Blog

The Los Angeles-based film collective, We Make Movies is bringing its signature Writers Workshop back to the San Francisco film community. The nine-year-old LA film collective, which has executive produced dozens of films in Los Angeles and Canada, and collaborated on hundreds more, is excited to partner with the esteemed Artists Television Access, with the intention of serving the independent filmmakers of the Bay Area on a regular basis. Ideally, the group is looking for projects heading into pre-production within six months, but scripts at any stage are welcome. Develop and tighten your script in the workshop and from there We Make Movies can provide assistance throughout the production process in the form of services at super competitive rates (equipment rentals, post production services, production insurance, DCP creation & deliverables, editing tutorials, legal agreements). “This is about more than just giving artists the tools and community to improve and complete their projects, but to promote and maintain a sustainable, supportive community,” says Chad Kukahiko, the Chief of Operations of We Make Movies. “This is about making the movies that you want to see.” The program will feature scripts by Bay Area writers, being read by Bay Area actors, getting feedback from other Bay Area artists. To participate or attend the March 29th (4:30 -730pm) workshop, please submit ASAP (to act in a piece and/or submit a script), using this link  https://www.wemakemovies.org/workshops/sanfrancisco. This workshop is free and open to the public.

We Make Movies:Founded in 2009, We Make Movies (WMM) is a free Los Angeles-based community of independent filmmakers, writers, and actors dedicated to empowering creative professionals and providing the resources and connections to help them get their movies made. In Los Angeles, WMM members meet weekly to participate in readings of new work, rehearsal workshops, works-in-progress feedback nights, and one-off workshops such as “How to Pitch Your Film” with industry professionals. In addition, WMM is the first community funded production company awarding thousands of dollars to filmmakers through their Rolling Production Fund challenges. WMM has directly funded 28 films, co-produced over 30 films, and had hundreds of series, pilots, shorts and features come through the pipeline, as well as their first 1/2 hour comedy pilot, OFF THE GRID. entirely developed, written, cast and crewed from members in the community. In addition, WMM is Associate Producers on over 60 films per year. More than 100 shorts, six full-length features, and an official weekly WMM Sketch Show (filmed at YouTubeStudios LA) have been produced after being developed through WMM workshops. A considerable amount of these films have accrued accolades in several film festivals around the world and have also found distribution on various VOD platforms.#To learn more about producing with WE MAKE MOVIES – contact ERIC KOCHMER emk@wemakemovies.org

JEANNE FINLEY’s BEYOND THE COSMODROME + STEFAN RUSU’s SOVIET ARCHITECTURE +
In the first of a co-bill on post-Soviet Central Asia, long-time San Fran cineaste Jeanne Finley interweaves a poignant group-portrait of some nine Kazakh orphans coming of age in the shadow of a nearby Cosmodrome. Herself a mother of a Kazakh adoptee, Finley conjures a complex yet lyrical sense of space and time from the majestic landscape of the Steppes, from the local traditional culture, from the imagination of rocket science, and from the teens’ own writings and performances. All followed by inspiring songs from the SF Threshold Choir! ALSO out of CCA, Moldavian-born Stefan Rusu takes up the theme of cosmonaut utopianism as well, in the North American debut of his 40 min. Return from the Future, in which we—like Stanislaw Lem’s cultured-shocked space-time voyager—re-visit the boldly Modernist “science fiction” buildings of Kyrgyzstan…to find the formerly ideologically charged edifices fallen into the shabby revisionism of the new free-market economy. Come early for the ’79 Ukranian anomaly, Teenage Cosmonauts.*$8