FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER LAUNCHES FREE NYFF FORUMS TO BE STREAMED LIVE ONLINE

Participants include Pedro Almodovar, Willem Dafoe, Famke Janssen, John Lithgow, John Landis, Bela Tarr and many more

New York, NY (Sept 30, 2011) – The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today a new, free sidebar series titled NYFF Forums, will take place throughout the festival with IndieWIRE, WGA, SAGIndie, PGA, New York Women in Film & Television and Kill Screen Magazine. This will include conversations and panels at Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater (144 W. 65th St) from October 1-15. The free (on a space available basis) forums will give audiences a chance to listen, and participate, in discussions about films with panelists that include industry veterans and notable attendees of 2011 NYFF including Pedro Almodovar, Willem Dafoe, Famke Janssen, John Lithgow, John Landis, Bela Tarr, and many more. Events at the Film Center Amphitheater (144 W. 65th St) will also be streamed live online at FilmLinc.com.

A special program of four sessions during the festival’s first weekend, Beyond The Screen, will explore how the digital age is altering the traditional role of the storyteller and audience. Beyond the Screen is a series of panels, presentations, and special events that seeks to draw together the makers driving these changes – the writers, producers, story architects, and designers in the fields of transmedia and video games – for a discussion of the state of the art as well as an exploration of the roll film has played in effected these emerging modes of storytelling…and how these emerging fields have effected the relatively new art of film.  

Please find a complete schedule below.

All events are free and will be handled on a first come, first serve basis. Continue to check for updates on filmlinc.com.

 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1

1:00pm          indieWIRE Meets: The NYFF Selection Committee

A conversation about the 2011 New York Film Festival with the event’s selection committee.

Participants: Richard Peña, Dennis Lim, Todd McCarthy, Dennis Lim, Scott Foundas and Melissa Anderson.

Moderator: Dana Harris, indieWIRE

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater (144 W. 65th St.)

 

5:00pm          Beyond the Screen, Session 1 – The Age of Immersive Storytelling

Not since the birth of television have the rules of storytelling been so up for grabs. As new technologies allow audiences to consume and interact with content across a variety of mediums, story-makers will expand their narrative universes across multiple platforms.  A panel discussion featuring some of the top creators in the emerging field of transmedia storytelling, this panel presents a perfect primer for those just discovering the medium as well a compelling glimpse into where it is headed.

Participants: Mike Monello, Jim Babb.

Moderator: Brian Clark, GMD Studios.

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater (144 W. 65th St.)

 

7:00pm          Beyond the Screen, Session 2 – Documentaries and Transmedia Activism

Through the last century documentaries have played a pivotal role informing the public on issues of social and global justice and have served as calls to action, mobilizing citizens and leaders.  As filmmakers and advocacy groups meet on the fluid platforms of the web, a new form of activism has emerged, dubbed “Transmedia Activism.” This panel will discuss this emergence, and the role traditional documentaries and web savvy advocacy groups will play moving forward.

Participants: Bruce Sinofsky (PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY), Hugo Soskin (producer, 18 DAYS IN EGYPT), Brian Newman (Sub-Genre.com, former CEO, Tribeca Film Institute).

Moderator: Marc Weiss.

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2

2:00pm          indieWIRE Meets: Director Gerardo Naranjo and actress Stephanie Sigman, of MISS BALA

Moderator: Brian Brooks, Managing Editor, indieWIRE

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

3:00pm          indieWIRE Meets: Xan Aranda, director of ANDREW BIRD: FEVER YEAR

Moderator: Dana Harris, Editor-in-Chief, indieWIRE

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

5:00pm          Beyond the Screen, Session 3 – Masters of the Universe: Word Building in Games (with Kill Screen Magazine)

Join a panel of video game critics, writers, and creatives behind titles known for their stories, engrossing plots, and much-loved characters for a lively discussion of the fine art of world building – the process of creating the people, places, and things that make up the false realities of games. What are the challenges presented in writing scripts that are one thousand pages long, quests where the players choose their own destiny, and plots that take forty hours to unravel instead of 90 minutes?

Participants: Tavit Geudelekian, Navid Khonsari, N'Gai Croal, Rob Dubbin

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

7:00pm          Beyond the Screen, Session 4 – Audiences as Story Participants

The revolution in storytelling over the last decade has been one of stories blowing off the screen and across other platforms.  Audiences can now view, respond and interact with characters and story worlds at various touch-points.  The evolution of storytelling is not just in how the story is presented, but also in the dynamic between those who tell and those who listen or watch.  When storytelling evolves into a sort of conversation – a dialog between the teller and the listener – how does that change the way media is consumed and what does it mean to create a more participatory experience?

 Participants: Jeff Wirth (Wirthcreative.com).

Moderator: Lance Weiler

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

TUESDAY OCTOBER 4

7:00pm          The Writers Guild East presents: Writing New York, Part I Gotham: The Quintessential Urban Landscape – Does the Shoe Still Fit Without the Grit?

Participants: David Koepp (SPIDER-MAN); Brian Koppelman (THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE); David Levien (ROUNDERS); Stephen Schiff (WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS).

Moderator: Scott Foundas, Associate Program Director, Film Society of Lincoln Center

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 5

5:00pm          indieWIRE Meets: Borderline Films: Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin, Josh Mond

Moderator: Eric Kohn, indieWIRE

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

6:00pm          indieWIRE Meets: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, directors of THE KID WITH A BIKE 

Moderator: Eric Kohn, indieWIRE

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

7:00pm          The Writers Guild East presents: Writing New York, Part II Supporting Character: NYC

Participants: Shari Springer Berman (THE EXTRA MAN, THE NANNY DIARIES); John Hamburg (ALONG CAME POLLY, ZOOLANDER); Mark Heyman (BLACK SWAN); Kevin Wade (MAID IN MANHATTEN, WORKING GIRL).

Moderator: Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

THURSDAY OCTOBER 6

7:00pm          New York Women in Film and Television presents: Avant Garde influences Mainstream Movies!

For generations experimental filmmakers have been developing new cinematic techniques that have redefined cinema. This panel of filmmakers, curators and educators looks at how the experiments and ground-breaking new filmmaking by the avant garde have influenced and been adopted by mainstream cinema.

Participants: Artist Ina Archer, Independent Media Artist; filmmaker Sara Driver (YOU ARE NOT I); producer Roberta Friedman; curator Jon Gartenberg; and MM Serra, Executive Director, Filmmakers Coop. 

Moderator: Drake Stutesman

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

FRIDAY OCTOBER 7

7:00pm          Willem Dafoe, actor, 4:44 THE LAST DAY ON EARTH

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

SATURDAY OCTOBER 8

4:00pm          Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director, ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLYA

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Studio  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

SATURDAY OCTOBER 9

1:00pm          Bela Tarr, director, THE TURIN HORSE

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Studio  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11

7:00pm          SAGIndie presents: To Union or Not to Union: Casting & Working with Actors in Low Budget Indies

Participants: Famke Janssen (X-MEN, GOLDENEYE), Bruce Weiss (INTERVIEW, SIMPLE MEN), Jay Van Hoy (BEGINNERS, OLD JOY), Paul Schnee (WINTER’S BONE, HIGHER GROUND), Mary Clay Boland (WENDIGO, THE BEST THIEF)

Moderator: Michael Sladek (SAGIndie NYC, CON ARTIST, DEVILS ARE DREAMING)

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 12

7:00pm          The Producers Guild of America East presents: Women Produce Well Developed Films

Drawing parallels between the trailblazing women of early cinema and today's leading women producers, this program will focus on how a producer develops a film including how producers find material and the considerations that are made to transform that material into a film. Clips from contemporary films produced by our panelists as well as clips from June Mathis' 1921 film Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will serve as case studies. Panelists will discuss the development process then and now and share back stories to provide insights into the multi-faceted role of the producer.

Participants: Producer and author Jane Startz, the co-founder of the international media company Scholastic Productions Inc. (TUCK EVERLASTING, ELLA ENCHANTED, THE MIGHTY); Producer Amy Robinson (AFTER HOURS, RUNNING ON EMPTY, FOR LOVE OF THE GAME, JULIE & JULIA); Jane Gaines, Professor of Film, Columbia University.

Julie Buck.

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14

5:00pm          indieWIRE Meets: Pedro Almodovar, director of THE SKIN I LIVE IN

Moderator: Richard Peña, Film Society of Lincoln Center

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15

4:00pm          Book-signing event with John Lithgow, “Drama: An Actor’s Education”

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater  (144 W. 65th St.)

 

6:00pm          indieWIRE Meets: Jeffrey Schwarz, director of VITO

Moderator: Basil Tsiokos

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater (144 W. 65th St.)

 

7:00pm          Plymptoons! Bill Plympton Talks about Drawing 

The animator will talk about his career as an independent animator, conduct drawing demonstrations and show some of his newest films and works in progress, plus some artwork from his new Rizzoli book, “Independently Animated, Bill Plympton”

Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater (144 W. 65th St.)