Friday, July 24, 2009

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.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

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.