Finishing Heaven, the project of the Sept/Oct 2007 six-week class, recently premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The VARIETY review of the film singled out editor (and TEC alum) Amy Foote for how she "smoothly weaves in and out of the new and old footage." Finishing Heaven is directed by Mark Mann and produced by Independent Spirit Award winning producers David Shapiro and Laurie Gwen Shapiro. It has been purchased by HBO and will be airing in 2009.
The Understudy, the project of the July/August 2007 six-week class, was awarded "Best Original Score" by the composers' union of France at the Avignon Film Festival. TEC instructor Kate Eales edited the film after the course, and it was directed by husband-and-wife team Hannah Davis and David Conolly. Next, the film will be screening at the Cambridge Film Festival in September.
Frozen River, winner of the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature, starring Melissa Lo (21 Grams, The L-Word) and the project of the May/June 2007 6-week class, will be playing in the BAM at Sundance series June 8th. BAM at Sundance Series highlights the best of the Sundance Film Festival and provides sneak peeks of work being developed with Sundance Institute support.
The Recruiter (formerly titled The Army Recruiter), which was a project of the July/August 2005, September/October 2005, and May/June 2006 six-week classes at the Edit Center, will be screening in several places this summer. It is currently playing at the Cinema Village in New York City, and in June the film will open in the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. In July, The Recruiter will begin airing on HBO. The film was directed by Macarthur-winner Edet Belzberg and edited by Edit Center alumni Adam Bolt and Chad Beck (who edited the Oscar-nominated documentary No End in Sight).
Trucker, the project of the September/October 2007 class, premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. The film, starring Nathan Fillion (Desperate Housewives) and Michelle Monaghan (Made of Honor), was co-produced by Edit Center alum Riva Marker. The New 20, previously titled Fast Company and the project of the November/December 2006 6-week class, will be premiering at Outfest 2008 in July. You Belong to Me, previously titled Mama's Boy and the project of both the July/August 2006 and March/April 2007 classes, won the award for best First Narrative Feature at FilmOut, the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Nursery University, formerly titled Diaper League and the project of the March/April 2007 6-week class, was recently reviewed in VARIETY. Writer John Anderson commented that the film "...may seem like science-fiction: Strange, possessed beings stumble sleepless through a landscape of plenty, willing to sell their kidneys to get their kid into the proper pre-school.... and Nursery University plays it sympathetically, like a Spellbound in training pants." He continued that the film is "...handled with such good humor and humanity by Simon (the director) that you start to forget that what you're so involved with is the question of where some very short people...are going to be finger-painting for the next eight months."
Moving Midway, a TEC class project of Summer 2006 and edited by alum Ramsey Fendall, has been selected to appear in the New Directors/New Films festival in New York, which is co-presented by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. This is one of the most prestigious and selective venues for new films in the U.S.
Congratulations Frozen River for receiving the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at this year's Sundance Film Festival! Frozen River, directed by Courtney Hunt, was the May/June 6-week class project. Congrats to everyone who worked on it! Also premiering at Sundance was The Recruiter (formerly An American Solider), edited by Edit Center alumni, Chad Beck and Adam Bolt. It received a positive review in VARIETY and THE ADVOCATE, "For all the talk about putting a "human face" on the war in Iraq, there may be no better vehicle than The Recruiter, the devastating new documentary from director Edet Belzburg." Congratulations are also in order for TEC Alum Michael Taylor and TEC instructor Geoffrey Richman. They edited The Order of the Myths, directed by Margaret Brown, which Manohla Dargis of the NY TIMES said was "...Handsomely shot and intelligently edited."
The Edit Center is pleased to announce the class projects for the upcoming January/February 2008 six-week course. The first film will be Sorry, Thanks, starring Wiley Wiggins (Dazed and Confused, Waking Life), and Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha). Sorry, Thanks is a film about real relationships-ambiguous, underwhelming, incidental-and the people who change us...then exit just as quickly. It is directed by Dia Sokol who was the in-house producer for acclaimed director Errol Morris for four years (The Fog of War, The Thin Blue Line) and has worked as a producer for Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me). The second film will be Garbage Dreams, a feature documentary that celebrates the richness, strength and vitality of Egypt's community of indigenous garbage collectors, known as the Zaballeen or “garbage people.” Garbage Dreams is directed by Mai Iskander. Iskander has worked with legendary Academy-Award Nominee Albert Maysles on the documentary Profiles of a Peacemaker and Academy-Award Nominee Edet Belzberg on her documentary The Unofficial Man. She has also worked on dozens of features such as Men in Black and As Good as It Gets.
Two of The Edit Center's past class projects will be competing at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. Frozen River, competing in the narrative category, was directed by Courtney Hunt and edited by TEC instructor Kate Williams (with help from the May 2007 six-week course). Competing in the documentary category is An American Soldier, which was formerly titled The Army Recruiter. Directed by MacArthur-winner Edet Belzberg, An American Soldier was a class project in both 2005 and 2006, and was edited after the class by TEC alums Adam Bolt and Chad Beck.