TEC CLASS FILM, ALUMS & TEACHERS AT SXSW

The official lineup for SXSW 2016 was announced today, and we're excited to see TEC alumni, TEC teachers and even our most recent Six-Week class project on the list!

Donald Cried | October/November 2015 Six-Week Class Project
*Narrative Feature Competition

From Nowhere | Edited by TEC alum Betsy Kagen | Assistant Editing by TEC alum Theresa McDermott
*Narrative Spotlight

Don't Think Twice | Edited by TEC teacher Geoff Richman
*Headliner

My Blind Brother | Edited by TEC alum Jenny Lee
*Narrative Spotlight

Sidemen - Long Road To Glory | Edited by TEC alum Bo Mehrad
*24 Beats Per Second selection

TEC ALUMNI & Teachers AT THE OSCARS!

We're excited to announce that a few TEC alum and TEC teacher films received Academy Award nominations this year:

Spotlight | Assistant Editing by TEC alum Andy Pang
Nominated for Best Editing, Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Directing.

Cartel Land | Edited by TEC alum Matthew Hamachek
Nominated for Best Documentary.

Carol | Edited by TEC teacher Affonso Gonçalves
Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Music.

Announcing our Narrative and Documentary teachers for January

We are very excited to announce that Julia Bloch will be teaching the narrative section and Geoffrey Richman will be teaching the documentary section of our January/February 2016 Six-Week class!

Julia Bloch is a New York-based film editor who has worked on a wide range of projects, including Terrence Malick's Palme d'Or winner The Tree of Life (also nominated for Best Picture at the 2012 Academy Awards) and Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin, which was awarded the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) prize when it premiered at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes. Bloch began her film career as an assistant editor at Zentropa in Copenhagen, where she worked with Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. In 2011 she received the Sundance Institute's inaugural editing fellowship in honor of Sally Menke. Bloch just finished editing Green Room—staring Anton Yelchin (Star Trek), Alia Shawkat ("Arrested Development"), and Patrick Stewart—which will be released in theaters this spring. 

Geoffrey Richman, A.C.E. is the editor of Murderball, Sicko, and The Cove - the 2006, 2008, and 2010 Academy Award nominees for Best Feature Documentary, and Time Freak - the 2012 Academy Award nominee for Best Live-Action Short Film. The Cove went on to win the Academy Award, after becoming the first documentary ever to win all four guild awards (Producing, Directing, Writing, and Editing). At the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Geoff was awarded the first-ever Special Jury Prize for Editing for his work on Murderball. The following year he returned to Sundance with a film he edited, God Grew Tired of Us, which won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for Best Documentary. Other documentary credits include 21 Up America, The Order of Myths, The Great Invisible, The Supreme Price, and Racing Extinction, Louie Psihoyos's follow-up to The Cove; Other narrative credits include Peter and Vandy, The Virginity Hit, Wainy Days, Tony Kaye’s Detachment, Mike Birbiglia's Sleepwalk With Me, and Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups. His most recent projects include the documentary Eating Animals, based on the book by Jonathan Safran Foer, and the Mike Birbiglia film Don’t Think Twice.

Click here to register. You can find out more about our six-week class here. 

TEC on the NYTimes best films of the year

Several films made by TEC alums and teachers have been named among "The Best Movies of 2015" by The New York Times:

Carol | Edited by TEC teacher Affonso Gonçalves
Cate Blanchett’s fiery eyes fixed on Rooney Mara in Todd Haynes’s “Carol” unleash more electricity than any look of love glimpsed in a movie this year. Stationed behind a Manhattan department store counter, Ms. Mara’s demure character, Therese, can’t resist such devouring scrutiny, and a forbidden passion ignites.

Spotlight | Assistant Editing by TEC alum Andy Pang
Even more acutely than “All the President’s Men,” “Spotlight” details the rigors of investigative journalism. The true story begins in the newsroom of The Boston Globe in 2001, when a team of reporters starts looking into a possible cover-up by the Boston Archdiocese of widespread sexual abuse of children by priests. The film follows the reporters onto the streets as they methodically uncover the devastating truth, which led to the downfall of Cardinal Bernard Law. Directed by Tom McCarthy, it has an extraordinary ensemble cast.

Experimenter | Edited by TEC alum Kathryn Schubert
“Experimenter,” as befits its title, is less a straight biography than a diverting gloss on human behavior, historical memory and cinema itself. It’s a story about a man whose work was haunted by the death camps, was conducted as the United States escalated its presence in Vietnam and was destined to speak to the ages (to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and beyond) because his subject — the all too human being — is reliably barbaric.

Seymour: An Introduction | Cinematography by TEC alum Ramsey Fendall | Produced by TEC alum Heather Smith
As its title suggests, “Seymour: An Introduction” doesn’t try to offer the final word on its subject, Seymour Bernstein, the pianist, composer, teacher, philosopher and ultimate New Yorker. Instead, in 81 transporting minutes, this intimate, big-hearted documentary draws you so completely into his world that you feel as if you know all there is to know, even as questions linger.

You can read the full New York Times article here. 

TEC at Sundance

We're excited announce that several films by TEC teachers and alums made it into Sundance Film Festival's 2016 lineup!

White Girl | Edited by TEC alum Michael Taylor
"Shot with a sharp eye for New York City, White Girl thrashes through an increasingly high-stakes game of hedonism where unspoken socio-economic tensions coupled with a blatant disregard for consequence converge into a shocking commentary on today's youth culture."

 

Newtown | Edited by TEC teacher Gabriel Rhodes
"There are no words of compassion or reassurance that can bring back the 20 children and six educators who lost their lives during the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. In Kim A. Snyder’s searing new film Newtown, we are given exclusive access into the homes of those who lost loved ones. They speak candidly about their grief, anger, and disbelief over what occurred and how nothing has changed in regards to basic gun control reform."

 
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Complete Unknown | Edited by TEC teacher Malcolm Jamieson
"Director and co-writer Joshua Marston, whose debut, Maria Full of Grace, won the Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, returns to the Festival with another probing character study. Marston elicits fascinating, nuanced performances... By turns sad and sweet, Complete Unknown is a melancholy meditation on identity, focusing on the perils and pleasures of self-reinvention."

 

Little Men | Edited by TEC alum Mollie Goldstein and TEC teacher Affonso Gonçalves | TEC alums Brian Young and Katrina Pastore, Assistant Editors
"Little Men is a critical yet empathetic look at the dangers of gentrification. Ira Sachs, director of Love Is Strange and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner Forty Shades of Blue, accentuates the natural vibrancy of Brooklyn and brings out the best in his actors... It's a triumphant return to the Festival for Sachs, who has made a film that never lets its abundant kindness interfere with its honest portrayal of a rapidly changing neighborhood."

 

Love & Friendship | Edited by TEC alum Sophie Corra
"Adapting Jane Austen’s unpublished early novella Lady Susan, Whit Stillman returns to the Sundance Film Festival (where his Metropolitan premiered in 1990) in top form with his latest comedy of manners. Kate Beckinsale excels in her role as the deliciously devious Lady Vernon and delivers each line with relish. With exquisite period detail and a script teeming with bon mots and witty dialogue, Love & Friendship is a rare—and rarified—treat."

 

Wiener-Dog | Edited by TEC teacher Kevin Messman
"Twenty years ago, Todd Solondz took the Sundance Film Festival by storm when Welcome to the Dollhouse won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1996 Festival. Since then he has gone on to establish himself as one of the most uncompromising voices working in film. Wiener-Dog is vintage Solondz, brimming with brilliantly caustic and truthful observations about the human condition. He has a unique ability to find humor in the darkest of subject matter, allowing an empathetic light to shine on it."

 

Dark Night | Edited by TEC alum Jeanne Applegate
"Tim Sutton, the writer/director of Memphis (2014 Sundance Film Festival), takes this ripped-from-the-headlines story of an all-too-common tragedy and immerses us in the emotional fabric of its young characters’ lives. Sutton deploys a keenly observant style and a recurring motif of guns to suggest the ever-present threat of violence in American life. With its lyrical images, evocative sound design, and mournful soundtrack, Dark Night is a quietly powerful elegy for the dead."

 

O.J.: Made in America | Edited by TEC teacher Bret Granato
"The producers of ESPN’s 30 for 30, along with award-winning director Ezra Edelman, tell the story of one of the most polarizing people in American history, O.J. Simpson. They explore how Simpson's rise and fall was centered around two of America's greatest fixations—race and celebrity."

Independent Spirit Award Nominations for TEC alums and teachers

The Independent Spirit Award nominations are out, and we're excited to see the TEC alumni and teacher films that have been recognized. 

Spotlight | Assistant editing by TEC alum Andy Pang
Nominated for Best Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing

Carol | edited by TEC teacher Affonso Gonçalves
Nominated for Best Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Screenplay

Mediterranea | edited by TEC teacher Affonso Gonçalves
Nominated for Best First Feature

Out of My Hand | edited by TEC alums Takeshi Fukunaga and Eugene Yi
Nominated for the John Cassavetes award, given to best feature made for under $500,000

TEC Alum film Nasty Baby at IFC Center

TEC alum Jeanne Applegate was an additional editor on "Nasty Baby," now playing at the IFC Center. You can find more information and here.  

"Nasty Baby" stars Sebastián Silva (writer-director) and Kristen Wiig, and is a New York Times Critics' Pick. Critic A. O. Scott writes:

Mr. Silva’s accomplishment is not just in pulling off a jarring plot twist, but in handling a change of tone that turns the movie — and the audience’s assumptions about it — upside down.

Read the full New York Times review here.

TEC at DOC NYC

Check out some exciting TEC alum films playing at DOC NYC this month!

King Georges | Edited by TEC alum Amanda Larson
7:00 PM, Mon Nov 16, 2015 | Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas
"After more than four decades, America’s finest French restaurant, Philadelphia’s Le Bec Fin, is struggling to keep up with changing tastes. Its tempestuous chef/owner Georges Perrier remains ambivalent: should he sell the restaurant and finally retire, or partner with his talented protégé, Nicholas Elmi (an eventual Top Chef winner), in an attempt to reinvigorate its faded glory King Georges offers an intimate portrait of a passionate culinary artist facing the inevitability of change."

Where to Invade Next | Edited by TEC alum Tyler Walk
9:30 PM, Thu Nov 12, 2015 | SVA Theatre
"Oscar-winning director Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11) returns with his first film in six years. It won acclaim at the Toronto and New York film festivals as his “biggest crowd pleaser” (Variety) and “most far-reaching” (New York Times), and will open in theaters later this year. Moore travels abroad as a one-man army seeking to secure other countries’ best ideas for America. His hilarious encounters raise questions about work, education, female leadership and more. Courtesy of Tom Quinn, Jason Janego and Tim League."

Making a Murderer | Directed by TEC alum Moira Demos
7:15 PM, Fri Nov 13, 2015 | Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas
"Netflix presents an exclusive preview of a captivating documentary crime series. Filmed over a ten-year period, Making a Murderer is an unprecedented real-life thriller about a DNA exoneree who, while in the midst of exposing corruption in local law enforcement, finds himself the prime suspect in a grisly new crime. Set in America’s heartland, the series takes viewers inside a high-stakes criminal case where reputation is everything and things are never as they appear. DOC NYC will screen the first two episodes of this ten-part series."

Seymour: An Introduction | Cinematography by TEC alum Ramsey Fendall | Produced by TEC alum Heather Smith
12:00 PM, Sat Nov 14, 2015 | Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas
2:30 PM, Tue Nov 17, 2015 | Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas
"Seymour Bernstein is a hidden treasure of New York City. He gave up a promising career as a concert pianist to teach music, leaving an indelible influence on his students. Among his admirers is Ethan Hawke, the versatile actor/director/writer, who allows us to experience Seymour’s gift for storytelling as he circles the question of why make art?” Whether aficionados or newcomers to the world of classical music, viewers have much to gain from this introduction."

Missing People | Edited by TEC alums Becky Laks and Adam Kurnitz
7:15 PM, Sun Nov 15, 2015 | Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas
5:15 PM, Wed Nov 18, 2015 | IFC Center  
"Martina, the director of a prominent NYC gallery, is an obsessive collector of the work of late outsider artist Roy Ferdinand, which chronicled a violent, sexual pre-Katrina New Orleans. When she meets Ferdinand’s sisters, they are drawn together by common experience: Martina too is haunted by the spectre of her own brother, the 14-year-old victim of an unsolved murder in 1978 Queens. David Shapiro intricately weaves together the stories of these two brothers in this indelible nonfiction mystery."