Congratulations to Eugene Yi, Margaret Metzger, and Faisal Azam for being chosen to participate in the new Karen Schmeer Diversity in the Edit Room Fellowship!
"Diversity in the Edit Room Program is designed to cultivate the careers of emerging assistant editors and editors from diverse backgrounds and experiences working in the documentary field."
More information on the program can be found here.
United Skates, March/April 2016 class film won the Audience Award for best documentary!
"Documentary United Skates, directed and produced by Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown, traces the influence of roller rinks on African American culture, and the fight to save the rinks that are still standing."
More information about the Audience Award winners can be found here.
We're thrilled to share that both of our June Six-Week class films have been selected!
Narrative
Short History of the Long Road
Directed by Ani Simon-Kennedy
Teenage Nola grew up living out of a van with her father Clint - two nomads against the world. When Clint suddenly passes away, Nola is confronted by the reality of life on the road alone. She learns that in order to survive, she'll need to expand her relationships beyond the doors of her van and decide whether or not to get off the road for the first time.
Documentary
Clean Slate
Directed by Jared Callahan
Two men in rehab battle for sobriety while trying to reclaim their lives through filmmaking. It’s like the movie Rudy, but instead of football, it’s about drug addiction and making movies.
The six-week Art of Editing class at The Edit Center gives students a unique opportunity to learn from experienced film editors while working on a real film. You can learn more about the class here.
We're excited to announce that two class films and a number of alumni projects are included at this year's Tribeca Film Festival!
Congratulations to all involved!
9 at 38 | Editor Eugene Yi (TEC Alum)
Juilliard-trained violinist Hyungjoon Won is about to realize a dream seven years in the making: a joint concert by North and South Korean musicians straddling the 38th parallel. But military aggression and apathy soon threaten to derail his plan.
Blue Night | Editor Malcolm Jamieson (TEC Teacher) | Assistant Editor Theresa McDermott (TEC Alum)
On the eve of a major performance at the iconic Birdland Jazz Club, Vivienne Carala (Sarah Jessica Parker) receives shocking news during a doctor’s visit that turns her world upside down. She struggles to deal with the devastation during rehearsals with her band and her manager (Common) and attempts to avoid her overbearing mother (Jacqueline Bisset). Finally, as she contemplates sharing the news with her ex and her teen daughter, Vivienne finds solace in the streets of New York City, where she reflects on her past and her future.
The Fourth Estate | Editor Matthew Hamachek (TEC Alum)
For the journalists at The New York Times, the election of Donald Trump presented a once in a generation challenge in how the press would cover a president who has declared the majority of the nation’s major news outlets “the enemy of the people.” Oscar-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus witnessed the inner workings of journalism and investigative reporting from the front lines during this administrations’ first history-making year.
The Last Storm | Supervising Editor Andrew Blackwell (TEC Teacher)
Mark, a 60-year-old fledgling storm chaser who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, sets out across the Midwest with his friend's nephew to search for a twister before the two- month season comes to an end.
Love Gilda | Assistant Editor Nina Guzman (TEC Alum)
There’s the beloved image of Gilda Radner: fearless, passionate, and iconic. And then, there are shades of Radner the public wasn’t privileged to know, beyond her beloved characters on Saturday Night Live: the Radner who struggled with success, fame, relationships, and a battle with ovarian cancer. In Love, Gilda, director Lisa D’Apolito uses rare personal recordings and journal entries to tell Radner’s story in her own words. Along the way, friends and admirers, including Amy Poehler, Cecily Strong, Lorne Michaels, and a host of others, offer their most cherished memories of this brilliant trailblazer. What results is a touching tribute to and a fascinating contemplation of the comedian’s enduring cultural impact.
Mr. Soul! | Editor Janah Elise Cox (TEC Alum)
From 1968 to 1973, the public-television variety show SOUL!, guided by the enigmatic producer and host Ellis Haizlip, offered an unfiltered, uncompromising celebration of black literature, poetry, music, and politics—voices that had few other options for national exposure, and, as a result, found the program an improbable place to call home. With participants’ recollections and a bevy of great archival clips, Mr. SOUL! captures a critical moment in culture whose impact continues to resonate.
Netizens | June/July 2017 Six-Week Class Film
Cynthia Lowen’s powerful documentary Netizens highlights three women as each wages war against one of the internet’s most malevolent forces: prevalent and un-policed misogyny, harassment, and stalking. Directed at thousands of women daily by way of social media, it lies in plain sight, and its ramifications never remain only online. The film deftly depicts not only the forms digital abuse can take, from non-consensual pornography to invasion of privacy, but also the consequences for its victims.
Radium Girls | Associate Editor Tia Douglas (TEC Alum)
Based on true events of the late ’20s, teenage sisters Bessie and Jo dream of faraway places while they paint glow-in-the-dark watch dials at the American Radium Factory in New Jersey. When Jo becomes ill, a larger, darker truth begins to emerge: She is not the first girl in the radium factory to become unwell. Bessie fights not only for her sister, but also for the rest of the women around her; she becomes a powerful advocate as she risks everything to stand up to the corporation that provides her family's livelihood.
Roll Red Roll | Additional Editor Sarah Devorkin (TEC Alum)
Like many small towns across the country, Steubenville, nestled in a valley in eastern Ohio, lives and dies by its high school football team. So when a teenage girl was sexually assaulted at a pre-season football party in 2012, no one came forward with information. True-crime blogger Alex Goddard set out to uncover the truth, piecing together the details of the crime through cell phone footage and photos that made their way to YouTube, as well as a nearly minute-by-minute account of events on social media. In the process, she uncovered both the perpetrators and the entire culture of complicity that enabled them. The ensuing trial, which made national headlines, cut to the very heart of nationwide debates about rape culture.
Song of Back and Neck | Editor Gary Levy (TEC Teacher)
Nice-guy Fred rarely gets through the day without falling to the ground with crippling back and neck pain. To top it off, Fred is not taken seriously by anyone, and a smarmy younger partner threatens his job of 25 years at his own father’s law firm. But, when the beautiful Regan comes in looking for a divorce lawyer, the two quickly form a bond, and she suggests he visit an acupuncturist—who discovers that Fred has a rather unique talent. As Fred finally begins to find relief for both his chronic pain and his persistent loneliness, he wonders if his problems are more psychological than physical.
The Tale | Editor Gary Levy (TEC Teacher)
Based on Fox’s own true story, The Tale follows Jennifer (Laura Dern) as she faces life-altering questions when a short story she wrote at thirteen forces her to re-examine her first sexual relationship––and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.
United Skates | March/April 2016 Six-Week Class Film
Off the radar of mainstream American culture, the African-American roller-rink community has thrived for decades in cities across the country, fostering community, hosting performances by groundbreaking hip-hop artists including N.W.A. and Queen Latifah, and serving as the incubator for a radical blend of skating and dance that stands is its own unique art form, complete with regional variations. Despite this remarkable history, skating is in a precarious state; re-zoning policies have led to rinks closing down, and the long-standing, still-present practice of admission policies have, historically, restricted attendance to racially-coded “Adult Nights and even discouraged or barred black patrons entirely. ” This electrifying work is at once a cultural history lesson, an investigation into racial politics, and a beautifully shot performance film.
Untogether | Editor Sophie Corra (TEC Alum)
Andrea is a recently sober writer whose career has stalled since she published her debut novel several years ago. She strikes up an affair with Nick (Jamie Dornan), a doctor-turned-writer who is hailed for his wartime memoir. At the same time, her sister Tara, a massage therapist dating an aging rock star (Ben Mendelsohn), finds herself inexorably drawn to a newfound religious zeal and, particularly, to a politically engaged rabbi (Billy Crystal).
Itzhak, edited by TEC Alum Helen Yum and additional cinematography by TEC Alum Ramsey Fendall, is now in select theaters.
Matt Seitz at Roger Ebert says, "The filmmaking itself displays mastery in the spirit of its subject. There's never a doubt that you're in the hands of craftspeople operating at the peak of their powers, even as each choice serves the work. Helen Yum's editing is superb. It displays a rare sense of how to cut musical performances and dialogue together in a way that preserves the continuity of the music while favoring the forward motion of the story."
You can read the full review here.
More information on the film and screenings can be found here.
Congratulations to Melissa Hickey for being selected as one of Sundance's 2018 Screenwriting Fellows!
"The Screenwriters Intensive provides emerging screenwriters with the opportunity to hone their craft in a two-day concentrated workshop focused on the further development of a fiction feature screenplay."
More information about Melissa and the program and be found here.
Thoroughbreds, edited by TEC Alum Louise Ford, is now in select theaters.
Variety says, "Thoroughbreds doesn’t look or sound anything like other teen-centric movies, but this is hardly a surface-only character study. Rather, the high-gloss, baroque world of Lily’s house serves as an elaborate mask for their true natures."
You can read the full review here.
Congratulations to Kristin Bye who is to receive the 2018 Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship at today's SXSW Awards Ceremony for her work on the feature documentary, Obit!
"Obit premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, screened at numerous festivals in the U.S. and internationally, and was released theatrically in 2017. NPR called the film “heartfelt and unshakable” and the New York Times chose Obit as a Critics Pick, describing it as 'observant, graceful and nonchalantly witty.'"
You can find out more about Kristin and the Fellowship, here.
With SXSW beginning today, we wanted to congratulate the following TEC alums on their success!
Friday's Child | Editor Chris Branca (TEC Alum)
Fresh out of foster care at age 18, Richie Wincott collides with the perils and temptations of a life apart. Becoming a prime suspect in a botched robbery, he discovers an impossible love in an unlikely friend. But with the police on his heels, and a sinister stranger threatening to reveal Richie's past, there may not be enough time to do the right thing.
Most Likely to Murder | Editor Mollie Goldstein (TEC Alum) - Assistant Editor Brian Young (TEC Alum)
A home for the holidays comedic murder-mystery... Billy (Adam Pally) comes back to his hometown expecting to be beloved like he used to be. Instead he finds his ex (Rachel Bloom) is dating the former high school outcast (Vincent Kartheiser), so Billy becomes obsessed with proving the outcast is actually the killer behind a mysterious local death. It's like Rear Window... for stoners.
Prospect | Editor Paul Frank (TEC Alum)
A teenage girl and her father travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. They've secured a contract to harvest a large deposit of the elusive gems hidden in the depths of the moon's toxic forest. But there are others roving the wilderness and the job quickly devolves into a fight to survive. Forced to contend not only with the forest's other ruthless inhabitants, but with her own father's greed-addled judgment, the girl finds she must carve her own path to escape.
Who We Are Now | Editor Betsy Kagen (TEC Alum) - Associate Editor Stella Quinn (TEC Alum)
Recently released from prison, Beth works with her public defender to get her son back from her sister who was awarded legal custody when she was incarcerated. As she navigates her way back into the outside world, Beth falls into a romantic fling with a traumatized Marine afraid of human connection and at the same time forms an unlikely alliance with a headstrong young woman on the public defense team who decides to take on her cause whether Beth likes it or not. These two people challenge, and eventually crack, Beth's tough exterior, making her realize that who she is isn’t about where she’s been, it’s about where she’s going.
On Tuesday, Fail State, edited by TEC alum Regina Sobel, had a special screening followed by a Q & A, at SXSW EDU.
Fail State | Editor Regina Sobel - Associate Editor Isabel Ponte - Additional Editor Betsy Kagen - Assistant Editors Stella Quinn, Kerri Green & Katrina Pastore
Fail State investigates the dark side of American higher education, chronicling the decades of policy decisions in Washington DC that have given rise to a powerful and highly predatory for-profit college industry. With echoes of the subprime mortgage crisis, the film lays bare how for-profit colleges exploit millions of low-income and minority students, leaving them with worthless degrees and drowning in student loan debt. Director Alexander Shebanow traces the rise, fall, and resurgence of the for-profit college industry, revealing their Wall Street backing and the politicians enabling them. Fail State is executive produced by news legend Dan Rather.
After it's global and European premieres at Sundance and Berlinale, Stephen Robert Morse from No Film School sat down with editor Marina Katz to discuss the editing process behind, MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A..
"You have to really trust your intuition and have a good process in place. I built long reels with my favorite moments and scenes from each period of Maya’s life. Then I cut those reels down more. Then you see what you have and what’s worth putting into the first assembly."
You can read the full article here.