Rooftop Films are doing a bunch of great screenings this week. Here’s the info: __________________________ Tuesday, Sept. 16th, 2008 Rooftop and IFP Independent Film Week present Trinidad FREE SHOW, FREE OPEN BAR! 40 years ago, Dr. Stanley Biber transformed a sleepy mining town in Colorado into The Sex Change Capital of The World. Venue: Along the water at Solar One Address: East 23rd Street and the East River in Manhattan Directions: 6 Train to 23rd street and walk East to…

I’m moderating this panel on Monday at 10am at the Conference during Independent Film Week. If you want to find out where the money is, and I know that you do!, please stop by. FILMMAKING 2.0 Show Me the New Money Where do you begin when navigating the wide variety of traditional and new media services, sites and opportunities being promoted to assist filmmakers in raising money? How do these tools and services differ from traditional private equity and film…

I’m moderating this panel on Monday at 10am at the Conference during Independent Film Week. If you want to find out where the money is, and I know that you do!, please stop by. FILMMAKING 2.0 Show Me the New Money Where do you begin when navigating the wide variety of traditional and new media services, sites and opportunities being promoted to assist filmmakers in raising money? How do these tools and services differ from traditional private equity and film…

Another great polemic from Giles Bolton’s book Africa Doesn’t Matter (The UK version is called Aid and Other Dirty Business). Here he focuses on the problems with trade (where current tariffs and subsidies screw both people in Africa and taxpayers/consumers in the West): If the major problem with aid is that the West isn’t doing enough for Africa, the problem with trade seems to be that the West is doing little at all for the world’s poorest continent. We explicitly…

Good news from Nigeria – documentary filmmaker Andrew Berends has been released and is heading back to the United States. It appears that his Nigerian translator, Samuel George, and another man arrested with them have been asked to return to State Security Services today but it is hoped that they will be cleared too. Thanks to everyone in the Shooting People community (and beyond) who made calls on Berends’ behalf.

Another great event for future-minded Shooters. EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT ENDS THIS FRIDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER! Register now to save 25% off the full ticket price.We’re bringing together pioneering visionaries, filmmakers and entrepreneurs who are changing the way that independent films are financed, created and reach audiences. This year’s speakers who will be participating at both the Conference and the Workshop Sessions include: YOMI AYENI, Creative Director, Expanding Universe ARIN CRUMLEY, Award-winning Filmmaker ADAM ERLEBACHER, Co-Founder, PlaceVine JAMIE KING, Filmmaker and Digital…

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and Shooters present ‘Short Sighted’, an intensive day devoted to helping you get your short film exhibited and distributed. Sunday 14 September, at BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London. Shooting People and BAFTA members pay only £15; everyone else pays £30. The price also includes a little black book of useful contacts and websites. shootingpeople.org/shortsighted This is a whole day event of sessions, workshops, surgeries and networking opportunities aimed at people who have…

I’m not in Toronto but if I was I would go see Sounds Like Teen Spirit tonight. My friend Jamie Jay Johnson made it and he is just as great as his name suggests (he once made a brilliant film about going on holiday in his bedroom)! I haven’t seen Sounds Like Teen Spirit yet but it’s about Junior Eurovision, a spin-off of the Eurovision Song Contest which was a hilariously camp yearly treat for me back in the UK…

Manohla Dargis has an interesting piece in The New York Times about the current state of independent film. She traces a brief history of indie film in the US, and, reaching the present, draws a line between the “independent” of speciality divisions (basically cheaper, artier Hollywood) and the truly “independent” of filmmakers like Kelly Reichardt, Ronald Bronstein, Lance Hammer and Azazel Jacobs. The news [of speciality divisions shutting down] has inspired passionate response, as well as the usual gloom and…