Film historian David Thomson curates Money in the Blood, a month-long film retrospective examining the influence of classic Hitchcock films and their effect on cinematic taste (and tolerance).

Films screening at the Plaza Branch on Sundays at 2 p.m. include:

Psycho (1960) Get reacquainted with Hitchcock’s revolutionary masterpiece, starring Janet Leigh as an impulsive thief and Anthony Perkins as the owner/operator of the Bates Motel. Based on a novel by Robert Bloch. Rated R. (109 min.)

The Collector (1965) on August 8. A socially withdrawn butterfly collector decides to expand his scope, beginning a collection of human specimens. Starring Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar. Based on the novel by John Fowles. Not rated. (119 min.)

The Birds (1963) on August 15. Bodega Bay residents are suddenly confronted with a malicious full-scale attack by birds of all shapes and sizes. Hitchcock’s purest expression of an arbitrary universe. Starring Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor. Rated PG-13. (119 min.)

Blow-Up (1966) on August 22. A self-indulgent photographer inadvertently captures a murder on film. Starring David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave. Directed by Michael Antonioni. Not rated. (111 min.)

Frenzy (1972) on August 29. A sex criminal known as “The Necktie Murderer” is terrorizing London. In typical Hitchcock fashion, the police finger an innocent man who must prove his innocence by finding the real murderer. Based on a novel by Arthur La Bern. Rated R. (116 min.)

Films screening at the Central Library (14 W. 10th St.) on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. include:

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) on August 2. A macabre and eerie tale of a demented former child star living with her invalid sister, causing tensions that lead to murder. Starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Not Rated. (132 min.)

Mississippi Mermaid (1969) on August 9. On a French island off the coast of Africa, a tobacco farmer is scammed by his mail-order bride (Catherine Deneuve). He travels to Paris to track her down, where the scam continues to play out. Based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich. Rated PG. (123 min.)

The Conversation (1974) on August 16. A paranoid surveillance expert (Gene Hackman) becomes obsessed with a wiretap conversation. With Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Robert Duvall. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Winner of the Palme D’Or from the Cannes Film Festival. Rated PG. (113 min.)

Fatal Attraction (1987) on August 23. Glenn Close is not the victim in this thriller, which sees her character transform from mistress to knife-wielding psycho stalker. With Michael Douglas. Rated R. (119 min.)

Psycho (1998) on August 30. A faithful reproduction of the Hitchcock original, with few embellishments. Starring Anne Heche, Vince Vaughan, and Viggo Mortensen. Directed by Gus Van Sant. Rated R. (105 min.)

Films screening at the Central Library (14 W. 10th St.) on Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. include:

The Nutty Professor (1963) on August 7. A timid chemistry teacher (Jerry Lewis) stumbles onto a potion that transforms him into a suave and smooth-talking Romeo. But then there are the side effects… With Stella Stevens. Not Rated. (107 min.)

Klute (1971) on August 14. Donald Sutherland is a P.I. in search of a missing scientist. During the investigation, he crosses paths with a call girl (Jane Fonda) who quickly becomes a target. Directed by Alan J. Pakula. Rated R. (114 min.)

Taxi Driver (1976) on August 21. Robert DeNiro stars as an alienated young man whose search for acceptance and companionship gives way to violence once he realizes that he only has himself to talk to. With Harvey Keitel and Jody Foster. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Winner of the Palme D’Or from the Cannes Film Festival. Rated R. (112 min.)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) on August 28. A young FBI cadet looks to a locked-up psychiatrist turned serial killer for help in catching another killer. Starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Actor. Based on the novel by Thomas Harris. Rated R. (118 min.)

Jason Harper
Web Content Developer
Kansas City Public Library
www.kclibrary.org
816-701-3711
jasonharper@kclibrary.org
facebook.com/kclibrary
twitter.com/kcpublibrary

Acclaimed film historian and critic David Thomson speaks about the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock’s most important film, as detailed in his book The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder.

In the book, Thomson demonstrates how Psycho represented all America wanted from a film—and how it still does. He is the author of The New Autobiographical Dictionary of Film and Have You Seen…? A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films.

The book will be available for sale.

RSVP for free admission here:

http://www.kclibrary.org/event/david-thomson-moment-psycho

The web series NEXT! has been selected as a finalist at the NATPE LATV Fest, to be held in Los Angeles this July 12 – 15.  The National Association of Television Program Executives is a Hollywood mainstay, dedicated to the “creation, development and distribution of televised programming”.  The annual NATPE Market & Conference is considered to be the largest trade show event worldwide for buying and selling television and new media content.

NEXT! is the creative brainchild of Kansas City based casting director Heather Laird.  In an effort to showcase her work as an emerging director, Laird chose the internet as her medium.  “Getting a foot in the Hollywood door is an enormous challenge,” she said.  “The internet has become a way for some to slip in through the back.”  Laird partnered with T2 + Back Alley Films owner Teri Rogers as Executive Producer and VEMO’s Nicholas E. Vedros as producer to create a total of 6, six-minute web episodes.  “It’s a faux reality series,” said Laird.  “It’s a fictional realty show that tracks the trials & tribulations of real-life casting director John Jackson.”  Jackson, who is the primary casting director for the award winning director Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election, About Schmidt), also has a long acting resume under the stage name of “John Durbin”.

Other Kansas City companies who lent production support to the project include Liquid 9 and Wheeler Audio.  NEXT! was entered in the Comedic Webisode category at the NATPE LATV Fest and is one of three finalists selected.  NEXT! is at www.nexttheseries.com For more information about NATPE and the LATV Fest go to www.latvfest.net.

No fee is charged to be listed in this database and each listing is verified by the MO Film Commission staff.

The NEW guide will:

• allow crew and vendors a secure registration system
• maintain listings in as many as six categories
• be user friendly
• allow clickable links to crew and vendor websites
• offer printer-friendly listings
• assign each registrant his or her own unique ID and password to access listings

REGISTER NOW

Registration for this production guide will be available online July 12, 2010. In the interim, contact the Missouri Film Office Directly at mofilm@ded.mo.gov or (573) 522.1288 to locate listings and credits for Missouri crew members and support service providers.

Missouri Film Office
Andrea Sporcic, Assistant Director
310 W. High Street, Suite 720
Jefferson City, MO  65101
(573) 522-1288

Fringe Central is located at 1730 Broadway.

Members pay $10.00.

Non-members pay $20.00.

Ms. Levison is President of Business Strategies, a consulting firm that specializes in creating business plans for film and consulting on other aspects of independent filmmaking and distribution. Filmmakers at any level can benefit from this financing seminar!

Everyone at the Film Commission looks forward to seeing you there!

Unlike the profits of movies like “Avatar”, “Transformers” and “Twilight” which went to a handful of billionaire investors and conglomerates, our profits will be redistributed for the common good.  This profit will realistically equate to tens of millions of dollars for the Charities and we want to bring this to Kansas City.  (My brother and his family live in Lee’s Summit and I am from the midwest…)

With each film that we produce under the “ReDistribute” banner, we will be selecting one general “cause” to which profits will be directed.  For this first film, the cause we have selected is: Primary Education. 

I sincerely believe that if we are to properly address the myriad of challenges that face our country and our world, we must start by providing better education for our young people.  To this end, our film’s profits will be primarily divided among charitable organizations supporting and serving the needs of  students, teachers and mentors.  We will be partnering with three national Charities whose mission is to provide services to our most vulnerable children within those categories. 

85% of all profits will go to those three Charities, but we have reserved an additional percentage of the profits to go towards other organizations.  One of the ways that we want to give back is by giving 5% of all profits to the location where we shoot the film.  As you probably are well aware, most of the benefits that come from importing film shoots go to places like car rentals, hotel rentals, catering and established crew.  While we certainly believe in supporting those folks, we also feel strongly about supporting the people who usually get looked over.  With that in mind, our 5% will go directly to organizations like local food shelters, homeless shelters and schools. 

It is our intent to try and bring this project to Kansas City and we hope that the script that is ultimately chosen will allow that.  Even it that is not the case, if you partner with us, we would still like to give 1% to the Kansas City School District.  There is no way to guarantee what amount this would be right now, but recognizing that the typical ’successful’ film in Hollywood brings in excess of $60 million in profits, this translates to over $600,000 in funds for the School District.  If we were able to film in Kansas City, it would translate to millions of dollars for your local charities.  In this time of significant cuts to education and social programs, we think that this can be good news for the school, the students and the community.

All that we need from you is to simply help us build our Cause.  We are building this project from the ground up and the first task ahead of us is to collect one million ’supporters’ of the cause.  To do this, we have two opportunities for people to help.

1)  Go to our Cause page on Facebook at:  http://apps.facebook.com/causes/466032 and click on “Join Cause”.  We don’t want their money, need their political views or desire their home address.  We just need them to be counted as a person who supports our movement to “ReDistribute” the profits from our films to our selected causes. (this is the preferred avenue because it will make the most impact).
2)  If they are not a part of the Facebook wave, they can send a simple email to:  filmprofits4youtheducation@gmail.com <mailto:filmprofits4youtheducation@gmail.com> .  In the subject heading put ‘Supporter’ and in the body they can put their Name and your City/State.

Beyond this, we ask that they share this opportunity to make a difference with all of their friends and that they ask them to do the same.

What this does for us is show our potential investors and distributors that people are behind this film and that we can better predict its success.  By doing this, it also allows us to get amazing actors and crew to work on this film for less that their usual rates which, in turn, allows us to funnel more money to the Charities that we are partnering with.

Over the course of the next weeks and months, we will be updating everyone through the Facebook page, a blog and the film’s website (www.weReDistribute.org <http://www.filmsforcharity.com/> ).  We will post about the story itself, the people and organizations who are joining with us, the charities we have selected and future release information.  We won’t badger them and again we won’t ask them for money.  Ultimately, buying a ticket to watch THEIR film is all the financial support that we will need from them.

We are sending this out to a handful of communities to find the the best potential partner for this exciting project.  We ask that you discuss this with the Kansas City Community and if you are interested in partnering with us, we ask that you reach out to us as quickly as you can.  Unfortunately, we are only able to shoot this film in one city, so the sooner we have a response, the sooner we will lock in the location.  This will make a significant impact on the lives of young people and will allow us to develop our second project which is currently slated to focus on Charities addressing medicine, disease and treatments. 

Just to reiterate, all we need from a partner city is:

- Enthusiastic support
- Getting word to people in your area through the use of your media and social network resources.
- Asking them to join the Cause.
- Doing this in a thoughtful, yet motivated manner
- Willingness to work with us on tools to keep the budget low so as to better funnel profits to the Charities themselves.

So please, join us at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/466032 and ask your friends to do the same.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask myself or my partner, Spero Stamboulis.

Thank you!

Brian Ide
info@meriwetherproductions.com
310.795.4423

Spero Stamboulis 
spero669@hotmail.com 
818.795.9099

www.weReDistribute.org

Meriwether Productions L.L.C.
www.meriwetherproductions.com

Gordy Hoffman has conducted screenwriting workshops all over North America, Poland and the UK. He recently taught screenwriting at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the University of Kansas, and he’s serving as a panelist for the 2010 IFP Script to Screen Conference in New York City, as well as a judge for the 2010 McKnight Screenwriting Fellowships. He’s attached to direct CORDELIA, written by Melissa Brandt, a love story inspired by KING LEAR, and he’s writing a comedy set in the Gaza Strip. Gordy Hoffman founded the BlueCat Screenplay Competition in 1998 and remains its sole judge.

This workshop will consist of six writers each submitting a full screenplay to each member in advance of the workshop day, with plenty of time for each participant to read each other’s work. Gordy will also read the screenplays in advance and provide brief written feedback on each screenplay.

On the workshop day, we will go over each screenplay in depth, providing each writer with a constructive, specific reaction from the group on their current draft, as well as the suggestions on what they should address in the next rewrite.

Any questions? Email bluecatworkshop@bluecatscreenplay.com