NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kristofer Rommel
502-618-3192
derbycityfilmfest@yahoo.com
Kentucky & Regional Films Showcased At The Upcoming Derby City Film Festival in February
Film Festival includes 20 films from Kentucky filmmakers and 10 more from Indiana & Ohio.
LOUISVILLE, KY. (January 25th) —
Gritty crime dramas, quirky love stories, clay-mation sci-fi and stirring documentaries are just some of the themes being offered from films by Kentucky filmmakers at this year’s Derby City Film Festival.
In all 20 films from Kentucky filmmakers and 10 from Indiana & Ohio will be screened during the festival, which takes place February 18th through the 20th at the Clifton Center. Two more films are from filmmakers with ties to Kentucky, both documentaries. One, “Figaro: Living in the Moment of a Character” by D.V. Schaefer, focuses on a collaboration of the opera “Figaro” between the University of Louisville School of Music and the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Poland. The other, “Our House” from Greg King and David Teague, deals with an illegal squat house designed to be an alternative to New York City's impersonal homeless shelter system. Greg King is a native of Louisville. Both films screen on Saturday February 19th.
The festival opens with a group of short films from The Bob Rogers Group, a Louisville based production company and features seven films from four Kentucky filmmakers; Kristofer Rommel, Jacob Goldberg, Jake Snider and Steven Matthews. The screening group is at 6:00 PM on February 18th and is free to attend. Two more Kentucky films follow on Friday night; “The Very Worst Thing” from Georgetown filmmakers Michael Crisp and Andrew Moore, and “Hell is Full” from Dawson Springs filmmaker Steve Hudgens. “The Very Worst Thing” is a documentary about a 1958 bus crash in Floyd County and “Hell is Full” is narrative feature film about what happens...when Hell is full. Both films are finalists in their respective categories.
Three more Kentucky narrative feature films screen Saturday, two of which were shot in downtown Louisville. “Mountain Mafia” from Lexington filmmaker Cherokee Hall plays Saturday afternoon and “Almost Nothing Good Happens” and “Queens of the Dead” screen Saturday night.
“Almost Nothing Good Happens” is from New Albany filmmaker Tom Whitus, who’s last film “Sam Steel and the Junior Detective Agency” was a 2010 DCFF selection. “Queens of the Dead” is from Louisville filmmaker Ray Cart. Both films were shot in Downtown Louisville, feature a local cast and are World Premieres. Prior to the screening of “Almost Nothing Good Happens” will be a special screening of Louisville filmmaker Archie Borders latest film “Turnaround”.
On Sunday at 1:00 PM there is a “Kentucky Short Film” program which features six films from Kentucky filmmakers and one that was produced in Owensboro by California filmmaker Lee Goldberg who has written numerous television programs, including “Monk”. The other films being screened come from Simpsonville, Louisville, Somerset and Lexington.
The festival closes on Sunday February 20th with the film “Hitting the Nuts” from Cincinnati filmmaker Joe Boyd, which is a mockumentary about the “true” story of the 2009 Scott County, Indiana Poker Championship. Other films from Ohio and screening during the festival include the short films “<3 (Heart)”, “Bubbly” and “Meth”, all of which are from Cincinnati, and the feature film “Demons Rising” from Columbus.
Additional films from Indiana include the short films “The Mercy Seat” and “Crux” from New Albany Filmmaker Jared Hardy, “Bots” from Mary Pollio of Sellersburg, and the feature film “Tow” from Indianapolis filmmaker Adam Newell. In all 68 films from five countries will be screened during the 2011 Derby City Film Festival.
Full film information on all the films which screen during the festival is available on the festival website. The festival also includes panels, workshops, and filmmaker Q&A’s, which take place throughout the weekend. Tickets and passes are now on-sale on-line and start at $6.00.
The 2011 Derby City Film Festival runs February 18th - 20th at the Clifton Center in Louisville, Kentucky. More information on the upcoming festival can be found at the festival website: www.derbycityfilmfest.com or by calling the DCFF office at 502-618-3192
Showing posts with label Louisville school of Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Louisville school of Music. Show all posts
Thursday, February 3, 2011
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
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
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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