the opera to intensify the students’ experience in playing different roles. Ramach puts them through their paces to truly understand the words they sing and their characters’ feelings. In one scene backstage at a Poland opera house, he coaches Nathan Wilson, the U of L student who plays Figaro.
“Do me a favor, your first aria, how does the Italian go?” Ramach asks Wilson, before Wilson says the words in Italian.
“What does it mean?” Ramach asks, wanting him to speak the English meaning.
“It means, ‘If you wish to dance…’” says Wilson. And he continues to recite in English.
Later, a Polish student talks about what he’s gained.
“Working with other people from another country we can exchange our experience. We can improve also our English.
While the Polish students, in general, aren’t quoted much, the film shows Ramach working with them to infuse their performance with a sense of realistic drama. Ramach’s approach is something that has taken hold at many American opera houses to draw larger audiences that include young people. It’s seen at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, which now focuses on dramatic elements in simulcasts of its operas showing in movie houses nationwide. But much of Europe — including Poland, where opera is especially popular — has been slower to create dramatic operas by improving the acting in them.
But the film shows the approach did make an impression on many students from both countries. After one of the four performances, Ramach reads a letter he’s received to the U of L director of opera studies, Kimcherie Lloyd.
“I have learned so much preparing this opera. I now know how to prepare and live in the moment of a character,” he says.
Lloyd exclaims, “Ta-da.”
“As you see,” says Ramach.
Filmmaker Dan Schaeffer says he definitely wanted to show the music, but he also wanted to spotlight the personalities that shaped this production.
“That’s the one thing I wanted was to allow people to really talk about what it is they do,” Schaeffer says.
Schaeffer also has a subtext. It shows the place of opera in two different cultures. Here, the filmmaker mostly focuses on getting the production onstage. In Poland, he includes scenes showing the crowds that come to see sold-out performances.
Today, Michel Ramach is pleased to have this document of the project.
“It has become not only a scrapbook of our trip,” Ramach says, “but it’s also become a document about how we train our singers.”
Ramach says the film can help recruit students to U of L and build further cross-cultural programs. Meanwhile, Schaeffer says he plans to enter the documentary in film festivals.
The documentary “Figaro! Living in the Moment of a Character” premieres Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at U of L’s Comstock Hall.
Find the interview at:
http://archive.wfpl.org/arts_and_humanities/20100212_Figaro_Film.mp3
Elizabeth Kramer February 12, 2010
From 2003 through last year, the University of Louisville’s opera theatre program worked with a Polish academy to create a production that spanned two continents and instructed students in the new ways to perform opera. Now, that experience is in a documentary film premiering tomorrow. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer has the story.
In the documentary, the students from the University of Louisville and Poland’s Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music located in Katowice don’t sing their own language. They sing Italian in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” The film shows some of the logistics of mounting the production, from creating sets and costumes in Louisville, through rehearsals and two performances in Louisville and two more in Katowice. And it has plenty of music.
But there’s more to “Figaro! Living in the Moment of a Character” by filmmaker Dan Schaefer. It hits on the theme of the growing importance of acting in opera. And that’s expressed early in the film by Michael Ramach, co-director of U of L’s opera theater program.
“I find it ironic that all these years,” ramach says, “we’ve done these productions theatrically that have been quite boring, music wonderful, but theatrically boring, because the original composers would be horrified. They wanted singing actors.”
And the film shows Ramach working closely with these budding singing actors, who were cast for two different productions of the opera to intensify the students’ experience in playing different roles. Ramach puts them through their paces to truly understand the words they sing and their characters’ feelings. In one scene backstage at a Poland opera house, he coaches Nathan Wilson, the U of L student who plays Figaro.
“Do me a favor, your first aria, how does the Italian go?” Ramach asks Wilson, before Wilson says the words in Italian.
“What does it mean?” Ramach asks, wanting him to speak the English meaning.
“It means, ‘If you wish to dance…’” says Wilson. And he continues to recite in English.
Later, a Polish student talks about what he’s gained.
“Working with other people from another country we can exchange our experience. We can improve also our English.
While the Polish students, in general, aren’t quoted much, the film shows Ramach working with them to infuse their performance with a sense of realistic drama. Ramach’s approach is something that has taken hold at many American opera houses to draw larger audiences that include young people. It’s seen at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, which now focuses on dramatic elements in simulcasts of its operas showing in movie houses nationwide. But much of Europe — including Poland, where opera is especially popular — has been slower to create dramatic operas by improving the acting in them.
But the film shows the approach did make an impression on many students from both countries. After one of the four performances, Ramach reads a letter he’s received to the U of L director of opera studies, Kimcherie Lloyd.
“I have learned so much preparing this opera. I now know how to prepare and live in the moment of a character,” he says.
Lloyd exclaims, “Ta-da.”
“As you see,” says Ramach.
Filmmaker Dan Schaeffer says he definitely wanted to show the music, but he also wanted to spotlight the personalities that shaped this production.
“That’s the one thing I wanted was to allow people to really talk about what it is they do,” Schaeffer says.
Schaeffer also has a subtext. It shows the place of opera in two different cultures. Here, the filmmaker mostly focuses on getting the production onstage. In Poland, he includes scenes showing the crowds that come to see sold-out performances.
Today, Michel Ramach is pleased to have this document of the project.
“It has become not only a scrapbook of our trip,” Ramach says, “but it’s also become a document about how we train our singers.”
Ramach says the film can help recruit students to U of L and build further cross-cultural programs. Meanwhile, Schaeffer says he plans to enter the documentary in film festivals.
The documentary “Figaro! Living in the Moment of a Character” premieres Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at U of L’s Comstock Hall.
Find the interview at:
http://archive.wfpl.org/arts_and_humanities/20100212_Figaro_Film.mp3
Figaro to screen on KET!
Figaro to screen on KET! May 25th!
KET KY to air documentary on ‘Figaro’ production
Collaboration by UofL and Polish academy drew rave response
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – “Figaro! Living in the Moment of a Character,” a feature-length documentary about an opera production by the University of Louisville School of Music and Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland, will be aired this month on KET KY television.
FilmbyFrame, an independent film company based in Portland, Ore., followed the rigorous three-month schedule of singers from the two schools and their behind-the-scenes preparation for "The Marriage of Figaro" performances in Louisville and Katowice.
KET selected the film for broadcast statewide on its KET KY channel, 192 on local Insight cable, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 25; 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 26; and 1 a.m. Saturday, May 29. It will run again this summer at times to be determined.
Mike Ramach, UofL Opera Theatre director, said the opera's production was just as complicated as its plot.
“We’ve had an exchange program since 2003, but the 2007 opera was our most logistically involved project to date,” Ramach said. “Combining two casts from two schools from two countries on two continents and performing in two cities, not to mention two languages, provided a drama of its own.”
Producer Dan Schaefer, a veteran concept artist for Hollywood films and commercials and an instructor at the Art Institute of Portland, followed the adventure step by step as the long-distance “marriage” drew capacity crowds and standing ovations in its final performances in January 2008 in Katowice.
Schaefer edited more than 60 hours of film to capture the spirit as well the voices of the students -- and the director's angst. More than 200 guests viewed the documentary's premiere Feb. 13 at the Margaret Comstock Concert Hall on the Belknap Campus.
KET KY to air documentary on ‘Figaro’ production
Collaboration by UofL and Polish academy drew rave response
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – “Figaro! Living in the Moment of a Character,” a feature-length documentary about an opera production by the University of Louisville School of Music and Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland, will be aired this month on KET KY television.
FilmbyFrame, an independent film company based in Portland, Ore., followed the rigorous three-month schedule of singers from the two schools and their behind-the-scenes preparation for "The Marriage of Figaro" performances in Louisville and Katowice.
KET selected the film for broadcast statewide on its KET KY channel, 192 on local Insight cable, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 25; 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 26; and 1 a.m. Saturday, May 29. It will run again this summer at times to be determined.
Mike Ramach, UofL Opera Theatre director, said the opera's production was just as complicated as its plot.
“We’ve had an exchange program since 2003, but the 2007 opera was our most logistically involved project to date,” Ramach said. “Combining two casts from two schools from two countries on two continents and performing in two cities, not to mention two languages, provided a drama of its own.”
Producer Dan Schaefer, a veteran concept artist for Hollywood films and commercials and an instructor at the Art Institute of Portland, followed the adventure step by step as the long-distance “marriage” drew capacity crowds and standing ovations in its final performances in January 2008 in Katowice.
Schaefer edited more than 60 hours of film to capture the spirit as well the voices of the students -- and the director's angst. More than 200 guests viewed the documentary's premiere Feb. 13 at the Margaret Comstock Concert Hall on the Belknap Campus.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Figaro to air on KET!
The documentary film, Figaro: Living in the Moment of a Character will air on Kentucky Educational Television on July 25th at 8:00 pm EDT. The film will be broadcast and available for viewing in 5 regions covering 5 neighboring states.
Upcoming Airdates:
* KETKY: Tuesday, May 25 at 8:00 pm EDT
* KETKY: Wednesday, May 26 at 11:00 am EDT
* KETKY: Saturday, May 29 at 1:00 am EDT
Upcoming Airdates:
* KETKY: Tuesday, May 25 at 8:00 pm EDT
* KETKY: Wednesday, May 26 at 11:00 am EDT
* KETKY: Saturday, May 29 at 1:00 am EDT
Thursday, February 25, 2010
WUOL interview!
Collaboration is at the heart of every musical endeavor. The University of Louisville took this spirit to new levels with a cross-Atlantic production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland. Filmmaker Dan Schaefer saw the perfect opportunity to capture this journey, literally, on film. The result is FIGARO! Living in the Moment of a Character, and will premiere on Saturday, February 13 at 7:30pm at Comstock Concert Hall, University of Louisville School of Music.
Michael Ramach, co-director of the opera program at U of L, and Nathan Wilson, a cast member in the prodcution, talked with Daniel Gilliam about the collaboration from beginning to end and the documentary.
http://www.wuol.org/2010/02/12/figaro/
Michael Ramach, co-director of the opera program at U of L, and Nathan Wilson, a cast member in the prodcution, talked with Daniel Gilliam about the collaboration from beginning to end and the documentary.
http://www.wuol.org/2010/02/12/figaro/
Article as it appeared in the LEO newspaper!
Saturday, Feb. 13
‘Figaro’
Margaret Comstock Concert Hall
U of L’s Belknap Campus
Free; 7:30 p.m.
In 2007, U of L’s Michael Ramach embarked on an ambitious, cross-continental production of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” The cast and orchestra included Louisville students as well as members of the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland. Ramach looked to webcams and voice-over Internet protocol to help bridge the gap during rehearsals, and collapsible sets were designed to be more easily whisked through our local UPS hub. Cameras rolled as the two-city opera overcame cultural barriers and a tandem of conductors who didn’t always see eye-to-eye. The result is Dan Shaefer’s “Figaro.” Noting a lack of behind-the-scenes coverage in this performance-focused genre, producer/director Shaefer says he was motivated to show the building of an opera from the ground up. The 1 hour, 50 minute documentary will premiere Saturday at U of L. —J. Christian Walsh
Figaro: Living in the Moment of a Character
It was early in 2007. The idea of going to Kentucky and then Poland to shoot/produce a film about the making of an opera, Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, was unexpected and suddenly very exciting. Now almost 3 years later the film has had it's premiere in Louisville Kentucky and has begun it's new path to reaching an audience. I should have been writing a journal at some point. I think I started one on the way and then begun shooting. At that point the idea of writing stuff down went away as I struggled with the camera in a variety of locations(the bus, back stage in the dark, restaurants, and everyplace the singers would be) and went on to document a truly great event! I'll try to add everything I know and encourage the other participants to comment on this journey that crossed two continents and two languages.
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