Minnesota Proud To Create Walk of Fame on Hennepin Avenue

A new project honors Minnesotans in the entertainment industry.

Minnesota Proud will permanently recognize and celebrate the work of Minnesotans in the entertainment industry, whether in front of the camera, on-stage or behind the camera, with a "Walk of Fame" in the Hennepin Theatre District in Minneapolis.

This summer marks the beginning of memorializing these individuals with an artist-designed, high-quality terrazzo plaque imbedded in the sidewalk along the Theatre District. Residents and visitors will be able to walk through the District to view these plaques bearing the names of important Minnesotans.

Each celebrity artist recognized will have a unique event centered around their visit to Minnesota for the unveiling of their plaque.

The first event will be An Evening with Marion Ross on Monday, July 28th at 7 p.m. at MacPhail Center for Music Auditorium (501 South Second Street, Minneapolis). Ross is best known for her role as Marion Cunningham on HAPPY DAYS for which she was nominated for two Emmy awards, however her 60  year career includes work on Broadway as well as films made for TV and motion pictures.

Tickets to this event are free but do require reservations. Tickets for a private reception prior to the presentation, with an opportunity to meet Marion Ross are $25 per person. Please call 952-472-2703 or e-mail mnproud@hotmail.com for reservations and/or tickets to the reception. 

Upcoming events include An Evening with Tippi Hedren on Tuesday, August 12th and An Evening with Loni Anderson on Monday, August 18th. Please e-mail mnproud@hotmail.com for further information on locations and times.

HELP PRODUCE A DOC ON THE PROTESTS AT THE RNC



Join an ad-hoc volunteer collective of doc filmmakers, camerapersons and FCP editors to videotape, edit and produce a cinema verite doc of all the protests, person-in-the-street interviews, RNC delegate conversations,  during the Republican National Convention, Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will be protesting and demonstrating against the funding of deadly wars with our tax money, the slide into the worst economic situation since the Great Depression, and the erosion of our civil liberties.

Camerapersons with handheld HDV or DV cameras will shoot footage during the day, runners will bring back mini-DV or mini-HDV tapes
to our editing facility where digitizing of videoclips and editing will take place 24/7.  When this cinema verite doc is finished, it will be streamed on numerous websites, will be uplinked onto satellite, and then DVD copies will be made to be distributed to media outlets around the world before November 3rd.

Please contact Joan Sekler (documentary filmmaker from Los Angeles and coordinator of this project) ASAP if you are interested in participating in this important project.

Joan Sekler,
sekler@earthlink.net

DragonflyTV Wins Two Daytime Emmys

On Friday, June 13th, DragonflyTV, a locally-produced science show for kids, won two Daytime Emmys at the Daytime Emmy Creative Arts and Entertainment ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York. The Emmys were for single-camera editing (Ezra Gold, Steve Fischer, Brad Keely, Todd Grabe, and Scott Skaja) and the other for single-camera photography (Michael Phillips).

The show is produced by TPT.

http://www.tpt.org/

Coen Brothers "A Serious Man" Set to Shoot in Minnesota

Press Release

The Minnesota Film and TV Board is pleased to announce that the Coen Brothers film "A Serious Man" will be shot in and around the Twin Cities area beginning on September 8 of this year. The film will be released by Working Title Films and Focus Features. "The Minnesota Film and TV Board, its Executive Director Lucinda Winter, and many local industry advocates have worked hard to find creative solutions making it possible to bring this film to Minnesota in the face of increasing economic competition from other nearby states," said Coen Brothers producer Robert Graf. "We are really pleased that all our efforts were successful. It means jobs for Minnesota crew and all the other economic benefits of having a world-class production team shooting a studio feature here," Winter added. The film revolves around a family in a Minneapolis suburb in 1967, and both the Coens and producer Graf (all Minnesota natives) are very happy to be returning to the Twin Cities and excited about all the ways, both obvious and subtle, that the people and places of Minnesota will contribute to the production."We are very grateful for the efforts of the Film and TV Board and for the support of the Governor and the many key legislators who helped bring the film to Minnesota," said Graf. "My mother will be happy to have me around for a while." Joel and Ethan Coen's most recent film, "No Country for Old Men," won four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Their next release will be "Burn After Reading," a comedy starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich and Tilda Swinton to be released by Working Title and Focus Features in September. "A Serious Man" marks the Coens' first professional return to Minnesota since "Fargo" in 1995.

Minnesota-made Motion Picture 13 Hours in a Warehouse Receives the prestigious Gold Remi Award, signs Global Distribution Deal

For immediate release from Crotalus Pictures

On April 19^th during the 41^st Annual Worldfest Film Festival in Houston, Texas, Dāv Kaufman made history by being the first Minnesota filmmaker to win the prestigious Gold Remi Award in the best Fantasy/Horror feature film category. The Remi Awards began in 1961, and Kaufman now shares the ranks of other past Remi Award winners such as the Coen Brothers, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ridley Scott, Spike Lee, and Oliver Stone.

Shortly before this celebrated event, Kaufman negotiated and signed a global distribution deal with Maverick Entertainment Group to handle the global release of the DVD which is due in stores and rental locations, including Netflix and RedBox locations throughout North America in November, and the world shortly thereafter.

13 Hours in a Warehouse was shot entirely on location in an abandoned warehouse in NE Minneapolis in July 2007 with a cast and crew comprised entirely of Minnesotans. One of the most highly anticipated Minnesota-made films of the year, the World Premiere at the Riverview Theater on February 7^th sold out the 700-seat theater.

Reviews of the film have been favorable:

"Dāv Kaufman's directorial debut vibrates with a dark and frightening intensity!"

—Jim Carl, Nevermore Film Festival

"Dāv Kaufman takes the definition of a thriller to a whole new level!"

thefleshfarm.com

"*****! 13 Hours in a Warehouse is one of the most original supernatural horror films I've seen in a while from both the independent and major studios systems!"

—Filmarcade.net

Screenwriters Workshop Announces 2008 ScreenLabs Challenge

Contributed by Screenwriters Workshop

Screenwriters Workshop is pleased to announce the guidelines for the 2008 Screenlabs Challenge! This years theme is "Agony and bliss: Unrequited love." This should be an integral theme that runs through each submitted film/video. As with last years ScreenLabs Challenge, we require a particular location be included in all completed films/videos. For 2008 filmmakers must include the “Witch’s Hat” water tower in Prospect Park, Minneapolis, as a location.

Screenwriters Workshop designed ScreenLabs as a filmmaking development program intended to foster collaboration among writers, directors, producers, talent and crew through bringing original scripts to the screen. The Challenge was started in 2007 as a contest to empower screenwriters to produce their own scripts.

Submitted works will be judged by a panel of jurors who are film/video artists and professionals. Winners will be awarded the following cash prizes:

First Place - $1,000
Second Place - $500
Best Screenplay - $250
Audience Award - $250

Completed films/videos must be received at the IFP Minnesota Center for Media Arts no later than 4:00pm on Friday, August 15, 2008,

Visit http://www.screenwritersworkshop.org to find information about the 2008 ScreenLabs Challenge, download the application, and learn more about Screenwriters Workshop. Thanks and good luck!

"Killer Movie" trailer now online



The trailer for "Killer Movie", directed by Jeff Fisher, is now up on You Tube. "Killer Movie" was shot in Minnesota as "Dead of Night" in early 2007. Jeff and his producers had great support from the local crew and vendors. Take a look at the trailer and check back here for more information on the future release of "Killer Movie".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8iQDp6P8Go

MN Filmmaker First Indie Film Released On DVD After 10 Years!

Contributed by IFP MN

Minnesotan filmmaker and IFP Blockbuster/McKnight Film Fund Winner Garret Williams' first indie feature film, "Spark" was released this month by Warner Brothers on DVD, nearly ten years after it premiered at Sundance. It will be available at retailers like Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and Wal Mart and on Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, and many more sites.

SPARK is the first title under Warner Home Video's American Black Film Festival DVD Series label, from its partnership with Film Life Inc., an independent company recognized as the leading showcase of contemporary Black and urban films.

The film stars Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard, Nicole Ari Parker (Soul Food, King’s Ransom) and Brendan Sexton III (Boys Don’t Cry, Welcome to the Dollhouse). The film played numerous festivals, including Sundance and Berlin, won the Best Director prize at the Urbanworld Film Festival, and was a Sundance Filmmakers Lab project.