COURT 13 HAS A NEW WEBSITE

After a year plus toiling in the dark of the cyberworld with narry an up-to-date website to our name, Court 13 has finally revamped itself for the digital era. We present:

WWW.COURT13.COM


Through the website you can join the Court 13 Army--host or demand screenings of our stuff in your area, spread the word about Court 13, and let us know what you think of what we make. Other new features include a featured movie and music video, streaming and downloadable versions of all our films and music videos (for free!), a steady stream of photos, a section about the Court 13 School for Young People (including the kids' videos), and of course the episodic and legendary story of Court 13, finally committed to text. All praise the mighty Josh Penn for the system overhaul. Browse away!

NOTE TO ALL READING THROUGH BLOGSPOT: This marks the sad end of Court 13's blogspot activity. All new blog posts will appear in the new site, on the homepage, and also with more space to breathe at www.court13.com/news. Please bookmark accordingly.

"Glory at Sea" Plays Middle East Film Festival in Abu Dhabi!

Just when one might think "GLORY AT SEA" had exhausted its world tour, the kind folks at the Middle East International Film Festival accepted us into their blinged out arms. Court 13's Benh Zeitlin and Viktor Jakovleski were cordially invited to decadent Abu Dhabi for the festivities, where Benh claims it rains inside a mall, and the hotel toilet flushers are solid gold. Recession be damned.


A world-class festival, headquartered at the lavish Emirates Palace Hotel, the MEIFF gave Benh and Viktor a chance to see top notch short films in the finest of theaters, dine and comiserate with film friends new and old (ie long lost Court comrade Kellanas Quinn and veteran Boogie Club founder Jamie Dutcher), and generally pretend like they were heirs to an imaginary fortune.

Then Benh came home to New Orleans, where he lives with a pig, drinks Miller High Life, and uses a rusty old bike to get around.

VIDEO: Benh and Lucy at the Sundance Directors Lab

Right, so you follow the blog, and you know "Sundance" is a good thing, but you read about us getting into the Directors/Writers/Producers Lab, and think - What the hell is that? Who's there? What do you do all day? Does it involve beakers?


Thanks to YouTube, the Sundance Institute has demystified much of the process with a few short videos. In this one, Benh and Lucy hash out the challenges the "BEASTS" script presents, with actors like Eddie Rouse, and advisors like Christopher McQuarrie (screenwriter, "The Usual Suspects"). Enjoy!*

*New Yorkers will be pleased to see that Benh reps Katz's hard in this video.

"BEASTS" Receives Rooftop Films Filmmakers Fund Grant!

A great day in Court 13 land! It has come to our attention that the Court's new project "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD" has been blessed with the generosity of Rooftop Films and bestowed their Filmmakers Fund Eastern Effects Equipment Grant!


What does this mean? It means that during production we will be given use of one whole grip truck's worth of equipment (courtesy of Eastern Effects) for free-- a load off our back, for sure.

Rooftop Films is a longtime friend of Court 13, with this only being the latest case of their benevolence. Rooftop saw "GLORY AT SEA" through hard times, awarding us a life-saving grant when money was short, and they've been kind enough to screen many a Court 13 film on many a New York rooftop--including "EGG," "I GET WET," and "GLORY AT SEA." Check out what they're up to at www.rooftopfilms.com.

If you live in New York, you have no excuse not to go see a compelling, hard-to-see movie on a starlit rooftop in Brooklyn. Plus, it's officially Fall now! Outdoor movie weather!

September Court 13 E-mail Update

Here is an email we sent out to all Court 13 supporters. If you're a regular reader of our blog, most of this will not be news to you.

If you'd like to join our e-mail army, please click
HERE.


Hello Court 13 Faithful!

Well it should be no surprise that more than four months have passed since our last "monthly" Court 13 update (The good news is we didn't clog up your inbox though, right?). But don't confuse our lack of communication with inertia, because its source is in fact the opposite: we've actually been busy as bees down here in New Orleans... and so our silence is even less excusable. Let's just get right to the bullet points:


* Benjamin Harold Zeitlin attended the Sundance Directors/Screenwriters Lab in June, in service of the new project, "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD." The Directors Lab allowed Benh to work out directing challenges his and Lucy's script presents, and workshop certain scenes with talented actors. Benh was grateful to work with Ms. Paula Jai Parker (whom you might recognize from her turn as Craig's girlfriend in the film "Friday"), and Mr. Eddie Rouse (star of Court friend Zack Godshall's film "Low and Behold," and frequent player in the movies of David Gordon Green). Following the Director’s Lab, he and "Beasts" co-writer Lucy Alibar took part in a 2nd Screenwriters Lab to continue workshopping the script.

* In July, Court 13's Josh Penn and Dan Janvey were 2 of 6 fellows selected for the 2009 Sundance Creative Producers Initiative. The initiative was created to support a new generation of emerging indie producers. While in Utah, they took part in the Producer’s Lab, which is designed to develop a producer's creative instincts and to evolve their communication and problem-solving skills. At the labs their mentors included Paul Mezey ("Maria Full of Grace," "Half Nelson"), Jay Van Hoy ("Old Joy," "Treeless Mountain"), Lynette Howell ("Half Nelson," "Phoebe in Wonderland"), and Mary Jane Skalski ("The Visitor," "The Station Agent"). As fellows they also attended the Creative Producing Summit and received grants for further development and pre-production. The fellowship will continue throughout the year as they will receive ongoing creative and strategic support from industry mentors and the Sundance staff, and will attend the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

* Spike Jonze tapped Court 13’s Ray Tintori to write/direct an adaptation of Shane Jones debut novel “Light Boxes," which Jonze will produce. The book tells the story of a war waged by a group of balloonists against the seemingly endless month of February. As a side note, Court 13 is officially very excited to see Jonze’s new movie, “Where the Wild Things Are”.

* Work continued full steam ahead on "BEASTS": Benh and Lucy got their creative distributaries flowing by spending a writer's retreat on top of a bait shop, in the very bayous where the film takes place and where we aim to shoot. The final script is in its last stages. Meanwhile we continue to scour every Parish, community center, and school system in the great state of Louisiana, looking for that one girl, one special girl, who can fill the very large (but actually very small) shoes of the main part in the film (If you know any half-black Cajun 8 year-olds who can gut a fish and operate a fanboat, please contact michael@court13.com IMMEDIATELY).

* It was unusually hot in May.

* The Court 13 Acting/Moviemaking Program for Young People, or whatever we're calling it today, concluded with the Premiere of each of the three classes' short films at Colton School. Parents applauded, children blushed, fun was had by all. We have been proudly rolling these movies out on the blog the last couple of weeks; the final one was posted a couple days ago--check it out by clicking here. The kids look forward to appearing in the upcoming feature film.

* Ray Tintori's long-awaited music video for MGMT's "Kids" (filmed at Colton and in New Orleans) was released, and a small blogstorm ensued. Click here to see what all the fuss was about.

* Religious war broke out in the comments section of the "Glory at Sea" YouTube page (page 2 is where the fun is). Everyone is being very amiable and tolerant, as is standard practice for YouTube discourse.

* Court 13 Omnimedia's music video for "Evident Utensil," by Chairlift, was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award, for Best Breakthrough Video. Ray directed, Bob Weisz produced and datamoshed. We expect EVERYONE to tune in to the prestigious ceremony this Sunday, to support your favorite Omnimedia organization.

That's it for right now! Development on the film charges ahead, army and weapons will be assembled in winter, and the big sha-bang will go down in early spring. Stay tuned! You can keep slightly less sporadic tabs on us by visiting our blog at court13news.blogspot.com, and you can catch even more news and silly status updates by facebooking us here.


Thanks for your time, and may you have a good harvest season.



Love,

The Court

MOVIE: "The Big Hide-and-Go-Seek" - by the Thursday class

Our final presentation from the kids of the Court 13 Acting/Moviemaking After School Program... "The Big Hide-and-Go-Seek" is a whodunit set in the halls of Colton, where a legendary Hide-and-Go-Seek game went down, recalled "Rashomon"-style by its participants on a daytime talk show.


Starring Alexis, Kenneth, Larielle, Margot, Saida, Tione, and Wynton.

MOVIE: "Detention = Doom" - by the Wednesday class

As promised, here's the next kids' film- this one from the Wednesday class. It's a horror/psychological thriller/movie about a talking grasshopper. Sort of.



Starring Antonio, Bryonna, Eddie, Nicholas, Ryan, and Terielle.

MOVIE: "Scaredy Cat Superheroes" - a film by the Tuesday class

As mentioned in prior posts, Court 13 runs what could best be termed an after school program for the handful of talented, creative, and hilarious kids who we have chosen to appear in our next big feature film... the name of which you already know, if you read this blog at all, so I will refer to it with a title that one might use to tout its concept in one of those anxious Hollywood pitch sessions--"FIDDLER ON THE LEVEE."

Before they appear in "FIDDLER ON THE LEVEE," we wanted to give these micro-performers some experience acting and making a movie. So each of the three classes came up with their own story ideas for a short film, and, as a kind of final project, we shot them, edited them, and premiered them. We think they're pretty good!

We'll be rolling all three out over the next couple weeks, but for right now, here's the Tuesday class movie, "SCAREDY CAT SUPERHEROES." Starring Amari, Jonshel, Lauren, Nathan, Nyla, Theodore, and Mr. Chris. We tried to drop it on YouTube, but music industry tyrants jacked our audio before you could say "fair use." You can protest the handicapped version here.

Look for the Wednesday movie, described as "Polanski-esque," and the Thursday movie, a murder mystery without any murder (we swear, parents), coming soon.

Evident Utensil nominated for Best Breakthrough Video at the MTV VMAs

Court 13 Omnimedia’s music video for Chairlift’s "Evident Utensil" has been nominated for “Best Breakthrough Video” for this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. The video was directed by Ray Tintori and produced and special effected by Bob Weisz.

Please watch and vote for the video at
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2009/breakthrough-video/

Court Beasts Sundance / Sundance Courts "Beasts"

As I type these very words, two of the producers of the upcoming "Beasts of the Southern Wild," Dan Janvey and Josh Penn, are on a mountain in the land of the Utes, gleaning knowledge from the independent film world's best and brightest.

Yes, that's right, we've batted for the cycle: after the invaluable chance to attend both the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the Directors Lab, Court 13 was also accepted into the Sundance Producers Lab! The press release from Sundance has more info:

The Feature Film Creative Producing Lab, a five-day Lab for narrative feature film producers takes place at the Sundance Resort in Utah from July 20-24, 2009, just prior to the [Creative Producing] Summit. The Lab is designed to develop a producer's creative instincts in all stages of film production and to evolve his/her communication and problem-solving skills. The fellows will also attend the Creative Producing Summit, the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, receive ongoing creative and strategic support throughout the year from industry mentors and the Feature Film Program staff, and also grants for further development and pre-production.

Needless to say, we are very very appreciative and humbled by this opportunity--Benh came back from the Directors Lab gushing with praise for what Sundance has set up on that there mountain. We fully intend to jam all over it.

PHOTOS: Premiere of the Kids' Films!

On July 2nd, friends and family joined the 19 kids enrolled in the Court 13 Acting and Moviemaking School for Young People, for the premiere of their films. The turnout was remarkable--around 100 people showed up at the Colton Auditorium! The films were shown in order of the classes that conceived them: "Scaredy Cat Superheroes" (Tuesday), "Detention Equals Doom" (Wednesday), and "The Big Hide-and-Go-Seek" (Thursday).



These are some pictures from the event. You can spot Mr. Chris Kaminstein, Michael Gottwald (two of the teachers of the classes), as well as Benh Zeitlin, and most of the 19 kids.

Court 13's Filmmaking Class Movie Premiere

Over the past 3 months Court 13 has been teaching Filmmaking and Acting Classes at the Studio at Colton to 3 groups of children ages 7-12 from the New Orleans area. As the final project of the classes, the kids led the creative process of making films; they came up with the ideas for the stories, acted in all the roles, and even improvised some of their own dialogue.

The 19 children in the classes were selected from over 300 kids who auditioned from a wide variety of public schools in Orleans, St. Bernard, and Jefferson Parishes. In addition to taking the class and making these films, all of the students in the class will appear in Court 13’s feature film.

This Thursday, July 2nd at 7:30 PM we will be premiering the 3 movies the children made in the classes. The premiere will take place in the Auditorium at the Colton School at 2300 St. Claude Ave. The event is free and open to the public.

Below are a few photos from the classes.

The C13 Acting and Moviemaking School for Young People

In the tradition of our unique community approach to filmmaking, this spring we have introduced the inaugural class of the Court 13 Acting and Moviemaking School for Young People... aka the Court 13 After School Program, aka COURT THIRTEENIES: THE NEXT GENERATION.

Through grass roots outreach into Orleans and Jefferson Parish schools (not to mention flyers at po' boy shops and radio shout-outs on Q93), Court 13 garnered the interest of over 300 young, aspiring actors who came in to audition. From these we selected just 19 who will not only appear in our upcoming feature film "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD" (in which kids feature prominently), but who have also been attending weekly acting and moviemaking classes at Colton, taught by Court 13. Not only do they get to flex their acting muscles, but they get to learn first hand what it takes to make movies, so they know what's going on when it's shoot time.


Included are a couple exercises we did with the Tuesday class. In the first, we came up with a line for each child, and practiced the idea of multiple takes by having them act the line out in multiple ways. What's included is each of their best takes. The second exercise gave each of them a chance to direct their own scenes: they would tell the actor what they wanted, decide what would happen in each shot, as well as where to place the camera and when to cut.

The classes will culminate with the creation of short films borne of the kids' own ideas--much like the Zeitlin micro-classic "I GET WET." We hope to premiere these short films in a few weeks at Colton with the friends and family of the kids, and share them with you shortly thereafter!

PHOTOS: "Kids" by MGMT - Behind the Scenes

Court 13 Omnimedia artiste Ray Tintori has just dropped another talk-of-the-town MGMT video, the long awaited "Kids" jam. Click HERE to watch if you haven't already.

The video was born and bred in New Orleans, with much of the monsters created and shot in Court 13's temporary home, the Studio at Colton. Many a Court 13 associate put their blood, sweat, and fears into bringing those monsters to life; check out this here photo slideshow for a glimpse behind the scenes.



All particularly dope pictures are the property of Mr. Ben Rowland. Do the right thing and check the other stuff on his website, here.

PHOTOS: Location Scouting

As part of preproduction, the Court makes frequent trips south of New Orleans--not only to scout locations, but to conjure inspiration for our next feature film, "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD."


Naturally we thought we'd share a few of the pictures we've snapped down there, with this here slideshow. Courtesy of the wild lands of Grand Isle, Mamou, Honey Island, Venice, Abbeville, Atchafaleya, Chauvin, Cypermore Point, Des Allmands, Gibson, Isle de Jean Charles, West Pontchartrain, with special guest, the Boomtown Belle.

Cary Fukunaga Premieres "SIN NOMBRE" in New Orleans

An admittedly long overdue post-

Court 13 friend Cary Fukunaga recently paid us a visit here in New Orleans, and between the racquetball and the Cajun food, also found time to premiere his new feature, "SIN NOMBRE." A nearly packed house gathered at Canal Place on the opening night of May 8, to watch the film and stick around for the Q & A Cary held afterwards. A picture from the premiere of Court 13ers (from left to right) Josh, Michael, Dan, and Justin, with Cary in the middle, below a somewhat silly marquee:


Cary came into the Court 13 world somewhat serendipitously; when we were in the last of 4 legs of production on "GLORY AT SEA," he and 3 blessed friends from NYU came down to help us finish it. Cary was the Director of Photography for the underwater sequences, and, with risk of tooting our own horn, we think he did a pretty good job to say the least.



"SIN NOMBRE" is the story of a young Honduran girl making the dangerous trip from her homeland to the United States, via the trains of Mexico--where she meets an exiled member of the deadly Mexican gang Mara Salvatrucha 13, on the run himself. Besides being visually stunning, the film has an attention to the detail of the reality it depicts that is based in anything but conjecture; Cary went down to Mexico and actually rode these often hijacked, gang-ridden trains himself.

Everyone should see this film, and not just because we're friends with Cary. It's one of those movies that sheds light on an experience that would otherwise never infiltrate most people's consciousness; it breathes visual life into subject matter that we rarely hear about, and when we do it's relegated to the words of print journalism or pundit talk fests. But right now, it is (probably) playing at a theater near you. Do your darndest to go see it.

Actors Confirmed for Sundance Director's Lab!

As announced in a prior post, Court 13's Benh Zeitlin was fortunate enough to be selected for the Sundance Directors Lab for the upcoming Court project, "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD." A large part of the lab provides Benh the opportunity to workshop the script with some talented actors ideal for the main parts. The parts to be filled in this case include WINK, a high spirited, semi-devoted father and fully devoted crazy man, who wages war against FEMA, mother nature, and the disease in his body; and BATHSHEBA, a no nonsense pedagogue who rules over her schoolchildren with an iron fist and the stunning form of a lady bullfighter.

Recently, the Court received word that its two top choices to workshop these parts would be able to do so with Benh in Utah. Wink and Bathsheba will be rehearsed by.... (drum roll please) EDDIE ROUSE and PAULA JAI PARKER.

Mr. Rouse's credits include "GEORGE WASHINGTON," "UNDERTOW," Zach Godshall's "LOW AND BEHOLD," and "PINEAPPLE EXPRESS."

Ms. Parker's credits include "FRIDAY," "DON'T BE A MENACE TO SOUTH CENTRAL WHILE DRINKING YOUR JUICE IN THE HOOD," "GET ON THE BUS," and "HUSTLE & FLOW."

Needless to say, the Court is extremely excited and humbled to be able to rehearse the script with such fine thespians. We leave you with a clip of the inestimable Ms. Parker, from the cinematic masterpiece "Friday."

"Of Aurochs and Angels... the Refuge of Art."

The new Court 13 project "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD" is a tale of many things: fathers and daughters, drunks and cowards, pirated ferry boats, hallowed half-time shows, ramen noodles and gator grits. But on a certain, larger scale, it's also about the beginning of the End. And the agent of the apocalypse in this case is none other than a fearsome, beastly creature called an Aurochs.

Long extinct, the aurochs has thawed from its icy grave thanks to the global thermometer's steady climb, to rise again and wreak havoc on Canada... and then our young protagonist's beloved Southern environs.

Sound far-fetched? The stuff of mere fantasy? I present the following video, from National Geographic. Undead woolly mammals: coming soon to a tundra, or cinema, near you.



You can get the skinny on the whole discovery here, at the National Geographic page: photos, the mammoth lab, and a piece on mammoth cloning.

The real aurochs actually have a well carved out place in cultural history, recorded by everyone from the cavemen at Lascaux to Vladimir Nabokov. In fact, we'll leave with a quote about them from Julius Caesar, describing their ferocity in "Gallic Wars":

"These are a little below the elephant in size, and of the appearance, color, and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied. These the Germans take with much pains in pits and kill them. The young men harden themselves with this exercise, and practice themselves in this sort of hunting, and those who have slain the greatest number of them, having produced the horns in public, to serve as evidence, receive great praise. But not even when taken very young can they be rendered familiar to men and tamed."

JUST IN: New Project Accepted to Sundance Directors' Lab!

A momentous occasion for the Court krewe..

Court 13's current feature film project "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD" was just accepted into the Sundance Directors' Lab! This means that in June, writer/director Benh will flee to Utah from New Orleans (which is just so pleasant in the summer), to meet up with co-writer Lucy and workshop the new film with a hand-picked, top-notch, crack team of advisors/filmmakers/rocket scientists. Beautiful cinema will result.

The press release on the Sundance website gives a brief synopsis of the film:

Beasts of the Southern Wild/Benh Zeitlin (co-writer/director) and Lucy Alibar (co-writer), U.S.A.: In this epic tale, a ferocious ten-year-old girl refuses to evacuate her home in the Louisiana Delta without her dying father as the Southern Apocalypse descends upon them.

The news was also picked up here and here. This is Benh and Lucy's second time to Utah--back in January they had the opportunity to attend the Sundance Screenwriters Lab for the same project (The Screenwriters' Lab is like the Directors' Lab... but for screenwriters).


Go Court, and onward to the land of the Utes!

Road Trip: Acadiana Film Festival, and Points South

Court 13 hit the road last weekend, first spending a couple nights in lovely Lafayette, Louisiana, at the Acadiana Film Festival. Acadiana is a small but welcoming festival, celebrating local filmmakers and the rich history of the area. "GLORY AT SEA" won the prize for Best Short Film (thanks Acadiana!), but the real treat was the Cajun dance parties and getting to see a few of the other films screening at the festival. Court friend Zach Godshall premiered his new documentary, "GOD'S ARCHITECTS," about five men who each build their own beautiful, peculiar monuments to God and love... It garnered 3 thumbs up from our crew; we really cannot recommend this film highly enough. Click here for some clips from the movie.


From Lafayette, we headed southeast to do some scouting for the upcoming film. Swamps, airboats, gators, good food, and beautiful landscape abounded. A rough summation of our voyage is below.


Stay tuned for some pictures from this and earlier scouting missions.

April Court 13 E-mail update

Below is our monthly e-mail update that we recently sent out. If you regularly read the blog, you may already know much of the information contained in it.

If you would like to sign up for our mailing list please go to

http://court13.com/mailman/listinfo/court13_court13.com

HELLO AGAIN COURT 13 FAMILY!

Apologies for the long hiatus! Especially since there have been a lot
of exciting things going on in the Court 13 empire since our last
update.... For instance!:

*In January, Benh and playwright Lucy Alibar were two of 12
screenwriters selected to take part in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab
in Utah, where they workshopped Court 13’s first feature film script
tentatively titled “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD,” which they are
currently co-writing. The Lab gave them the opportunity to receive
mentorship from some of the industry's top screenwriters. Variety
Magazine covered Benh's trip to the lab in this nice little blurb:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118001729.html?categoryid=3584&cs=1

*In February, much of Court 13 moved back to Louisiana to start work
on the early stages of the feature film. Part of this process
involved the launching of The Court 13 School- an after-school acting
and moviemaking class for New Orleans area children. Each of the 20
kids in the class will be featured in “Beasts of the Southern Wild."
The classes aim both to prepare them for acting in and and being on
the set of a feature film, as well as allow them to collaboratively
make their own short movie in the process. Our first classes started
last week.

*"GLORY AT SEA" has also continued its barnstorming of the film
festival circuit. In the last month the film won:

* Best Narrative Short Film at the Cinequest Film Festival in San
Jose, California

* Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the Florida Film
Festival in Orlando, Florida


You can always catch what we're up to, in news, photo, or video form,
at our blog:

http://court13news.blogspot.com


And, we're finally on Facebook! Happy 2004! Click below to show your love:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Court-13/43357059961?ref=nf


Finally, we also wanted to take this opportunity to ask for your help with one of Court 13’s closest partners. For those of you not yet acquainted with Rooftop Films, it is a truly unique non-profit organization that works year-round not only to plan for its spectacular summer festival, but also to serve as an unparalleled resource to filmmakers, film fans, and the New York film community in general. The Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund gave the first grant to "Glory at Sea," without which it is likely we would have never made the film. Rooftop was also the first organization to jump to Benh’s aid after his terrible accident last year, and was at the forefront of the fundraising effort to help pay Benh’s medical bills.

If you value the work done by Court 13 or are as passionate as we are
about fostering and expanding the community of independent film, please
consider making a donation to Rooftop Films. (And yes, it's tax
deductible)


http://rooftopfilms.com/donate.html


Thanks, always, for your support,

Josh


Court 13
www.court13.com

If you would like to Unsubscribe, please go to (and scroll to the bottom
of the page):
http://court13.com/mailman/listinfo/court13_court13.com

PHOTOS: New Art Show at Colton! Work by Court 13 Artists featured!

This past Saturday, the Studio at Colton--the community arts center where Court 13 rests its mighty headquarters--had its first art show, and Court 13 was well represented.

For a half a year now, Colton has provided studio space for local artists; Saturday's event marked the first public gallery showing of the work created in and around Colton. Said art show was engineered and pulled off masterfully by Court 13's Annie Evelyn, whose own work was on display as well as that of Court 13 corps members Eliza Zeitlin, Bob Weisz, Kate Ferencz, and Z Behl.



If you look closely in the photos you might catch a glimpse of Eliza, Annie, or Z, not to mention Eliza's brother Benh, Z's roommates / Court 13 friends Lila and Charlotte, and of course one of the stars of "GLORY AT SEA," Miss Mama Jo.

The show will be up till the first week of May, so come on by and see what we're up to!

Death to The Tinman Tattoo

This is a real tattoo that a fellow in St. Louis will have on his body for the rest of his life. The tattoo depicts a scene from the Court 13 film "Death to The Tinman".

Wow!

"Glory" Floats to Victory in Florida!

"Glory at Sea" recently made a whirlwind tour of the great state of Florida, grateful to be chosen to screen at both the Sarasota Film Festival and the Florida Film Festival in Orlando.

The trip ended fortuitously, as "Glory" took home the gold at the FFF, winning the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short!

So long Florida, and thanks for all the oranges!

Fishing in Cajun country

The new feature length Court 13 project, tentatively titled "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD," is among many things, an epic tale of man vs. nature, with Cajun country as its backdrop.

So, in a certain way, one might consider the following video our film's teaser trailer. Lassez le bon fish roule!



Beats Crocodile Dundee's method for sure.

The Court's Home Earns Some Front Page Ink

Court 13's world headquarters, better known as the Studio at Colton (and formerly Charles J Colton Middle School, pre-storm) made it above the fold this week in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. An extensive feature article dominated the front page of the local periodical, detailing all the who what and how that goes down at Colton.

Court 13 is just one of many artistic outfits that has mounted a shingle. As per the article:

Several times a week, more than 150 students, mostly high schoolers from the Recovery School District, spend time at the Studio at Colton -- a fledgling arts center where an idle campus has been transformed into work space for dozens of artists.

The article also dishes out some words of wisdom from Court associate Annie E, who also works and teaches out of Colton, pimping the rides of neighborhood youth through her re-upholstery class.

Read the whole article here.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Only a few days overdue, Court 13 wishes you a merry close to the Carnival season. From the Krewe de Vieux parade out of our home studio at the Colton School, to chasing chickens and cutting a rug with the good folks of Eunice, Louisiana, on Mardi Gras day, it has been an eventful last couple of weeks in New Orleans. But now, the floats are retired, the beads are around the bedposts, and the work of valuable cinema continues.



In any case, Happy Mardi Gras!

VIDEOS: "Evident Utensil" by Chairlift, and "Tinman" for FREE!

Court 13 Omnimedia artist Ray Tintori is out with his latest music video, a visual stimulus package to the tune of "Evident Utensil" by Chairlift.

You should watch it in hi-resolution by going here. But if you're lazy and prefer low resolution to high, I've also placed it below:



Also, brand news: Rae Rae's Sundance-able short, "Death to the Tinman," is SECRETLY available to be watched for free, at no iTunes cost to you, riiiiiiight HERE.

Do you like making comments? Cause we like reading them!

Photos: The Court at Colton

This past fall, Court 13 found its perfect spiritual home: the Colton Studio, on St. Claude Avenue in New Orleans.

Colton was a public school that closed shortly after Katrina. Now it has been reopened as 3 floors of studio space, inhabited by some of the area's artists as a place where art and community come together. Every artist at Colton teaches free classes to the public, and Joe New Orleans can walk in whenever he wants to peruse the wonders on display.



These include Court 13's own "Saints of Atlantis" exhibit (showcasing a gussied up version of the raft from "Glory at Sea," and featured currently on the Court 13 website here), Court ally Annie E's furniture art, a light spectacular from the guy who did the fireworks at the Beijing Olympics, and much more.

The Court itself inhabits 2 to 3 rooms at a time - 2 for workshopping, 1 for brainstorming. And most importantly, to help storm the brain, Colton is located a stone's throw away from the Daiquiri Shop at Elysian Fields and St. Claude.

Come up and see us some time.