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Paul Giamatti and Alexander Payne play catch up 15 years after ‘Sideways’
Paul Giamatti and Alexander Payne play catch up 15 years after ‘Sideways’
©by Leo Adam Biga
The August 25 Film Streams Feature VIII Event brought together two old collaborators and friends in actor Paul Giamatti and writer-director Alexander Payne. They worked together on Payne’s 2004 road trip romantic comedy/buddy pic “Sideways,” in which Giamatti co-starred as nebbish Miles opposite Thomas Haden Church as boorish Jack.
All of Payne’s films to date have been about the search for love. Romantic love. Platonic love. Parental love. Brotherly love. But especially self-love. In “Sideways” Giamatti plays a divorced, failed writer who believes the prospect of new love is no longer in the cards for him. His buddy Jack is a former soap star turned voice actor. The pals are getting away from it all on the eve of Jack’s impending marriage. Miles is geeked out by the wineries and vintages, Jack is obsessed with banging every woman he meets, When Jack arranges a double date with his latest conquest, Stephanie and her friend Maya, Miles is surprised and more than a little frightened to find love stirring once again as he falls head over heels for Maya. She is a reader and a wine lover who respects that he’s a writer and wine aficionado. As their fledgling relationship heats up, Miles’s friendship with Jack is severely tested by Jack’s outrageous behavior Then, when Miles is implicated in Jack’s duplicitous tracks, he finds himself on the outs with Maya. only to find redemption and courage to follow his instincts in the end.
During Feature VIII at the Holland Performing Arts Center there was much discussion by Giamatti and Payne about the wonderful scene between Miles and Maya talking about their shared love of wine and grapes when they’re really describing themselves. Giamatti refers to that scenes “as the heart of the film.” and he’s absolutely right. That scene from “Sideways” was one of a few samples of Giamatti’s work screened last night. For an actor with such a deep body of work, it’s hard to represent the breadth of the characters he’s played through a handful of clips, but his versatility shined through.
More than once last night Payne referred to Giamatti, even to his face, as “my favorite actor.” He means it, too. Their conversation was pleasant if not revealing. Payne is a great filmmaker but a rather awkward interviewer. In turn, Giamatti is not so great talking about process or method. Or at least he wasn’t last night. The highlight was his very long, involved and hilarious anecdote about prepping to play former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke in the TV movie “Too Big to Fail.” The event might have had the disadvantage of this pair actually knowing each other too well and they’re being a little too comfortable with each other and therefore somewhat uncomfortable sharing themselves with an audience. The Film Streams conversation programs would be better served with a professional moderator who knows how to effectively lead with questions and then followup or press for answers. I nominate myself for the job.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the affair was the amount of money raised – a cool half a million dollars – in support of Film Streams, which is coming off its best year after expanding to two sites and ramping up its educational programming.
Copied below is my Reader story that appeared in advance of the Feature Event. In my phone interview with Giamatti I found him to be the same engaging, quirky guy he was at the Holland. He and Payne both indicate a strong desire to work together again and we can only hope it happens. Payne has a script and a part waiting for him when the timing’s right. Let’s hope it comes about sooner rather than later.
Look for my post of the complete Q&A I did with Giamatti in advance of the Omaha event.
Kindred spirits Giamatti and Payne to revisit the triumph of ‘Sideways’ and the art of finding truth and profundity in the holy ordinary
©by Leo Adam Biga
Originally appeared in The Reader (thereader.com)
Go-to character actor Paul Giamatti brings élan to his screen gallery of nerdy sidekicks and beleaguered Everyman types. It’s rare for someone with his hangdog looks to be a romantic interest. But in Alexander Payne’s Sideways (2004), he melts hearts with earnest desire and neurotic angst as lovelorn Miles.
He’s the sad half of a dysfunctional buddy team with Jack (Thomas Haden Church), whose frivolity masks hurt. Their on-the-road odyssey of regret, self-pity and debauchery is tempered by redeeming love. The Indiewood project surprised its makers by becoming a serious box office success and major awards contender.
Payne’s taking time from trying to get a new feature off the ground to join Giamatti for an August 25 public conversation accented by clips. This eighth iteration of the Film Streams Feature Event fundraiser unspools in the Holland Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m.
Sideways, celebrating its 15th anniversary, remains a highlight of the two men’s respective careers.
“It was a gorgeous experience,” Giamatti said by phone. “It was so much fun. It was joyous. And I think the movie feels that way because we were just making a movie for the love of making a movie – and that’s what was great about it. None of us felt we were making anything anybody would even care about that much. We cared about it. So much of that came from Alexander and his simple joy of being with actors and crew.”
By Sideways, each was a name with an identity – Giamatti’s animated sad-sack persona and Payne’s down-but-not-out milieu of misfits and searchers – that meshed well.
These cinema kindred spirits with a gift for understated wit that segues into broad comedy or high drama found themselves at parallel points in their artistic lives.
Giamatti hit his stride as a supporting player in the late-1990s. Payne made some waves with his debut feature, Citizen Ruth (1996), before fully getting on critics’ radar with Election, a 1999 cult classic enjoying retrospective adulation 20 years later. It’s the film that first brought Payne to Giamatti’s attention.
In Sideways Giamatti believably goes to the dark side of longing. Where childlike Jack is all about immediate gratification, reflective Miles broods over losses and Giamatti digs deep to mine this despair.
Giamatii and Church first met in-person on location in Santa Barbara wine country – after breaking the ice on the phone – where they had several days to bond before production began.
“I cast each independently,” Payne said. “But to have them develop some chemistry – because if no one believes the friendship between those two unlikely men then the film would not work – I had them come to location for two weeks before shooting, so we could rehearse together. But, more important, so they could hang out to play golf, see a movie, eat together. And they did.”
In the film the characters get involved with women they betray. Vain Jack, a former soap star, cheats on his bride-to-be with free-spirit Stephanie (Sandra Oh), who doesn’t know he’s engaged. Nebbish Miles, a teacher and writer reeling from a failed marriage and a book not finding a publisher, discovers in sensitive Maya (Virginia Madsen) a love he didn’t think possible anymore.
Church nails the self-absorbed miscreant Jack. Giamatti is dead-on as the yearning, naysaying Miles who wears his funk like a cloak. But, as Giamatti said, it is Miles who “opens up as a person through the movie in a really lovely, believable way.” Payne intuitively gives Giamatti the camera and the actor’s highly praised performance moves one to tears and laughter.
Giamatti’s work in Sideways established him as a character lead who can carry a film.
Producer Michael London brokered a package deal for the project. He optioned the film rights for the Rex Pickett novel. Payne and Jim Taylor wrote the script on spec. John Jackson cast for fit, not box-office .”Then,” Payne said, “we approached the studios and said. ‘Here is the screenplay, the director, the cast, and the budget – in or out?’ A couple studios said, ‘Why can’t you have bigger stars?’ Fox Searchlight rolled the dice and won.”
Giamatti is grateful Payne didn’t budge.
“He went back to the studio to tell them he wanted me and I think he anticipated he’d get a fight about that and he did get fights. But he stuck by it – me and Tom and Virginia and Sandra. These are the people he wanted.”
The ensemble made magic.
“Fifteen years later that movie is present in people’s minds as if it just came out last year,” Giamatti said. “It’s got amazing power.”
It marked a peak for Giamatti.
“I felt like if I couldn’t act again for some reason, my acting life would have been fulfilled having done this movie because it was such a purely pleasurable experience. Alexander’s a true filmmaker and that’s what makes him special.”
Payne’s admiration of Giamatti, whom he calls “my favorite actor,” runs deep.
“He’s just the perfect actor. He knows all of his dialogue backwards and forwards and can do it any which way – each take truthful, each take different. He could make bad dialogue work. When he read for me, I remember thinking he was the very first actor reading the lines almost exactly how I’d heard them in my head while writing them — and better.”
“He’s just a lovely guy and extremely well-read.”
Giamatti gushes over Payne’s directing methodology..
“He has the exceptional skill of being able to talk to each actor the way they need to be talked to,” he said. “Everybody has different needs or approaches and he is an incredibly sensitive human being to know what each person needs to get out of them what he wants.
“He’s a benevolent dictator as well. He’s in complete and utter control of everything going on, but you’d never know it he’s such a sweet and laid-back guy on the set.”
Then there’s the way Payne engages others.
“What I feel made a huge difference and sets him apart from any other director I’ve worked with,” Giamatti said, “is his choice to not use a video monitor during takes.”
Both men dislike the isolation of actors and crew working in one area while director, cinematographer and producers huddle around a video assist in another area.
Giamatti said Payne “doesn’t have a hierarchal way of thinking.” Thus, everyone’s “on the same playing field.”
“To him, everybody is important, everybody’s a part of the experience. It’s unique. But that’s him.”
It helps, Giamatti said, that Payne “likes actors.”
“I can tell you the experience of being directed by him is amazing because he’s there with you. There’s a lot of stuff where I’m alone in a room in that movie. He would stand there, watch me, and talk to me. The connection I developed with him I’ve never experienced again with a film director. As great as a lot of the people I’ve worked with are, nobody’s ever done anything like that.
“The connection you feel because of that is unbelievable. I love him, I really do.”
The actor’s eager to visit Payne’s home turf and muse.
“Indeed, yeah, I’m very curious to see Omaha and how it has informed Alexander and vice versa.”
Payne may just wing it with him here, saying, “We get along so well, I may not prepare that much. We could go out on stage and just start talking.”
Surprisingly, Sideways is the only time they’ve worked together. They nearly re-teamed in 2008 when Payne first tried setting up Downsizing. He cast Giamatti as the lead, Paul. But the free-fall economic recession put the high-concept comedy on hold. By the time Payne sought financing again the suits insisted on a marquee name to hedge their big-budget risk. Enter Matt Damon.
This Omaha reunion will not be the last time the actor and director collaborate if they have their way.
“I wish we could find an opportunity to work again,” Giamatti said.
“We definitely will,” said Payne, who has a script and part in mind for him.
“I know there is something. but I fear it may not work out. It’s all timing,” Giamatti said, sounding just like Miles.
Film Streams is screening a repertory series of Giamatti’s feature work at the Dundee Theater. On August 26 and 28 Sideways shows at the north downtown Ruth Sokolof Theater. There’s also a second repertory series of favorite Giamatti films not his own.
Visit filmstreams.org for schedules and tickets.
Read more of Leo Adam Biga’s work at leoadambiga.com.
Kindred spirits Giamatti and Payne to revisit the triumph of ‘Sideways’ and the art of finding truth and profundity in the holy ordinary
Kindred spirits Giamatti and Payne to revisit the triumph of ‘Sideways’ and the art of finding truth and profundity in the holy ordinary
©by Leo Adam Biga
Appearing in the August 2019 edition of The Reader (thereader.com)
Go-to character actor Paul Giamatti brings élan to his screen gallery of nerdy sidekicks and beleaguered Everyman types. It’s rare for someone with his hangdog looks to be a romantic interest. But in Alexander Payne’s Sideways (2004), he melts hearts with earnest desire and neurotic angst as lovelorn Miles.
He’s the sad half of a dysfunctional buddy team with Jack (Thomas Haden Church), whose frivolity masks hurt. Their on-the-road odyssey of regret, self-pity and debauchery is tempered by redeeming love. The Indiewood project surprised its makers by becoming a serious box office success and major awards contender.
Payne’s taking time from trying to get a new feature off the ground to join Giamatti for an August 25 public conversation accented by clips. This eighth iteration of the Film Streams Feature Event fundraiser unspools in the Holland Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m.
Sideways, celebrating its 15th anniversary, remains a highlight of the two men’s respective careers.
“It was a gorgeous experience,” Giamatti said by phone. “It was so much fun. It was joyous. And I think the movie feels that way because we were just making a movie for the love of making a movie – and that’s what was great about it. None of us felt we were making anything anybody would even care about that much. We cared about it. So much of that came from Alexander and his simple joy of being with actors and crew.”
By Sideways, each was a name with an identity – Giamatti’s animated sad-sack persona and Payne’s down-but-not-out milieu of misfits and searchers – that meshed well.
These cinema kindred spirits with a gift for understated wit that segues into broad comedy or high drama found themselves at parallel points in their artistic lives.
Giamatti hit his stride as a supporting player in the late-1990s. Payne made some waves with his debut feature, Citizen Ruth (1996), before fully getting on critics’ radar with Election, a 1999 cult classic enjoying retrospective adulation 20 years later. It’s the film that first brought Payne to Giamatti’s attention.
In Sideways Giamatti believably goes to the dark side of longing. Where childlike Jack is all about immediate gratification, reflective Miles broods over losses and Giamatti digs deep to mine this despair.
Giamatii and Church first met in-person on location in Santa Barbara wine country – after breaking the ice on the phone – where they had several days to bond before production began.
“I cast each independently,” Payne said. “But to have them develop some chemistry – because if no one believes the friendship between those two unlikely men then the film would not work – I had them come to location for two weeks before shooting, so we could rehearse together. But, more important, so they could hang out to play golf, see a movie, eat together. And they did.”
In the film the characters get involved with women they betray. Vain Jack, a former soap star, cheats on his bride-to-be with free-spirit Stephanie (Sandra Oh), who doesn’t know he’s engaged. Nebbish Miles, a teacher and writer reeling from a failed marriage and a book not finding a publisher, discovers in sensitive Maya (Virginia Madsen) a love he didn’t think possible anymore.
Church nails the self-absorbed miscreant Jack. Giamatti is dead-on as the yearning, naysaying Miles who wears his funk like a cloak. But, as Giamatti said, it is Miles who “opens up as a person through the movie in a really lovely, believable way.” Payne intuitively gives Giamatti the camera and the actor’s highly praised performance moves one to tears and laughter.
Giamatti’s work in Sideways established him as a character lead who can carry a film.
Producer Michael London brokered a package deal for the project. He optioned the film rights for the Rex Pickett novel. Payne and Jim Taylor wrote the script on spec. John Jackson cast for fit, not box-office .”Then,” Payne said, “we approached the studios and said. ‘Here is the screenplay, the director, the cast, and the budget – in or out?’ A couple studios said, ‘Why can’t you have bigger stars?’ Fox Searchlight rolled the dice and won.”
Giamatti is grateful Payne didn’t budge.
“He went back to the studio to tell them he wanted me and I think he anticipated he’d get a fight about that and he did get fights. But he stuck by it – me and Tom and Virginia and Sandra. These are the people he wanted.”
The ensemble made magic.
“Fifteen years later that movie is present in people’s minds as if it just came out last year,” Giamatti said. “It’s got amazing power.”
It marked a peak for Giamatti.
“I felt like if I couldn’t act again for some reason, my acting life would have been fulfilled having done this movie because it was such a purely pleasurable experience. Alexander’s a true filmmaker and that’s what makes him special.”
Payne’s admiration of Giamatti, whom he calls “my favorite actor,” runs deep.
“He’s just the perfect actor. He knows all of his dialogue backwards and forwards and can do it any which way – each take truthful, each take different. He could make bad dialogue work. When he read for me, I remember thinking he was the very first actor reading the lines almost exactly how I’d heard them in my head while writing them — and better.”
“He’s just a lovely guy and extremely well-read.”
Giamatti gushes over Payne’s directing methodology..
“He has the exceptional skill of being able to talk to each actor the way they need to be talked to,” he said. “Everybody has different needs or approaches and he is an incredibly sensitive human being to know what each person needs to get out of them what he wants.
“He’s a benevolent dictator as well. He’s in complete and utter control of everything going on, but you’d never know it he’s such a sweet and laid-back guy on the set.”
Then there’s the way Payne engages others.
“What I feel made a huge difference and sets him apart from any other director I’ve worked with,” Giamatti said, “is his choice to not use a video monitor during takes.”
Both men dislike the isolation of actors and crew working in one area while director, cinematographer and producers huddle around a video assist in another area.
Giamatti said Payne “doesn’t have a hierarchal way of thinking.” Thus, everyone’s “on the same playing field.” “To him, everybody is important, everybody’s a part of the experience. It’s unique. But that’s him.”
It helps, Giamatti said, that Payne “likes actors.”
“I can tell you the experience of being directed by him is amazing because he’s there with you. There’s a lot of stuff where I’m alone in a room in that movie. He would stand there, watch me, and talk to me. The connection I developed with him I’ve never experienced again with a film director. As great as a lot of the people I’ve worked with are, nobody’s ever done anything like that.
“The connection you feel because of that is unbelievable. I love him, I really do.”
The actor’s eager to visit Payne’s home turf and muse.
“Indeed, yeah, I’m very curious to see Omaha and how it has informed Alexander and vice versa.”
Payne may just wing it with him here, saying, “We get along so well, I may not prepare that much. We could go out on stage and just start talking.”
Surprisingly, Sideways is the only time they’ve worked together. They nearly re-teamed in 2008 when Payne first tried setting up Downsizing. He cast Giamatti as the lead, Paul. But the free-fall economic recession put the high-concept comedy on hold. By the time Payne sought financing again the suits insisted on a marquee name to hedge their big-budget risk. Enter Matt Damon.
This Omaha reunion will not be the last time the actor and director collaborate if they have their way.
“I wish we could find an opportunity to work again,” Giamatti said.
“We definitely will,” said Payne, who has a script and part in mind for him.
“I know there is something. but I fear it may not work out. It’s all timing,” Giamatti said, sounding just like Miles.
Film Streams is screening a repertory series of Giamatti’s feature work at the Dundee Theater. On August 26 and 28 Sideways shows at the north downtown Ruth Sokolof Theater. There’s also a second repertory series of favorite Giamatti films not his own.
Visit filmstreams.org for schedules and tickets.
Read more of Leo Adam Biga’s work at leoadambiga.com.
Metro class series features guest filmmakers and their films
Metro class series features guest filmmakers and their films
OMAHA, NE––If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to watch a film with its maker, then a summer Metropolitan Community College class series is your ticket to that cinema insider experience.
Filmmakers and Their Films is the name of the six-class series running weekly on Saturdays from June 15 through July 20 at MCC’s North Express in the Highlander Accelerator Building.
The non-credit adult Continuing Education class, which meets from 1 to 4 p.m., is taught by Omaha film author-journalist-blogger Leo Adam Biga (“Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film”). Biga has secured guest appearances by at least one Oscar-winner in retired film editor Mike Hill and a mix of narrative and documentary filmmakers. All are Nebraskans.
A work by each guest will be screened followed by a moderated discussion with the maker. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions.
The Filmmakers and Their Films schedule:
June 15
Mike Hill
“Rush”
Oscar-winning editor Mike Hill worked in Hollywood for many decades as one of two primary cutters on Ron Howard’s feature films. Hill shared the Academy Award for his work on “Apollo 13.” The now retired Hill will discuss his career and specifically his work on Howard’s 2013 Formula One race car drama, “Rush.”
June 22
Lew Hunter & Lonnie Senstock
“Once in a Lew Moon”
Lew Hunter was a network television executive who wrote and produced landmark TV movies. His book about screenwriting became a bible to aspiring scenarists. A UCLA class he taught included future filmmakers. Lonnie Senstock’s documentary captures hLew’s bigger-than-life personality and appetite for life.
June 29
Mele Mason
“I Dream of an Omaha Where”
Documentary and network news photographer Mele Mason travels the nation and world for her work. She also trains her eye locally, “I Dream of an Omaha Where” follows the collaboration between performance artist Daniel Beaty and Omaha families affected by gun violence in the creation of an original work of theater.
July 6
Nebraska Filmmakers Showcase
Sample the screen work of Nik Fackler, Omowale Akintunde, John Beasley, Camille Steed, Mauro Fiore, Tim Christian and other Nebraskans who make films. Some of these professionals will be on hand to discuss their work in front of the camera or behind the camera. Camille Steed will share her documentary “A Street of Dreams” about Omaha’s North 24th Street and Vikki White will share two of her short films.
July 13
Jim Fields
“Preserve Me a Seat”
During efforts to save the Indian Hills Theatre, Jim Fields documented the passion of historic preservationists, film industry professionals and movie fans. He then expanded the story to document similar efforts around the nation that turn into classic clashes between grassroots groups and big business interests.
July 20
Brigitte Timmerman
“The Omaha Speaking”
The few fluent speakers left in the Omaha Tribe are featured in this audience favorite documentary at film festivals, Brigitte Timmerman presents the urgency that fluent speakers and educators have in preserving and passing on this rich cultural legacy before it’s too late.
urprise film guests can be expected.
The registration fee is $10 per class or $60 for the entire series. Register at: https://coned.mccneb.edu/wconnect/ace/CourseStatus.awp?&course=19JUCOMM201A.
The class meets in Suite 306 of.Metro’s North Express at the Highlander Accelerator, 2112 North 30th Street, in North Omaha.
Local Black Filmmakers Showcase: Next up – short films by Jason Fischer on Tuesday, March 5 at 6 p.m.
Local Black Filmmakers Showcase
A February-March 2019 film festival @ College of Saint Mary, 7000 Mercy Road
6 p.m. | Gross Auditorium in Hill Macaluso Hall
Featuring screen gems by Omaha’s own Omowale Akintunde and Jason Fischer
Support the work of these African-American community-based cinema artists
Next up – three short films by Jason Fischer
Screening on Tuesday, March 5:
•The art film “I Do Not Use” pairs searing, symbolic images to poet Frank O’Neal’s incendiary words.
•The documentary “Whitney Young: To Become Great” uses the civil rights leader’s life as a model for kids and adults to investigate what it takes to be great.
•And the award-winning “Out of Framed: Unseen Poverty in the Heartland” documents people living on the margins in Omaha.
Screenings start at 6 p.m.
Followed by Q & A with the filmmaker moderated by Leo Adam Biga.
Tickets and parking are free and all films are open to the public.
For more information, call 402-399-2365.
Still to come – a screening of Omowale Akintunde’s award-winning documentary “An Inaugural Ride to Freedom” about a group of Omahans who traveled by bus to the first Obama inauguration. Plus a bonus documentary on the second Obama inauguration. Followed by Q&A with the filmmaker moderated by Leo Adam Biga. Date and time to be determined. Watch for posts announcing this wrap-up program in the Local Black Filmmakers Showcase.
Sandhills life gets big screen due thanks to filmmaker Georg Joutras and his “Ocean of Grass”
Sandhills life gets big screen due thanks to filmmaker Georg Joutras and his “Ocean of Grass”
©by Leo Adam Biga
Appearing in the March-April 2019 edition of Omaha Magazine
This decade has found Nebraska’s wide open spaces pictured on the big screen more than ever before. First came the melancholic, madcap road trip of Alexander Payne’s Nebraska in 2013. Then, in 2018, came the Coen Brothers’ Western anthology fable The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Earlier that same year Georg Joutras debuted his documentary Ocean of Grass about a year in the life of a Sandhills ranch family.
Where Payne and the Coens use Nebraska landscapes and skyscapes as metaphoric backdrops for archetypal but fictional portraits of Great Plains life, Joutras takes a deeply immersive, reality-based look at rural rhythms. Joutras celebrates the people who work the soil, tend the animals and endure the weather.
As Hollywood dream machine products by renowned filmmakers, Nebraska and Buster Scruggs enjoyed multi-million dollar budgets and national releases. Ocean of Grass, meanwhile. is a self-financed work by an obscure, first-time filmmaker whose small but visually stunning doc is finding audiences one theater at a time.
For his truly independent, DIY passion project, he spent countless hours at the McGinn ranch north of Broken Bow, Aside from an original music score by Tom Larson, Joutras served as a one-man band – handling everything from producing-directing to cinematography to editing. He’s releasing the feature-length doc via his own Reconciliation Hallucination Studio. In classic road-show fashion he delivers the film to each theater that books it and often does Q&As.
A decade earlier Joutras self-published a photo illustration book, A Way of Life, about the same ranch. The 56-year-old is a lifelong still photographer who feels “attuned to nature”. He operated his own gallery in Lincoln, where he resides. A chance encounter there with Laron McGinn, who makes art when not running the four-generation family ranch, led to Joutras visiting that expanse and becoming enamored with The Life.
Joutras, who grew up in Ogallala from age 11 on, had never stayed on a ranch or stopped in the Sandhills until the book. Those were places to drive past or through. That all changed once he spent time there.
Ogallala became his home when he moved there with his family after stints in his native New Jersey, then Florida and Texas, for his sales executive father’s jobs.
Joutras is not the first to create a film profile of a Nebraska ranch family, A few years before he moved to Ogallala, a caravan of Hollywood rebels arrived. In 1968, Francis Ford Coppola, along with a crew that included George Lucas and a cast headed by Robert Duvall, James Caan and Shirley Knight, shot the final few weeks of Coppola’s dramatic feature The Rain People. That experience introduced Duvall to an area ranch-rodeo family, the Petersons, who became the subjects of his 1977 documentary We’re Not the Jet Set, which filmed in and around Ogallala.
The McGinns’ ranching ways may have never been lensed by Joutras if not for his meeting Laron McGinn. Joutras had left a successful tech career that saw him develop a Point of Sale system for Pearl Vision and an automated radio system (PSI) acquired by Clear Channel. Having made his fortune, he retired to focus on photography. He did fine selling prints of his work. Then he met McGinn and produced A Way of Life – one of several photo books he produced.
Joutras only got around to doing the film after his family gifted him with a video camera. He began documenting things on the ranch. After investing in higher-end equipment he decided to ditch the year’s worth of filming he’d shot with his old gear to begin anew.
“It was evident immediately the picture quality was so much better than what I had shot the prior year that I was going to have to shoot it all again. So I put another year into shooting everything that goes on out there,” Joutras says. “I basically worked alongside the folks at the ranch. When something happened I thought I should capture, then I’d go into cinematographer mode.”
Upon premiering the film in Kansas City and Broken Bow, he discovered it resonates with folks, Sold-out screenings there have been followed by many more across Nebraska. The reviews are ecstatic.
“People are getting something out of this film,” he says, “They say it reflects the Nebraska ethos. I never did this film anticipating I’d make even one dollar on it. I just had this story I really wanted to tell. It’s certainly achieved much more than I thought it would. It’s done well enough that I’ve recouped pretty much what I put into it.”
Joutras believes his film connects with viewers because of how closely it captures a certain lifestyle. The rapport he developed and trust he earned over time with the McGinns paid dividends.
“I got the footage I did by being around enough and being embedded with them and being part of the crew that works out there. I wanted to earn my keep a little bit and they let me feed cows and run fence and check water. You have to be around enough to where you’re nothing special – you just kind of blend into the background.”
His depiction of a people and place without adornment or agenda is a cinema rarity.
“What I was really trying to capture was the feeling of this place – what it feels like to be out there among the people, the cows, the wind, the sun, the cold. Everything that makes it special. You’re seeing the real thing. Everything in the film is as it happened. Nothing was staged.
“These people are authentic. What they’re doing is authentic. Pretty much everyone you come in contact with in the ranching environment is their own boss. People don’t have to fake who they are. It’s really the American story of hard work trumps everything.”
The film makes clear these are no country bumpkins.
“They are some of the smartest people I know,” Joutras says. “They know how things work and are very articulate expressing their beliefs. By the end of the film I think you understand and admire them,”
He feels viewers fall under the same Sandhills spell that continues captivating him.
“The quality of life I think is exceptional. The pace of life slows down. You get to see real Americans doing real hands-on, get-in-the-mud work.”
He tried conveying in the film what he feels there.
“Out there I feel more in touch with nature and what’s important in life. I feel more grounded. I feel I can breath better. It’s really just a feeling of peace.”
The rough-hewn spirit and soul of it is perhaps best embodied by family patriarch Mike McGinn.
“Mike’s a great guy. He’s sneaky funny. There’s nothing I enjoy more than being in a pickup with him going out to feed cows, which can take half the day or more. He was always reluctant to talk on camera. His was the last interview we got, and it’s just gold. He has all the great lines in the film.
“We got him to watch the film and at the end he turned to me and said, ‘That’s my entire life right there.’ That was a great moment for me.”
Rather than hire a narrator to frame the story, the only voices heard are those of the ranchers.”because they said it better than anyone,” Joutras says.
Beyond the McGinns and their hands, the film’s major character is the Sandhills.
“From a visual standpoint there’s nothing that gets me more excited than attempting to capture really interesting and varied scenic shots that speak to people. The Sandhills are beautiful beyond belief in all their details – from the grass to the slope of the hills to the clouds coming across the prairie to the sound of the wind. It all works together.”
He acquired evocative overhead shots by mounting cameras to drones. The aerial images give the film an epic scope.
Ocean’s visuals have made him a cinematographer for hire. He’s contributing to three films, including a documentary about the women of Route 66.
Future Nebraska-based film projects he may pursue range from rodeo to winemaking.
Meanwhile, he’s pitching Film Streams to screen Ocean.
“We’ll get it into Omaha one way or another.” More out-of-state screenings are in the worked.
Nebraska Educational Television has expressed interest. PBS is not out of the question.
Joutras is just glad his “little film that can” is getting seen, winning fans and giving the Sandhillls their due.
Visit the film’s website at http://www.oceanofgrassfilm.com.
Watch the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNV6E5ihjP0.
Read more of Leo Adam Biga’s work at leoadambiga.com.
| 8.24 | FRI | 7:00 p.m. |
| 8.25 | SAT | 3:00 p.m. |
Local Black Filmmakers Showcase continues tonight with “Wigger”
Local Black Filmmakers Showcase featuring screen gems by Omaha’s own Omowale Akintunde and Jason Fischer
Support the work of these African-American community-based cinema artists
February-March 2019
College of Saint Mary
6 p.m. | Gross Auditorium in Hill Macaluso Hall
The work of award-winning Omaha filmmakers Omowale Akintunde and Jason Fischer highlight this four-day festival at College of Saint Mary.
Next up:
“Wigger” (2010)
From writer-director-producer:
Omowale Akintunde
Screening tonight – Thursday, February 28 @ 6 p.m.
Followed by a Q&A with flmmaker Omowale Akintunde.
Moderated by Omaha fllm author-journalist-blogger Leo Adam Biga.
Shot entirely in North Omaha, “Wigger” explores racism through the prism of a white dude whose strong identification with black culture ensnares and empowers him amidst betrayal and tragedy.”Wigger” is a spellbinding urban drama, which chronicles the life of a young, White, male (Brandon) who totally emulates and immerses himself in African American life and culture. Brandon is an aspiring R&B singer struggling to overcome the confines of a White racist, impoverished family headed by a neo-Nazi father who is absolutely appalled by his son’s total identification with Black culture. Additionally, he is oft times reminded of his position of privilege by virtue of being White in a White, racist society despite his adamant efforts to transcend “Whiteness”, institutionalized racism, and find a place for himself in a world in which he rejects Whiteness but is not always fully embraced by African American culture. Ultimately, this is the story of a young White, inner-city, male caught up in an emotional, psychological, experiential, and racial “Catch 22” determined to be granted acceptance in the life and culture with which he chooses to identify.
The Festival continues on Tuesday, March 5 with three short films by Jason Fischer taking center stage. The art film “I Do Not Use” pairs searing, symbolic images to poet Frank O’Neal’s incendiary words. The documentary “Whitney Young: To Become Great” uses the civil rights leader’s life as a model for kids and adults to investigate what it takes to be great. “Out of Framed: Unseen Poverty in the Heartland”documents people living on the margins in Omaha.
NOTE: The March 5 Jason Fischer program was originally scheduled for February 25 but was postponed due to inclement weather.
The February 26 program featuring Omowale Akintunde’s Emmy-award winning documentary “An Inaugural Ride to Freedom” was also postponed due to weather and will be rescheduled at a date to be determined later.
All films begin at 6 p.m. and will be screened in Gross Auditorium in Hill Macaluso Hall at College of Saint Mary, 7000 Mercy Road.
A Q & A with the filmmaker follows each screening.
Tickets and parking are free and all films are open to the public.
For more information, call 402-399-2365.
Local Black Filmmakers Showcase featuring screen gems by Omaha’s own Omowale Akintunde and Jason Fischer
Local Black Filmmakers Showcase featuring screen gems by Omaha’s own Omowale Akintunde and Jason Fischer
Support the work of these African-American community-based artists
February-March 2019
College of Saint Mary
6 p.m. | Gross Auditorium in Hill Macaluso Hall
The work of award-winning Omaha filmmakers Omowale Akintunde and Jason Fischer highlight this four-day festival at College of Saint Mary.
On Tuesday February 26, Akitnunde’s “An Inaugural Ride to Freedom” charts a trip Nebraskans made to D.C. for Obama’s historic first inauguration. On Wednesday, February 27, it’s the world premiere of Akintunde’s television pilot “It Takes a Village,” which turns black situation comedy on its head. On Thursday, February 28, his impressive dramatic feature debut “Wigger,”shot entirely in North Omaha, explores racism through the prism of a white dude whose strong identification with black culture ensnares and empowers him amidst betrayal and tragedy.
On Tuesday, March 5 three short films by Fischer take center stage. The art film “I Do Not Use” pairs searing, symbolic images to poet Frank O’Neal’s incendiary words. The documentary “Whitney Young: To Become Great” uses the civil rights leader’s life as a model for kids and adults to investigate what it takes to be great. “Out of Framed: Unseen Poverty in the Heartland”documents people living on the margins in Omaha.
Screenings start at 6 p.m. Q &As follow the February 27. February 28 and March 5 showings.
All films begin at 6 p.m. and will be screened in Gross Auditorium at College of Saint Mary, 7000 Mercy Road 68106.
Tickets and parking are free and all films are open to the public.
For more information, call 402-399-2365.
Local Black Filmmakers Showcase
Tuesday, February 26th
“An Inaugural Ride to Freedom”
Wednesday, February 27th
Premier screening:
“It Takes a Village”
Director Q&A with Omowale Akintunde
February 28th
“Wigger”
Director Q&A with Omowale Akintunde
Tuesday, March 5
Short Films (originally scheduled for Feb. 25)
“I Do Not Use”
“Whitney Young To Become Great”
“Out of Frame: Unseen Poverty in the Heartland”
Director Q&A with Jason R. Fischer
Holiday book sale: “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film”
Holiday book sale:
“Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film”
by Leo Adam Biga
For you and/or the film lover in your life
Retails at $26
Now on sale for $20 directly from me
(while supplies last)
Acclaimed filmmaker Alexander Payne uses satire to take the measure of his times. Award-winning writer Leo Adam Biga draws on 20 years covering the writer-director to take the measure of this singular cinema artist and his work.
Film scholar-author Thomas Schatz (“The Genius of the System”) said:
“This is without question the single best study of Alexander Payne’s films, as well as the filmmaker himself and his filmmaking process. In charting the first two decades of Payne’s remarkable career, Leo Adam Biga pieces together an indelible portrait of an independent American artist.This is an invaluable contribution to film history and criticism – and a sheer pleasure to read as well.”
National film critic Leonard Maltin said: “Alexander Payne is one of American cinema’s leading lights. How fortunate we are that Leo Biga has chronicled his rise to success so thoroughly.”
Available at this special sale price only by contacting me here or at:
402-445-4666 or leo32158@co.net
If you want a copy mailed to you, send a check for $25 (includes shipping and handling) made out to Leo A. Biga, along with your return address, to:
Leo A. Biga
10629 Cuming St.
Omaha, NE 68114
Please indicate if you wish a signed copy.
As screen veteran Yolonda Ross from Omaha enjoys today’s black renaissance, she gears for next big career move
As screen veteran Yolonda Ross from Omaha enjoys today’s black renaissance, she gears for next big career move
©by Leo Adam Biga
Appearing in the December 2018 issue of The Reader (www.thereader.com)
In her two decades as a working screen actress Omaha native Yolonda Ross has seen Black Cinema explode and women filmmakers assert themselves. She’s “making it happen” herself as a recurring character in Showtime’s The Chi after recurring parts in How to Murder Your Wife, The Get Down and Treme. She’s in HBO’s latest hit Random Acts of Flyness. She plays opposite Patricia Clarkson, James Caan and Toby Jones in the new indie feature Out of Blue.
Next spring, she breakouts behind the camera for her feature writing-directing debut, Scenes from Our Marriage. It shoots in her adopted hometown New York City with the same production team from the 2012 short Breaking Night she wrote-directed. She’s also executive producing and starring in Scenes. She and Clarke Peters are husband and wife theater artists dealing with professional challenges, jealousy, infidelity and race.
Omaha native Tim Christian’s Nightfox Entertainment is co-producing.
Ross left Omaha for NYC to pursue a fashion career. The multitalented artist (she also sings and paints) is glad for more opportunities today than ever.
“Yeah, this is a great time to be a black creative in our industry,” Ross said.
The emergence of Shonda Lynn Rhimes, Lena Waithe, Ryan Coogler, Jordan Peele, Terence Nance and other black TV-film players marks a wave if not sea change.
“Things have improved some,” Ross said. “I think it’s great there’s more people of color telling their own stories and not having pretty much the white race telling everybody else’s story. It makes for more specific voices for people to really see themselves on screen. It’s from a more authentic place because it’s coming from the people that live it.
“There’s still a lot of change that can happen though. There needs to be more people of color on the other side as far as green-lighting and distributing because you can produce things, but that still doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to get picked up.”
Ross has also seen her industry change in terms of how talent and content get discovered.
“Now having the Internet very much planted in the middle of everything, because you can stream everything, definitely has broadened the industry and made it smaller at the same time. There’s a whole crop of people that are stars now for not really doing anything but talking to a camera telling you about something, which is not actually acting.
“They’re just very different things.”
She sees a content glut.
“I feel it’s all very saturated right now. There’s an overload of material out there. You have to really look for the quality stuff. As far as acting, I feel if you are at the top of what you do in your work, the cream of the crop still rises no matter the clutter. You just have a lot more to get around than before because everybody’s jumbled up into one big industry.”
Concurrent with these trends are new funding, production, distribution mechanisms to help women get their work seen and supported.
“It’s wonderful,” said Ross, who’s worked with many women directors (Cheryl Dunye, Reed Morano, Carol Morley).
Her upcoming feature is getting love from Level Forward, a female-run production company supporting women’s stories and women of color.
Her project is also nurtured by Film Independent and its Fiscal Sponsorship Program, which opens the door to nonprofit funding for independent filmmakers and media artists. The Friends of Mary Riepma Ross (no relation) Media Arts Center in Lincoln, Nebraska made a grant to her project through the program.
“My film is also going to be in Film Independent Fast Track,” Ross said. The film financing market held during the LA Film Festival helps producers-directors “fast track” their projects via intensive meetings with executives, financiers, agents, managers, distributors, granting organizations and production companies.
Meanwhile, Ross, who’s worked with Denzel Washington, John Sayles, David Mamet and Baz Luhrmann, continues keeping good company. Being part of Terence Nance’s Flyness is the latest example.
“I think Terence is one of those voices we need to see. We need his Afropunk voice. We need voices like his. We need Lena Waithe’s voice. We need my voice. We need these different kinds of voices with black skin to show that we are not all the same. We don’t all think the same, we don’t all process things the same.”
Ross has prepared to make her own feature for years.
“I’m really psyched about it. We have a lot of things to say. I’m so ready. All the directors I’ve worked with, all the Sundance labs I’ve done, all the different mediums I’ve worked in – it all helps with making my own first feature film. Also, I feel I understand how to deal with other actors to get emotion without over-talking, overdoing things – but just letting people do their work.
“My experience working with so many people allows me to get the best actors, and they’re willing to do favors, which is great. In terms of production, I understand how to get things in an efficient way because I’ve dealt with so many different types of situations. I’m able to look at things from the outside in and from the inside out, where sometimes directors kind of get stuck in the writing or the set. I also have a strong team around me to keep me on track so that I can lock down and streamline what I want to get in a moment, in a scene.”
Doing Breaking Night was “extremely important,” she said. “I needed to learn every step in making a film – from writing it to getting it out to festivals. Not only did I learn everybody’s job, I dealt with everything from insurance to licensing music. I needed to understand the business side. It’s helped me preparing to make this feature. I can talk to my producers about different elements and guide the project in a way that will be bes as far as time, money, creatively, everything.
“I like the producing aspects of filmmaking.”
Her screen journey began in earnest with her breakthrough in the 2001 HBO movie Stranger Inside.
“When you’re in it, sometimes you don’t look back on it because everything is about the next job. You’re always striving for more. Whatever you did in the past is great, but it’s also the past. But I’m very thankful to be here and to be able to have touched people in various ways. I’m thankful to continue to work on great projects and to be able to support myself by doing my passion, my art.”
She’s never forgotten her roots.
“I’m always down to do things in Omaha. I was just there (May) at the Dundee Theater for a panel on women in television. Supporting artists there is totally my thing. I feel seeing people who grew up in the same setting as you living their dream is a really powerful thing.”
Visit yolondaross.com.
Read more of Leo Adam Biga’s work at leoadambiga.com.
Nebraska Screen Gems – Rediscover Oscar-winning 1983 film “Terms of Endearment” on Wednesday, Oct. 24
Screening-discussion of the most decorated of all the Screen Gems Made in Nebraska:
“Terms of Endearment” (1983)
The James L. Brooks film became a critical and box office smash. It brought legendary stars Jack Nicholson and Shirley MacLaine to the state along with then-newcomer stars Debra Winger and Jeff Daniels. Nearly two decades later, Nicholson would return to Nebraska to star in Alexander Payne’s Omaha-shot “About Schmidt.”
“Terms of Endearment” shot extensively in and around Lincoln, Nebraska.
Wednesday, October 24, 5:45 p.m.
Metro North Express at the Highlander
Non-credit Continuing Ed class
Part of fall Nebraska Screen Gems film class series
Register for the class at:
https://coned.mccneb.edu/wconnect/ace/ShowSchedule.awp?&Criteria…
This class in my fall Nebraska Screen Gems series will screen and discuss a film that established James L. Brooks as a feature writer-director to be reckoned with following his success in television.
Brooks stamped himself a modern movie comedy master with his 1983 adaptation of the Larry McMurtry novel “Terms of Endearment.” This feature film directorial debut by Brooks came after he wrote the movie “Starting Over,” which Alan J. Pakula directed, and after he conquered television by creating “Room 222,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Taxi.” For his first film as writer-director, Brooks wonderfully modulates the comedy and drama in a story about a young wife-mother whose marriage is falling apart and her widowed mother who unexpectedly finds new romance. Infidelity and terminal cancer get added to the high stakes. In what could have been a maudlin soap opera in lesser heads plays instead as a raw, raucous slice of life look at well-meaning people stymied by their own flaws and desires and by events outside their own control.
The film was partially shot in Nebraska. The exteriors intended to be in Des Moines, Iowa, Kearney, Nebraska, and Lincoln, Nebraska, were all filmed in Lincoln. Many scenes were filmed on or near the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, During filming in Lincoln, Debra Winger met the then-governor of Nebraska, Bob Kerrey, and wound up dating him for two years.
To a man and woman, the principal characters are unapolegetically their own strong-willed people. MacLaine is the vain, severe Aurora Greenway, whose fierce love and criticism of her daughter Emma (Winger) drives a wedge between them that their devotion to each other overcomes. Daniels plays Emma’s unfaithful professor husband Flap. Nicholson plays Garrett Breedlove, the carousing ex-astronaut neighbor of Aurora who, unusual for him, finds himself falling for a woman his own age when he discovers that his neighbor is not the brittle bitch he thought.
During the period “Terms” was in production, MacLaine and Nicholson were the two big names in the cast, but the lead, Winger, had only just become a star by virtue of her performance in “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1982). DeVito was a TV star from “Taxi.” Lithgow was still better known for his stage work than his screen work. Daniels was a newcomer.
The strong ensemble cast is headed by Nicholson and MacLaine, who inhabit their roles so fully that it’s hard to imagine anyone else in them.
Veteran Omaha stage actor Tom Wees has a speaking part as a doctor and ably holds his own with the heavyweight stars.
Of all the films ever made in Nebraska, “Terms” is by far the most honored. It was nominated for 11 Oscars and won five (for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay and MacLaine as Best Actress and Nicholson as Best Supporting Actor.) The picture also won four Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actress in a Drama (MacLaine), Best Supporting Actor (Nicholson) and Best Screenplay (Brooks).
Brooks followed this film with two more instant comedy classics: “Broadcast News” and “As Good as It Gets” and added to his TV legend by creating “The Simpsons.”
Here is a link to register for the class:
https://coned.mccneb.edu/wconnect/ace/ShowSchedule.awp?&Criteria…
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