MWFF 2013 season opens with Looby’s ‘Be Good’ feature

Looby’s ‘Be Good’

TODD LOOBY’S FEATURE BE GOOD opens Midwest Independent Film Festival’s 2013 season Feb. 5.  The Chicago-made indie, written and directed by Looby, stars Amy Seimetz (of recent Sundance selection Upstream Color) as a new mother making the tough adjustment back to the work world, and Thomas J. Madden (Looby’s Lefty) as her husband, an independent filmmaker balking at his new childcare duties. 

Looby appears in a supporting role and his daughter is the couple’s baby.  Mumblecore filmmaker Joe Swanberg and his real-life son have a cameo as themselves. 

Looby’s short documentary Lollywood, about Liberian war orphans making their first film, also screens, on the heels of its world premiere at Slamdance. 

At the Landmark Century Centre, 2828 N. Clark St.  Doors at 6, producers panel at 6:30.  Looby will be in attendance for post-screening Q&As. Be Good also screens Feb. 8, 9, and 13 at San Francisco Indie Fest.

Mormon Movie

A BENEFIT DANCE CONTESTThey Shoot Indies, Don’t They? –is being hosted Feb. 2 by producer Xan Aranda (Andrew Bird: Fever Year) for her in-progress, Kartemquin Films-produced documentary Mormon Movie, about her mother Dana Rosado’s brief career as an actress in the Church of Latter Day Saints’ film industry.

Dance judges include Ameena Matthews, a central figure in Steve James’s The Interrupters, and Leah Karpel, star of the forthcoming Victory Gardens Mormon-themed play The Whale.  At the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 7 p.m.  $10.

THREE FREE FILMMAKER WORKSHOPS are being offered by Chicago Filmmakers and supported by the Chicago Instructional Technology Foundation: grant writing and budgeting (in which I will be presenting) Feb. 10, social media marketing and connecting with communities Feb. 24, and online distribution strategies March 10. 

All sessions are 11 a.m.-2p.m. at 5243 N. Clark St., 2nd Floor.  Register here

DONNA WASHINGTON of Zamir Productions premieres her short Pathways of Life at the Pan African Film Festival, Feb. 7-18 in Los Angeles. It’s about an African student at an American university working to integrate herself into American society.

MUSIC BOX FILMS has acquired U.S. rights to Le Weekend by Roger Michell (Hyde Park on Hudson) for a summer release. Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan star as a married couple who reconnect with an old friend (Jeff Goldblum) during a second honeymoon in Paris. Jim Broadbent

Music Box owner William Schopf and managing director Ed Arentz made the deal with Tim Haslan of Embankment Films.  Unlike most past acquisitions, Music Box landed this one before its festival premiere.  It was just recently completed.

FEAURE LENGTH DOC BEAR DOWN is in development from filmmaker Joseph R. Martinez of Fig Films.  It follows two years in the lives of Chicago Bears superfans, including bear suiting-wearing Bearman and über-tailgater Tim “Da Bus” Shanley.

Bear Down investigates not only the personal stories of its main characters, but also the social history of the phenomenon of tailgating, the history of the NFL and its Chicago roots as well as the socioeconomic obstacles to fandom,” Martinez says.

BRITT MCCOY BOARDMAN AND CHRISTOPHER REJANO of Ramblewood Pictures are directing the documentary Life Raft: the Legend of Wizard Castle, about “‘the nicest guys in metal’ and why they chose the beaten metal path in a world of dependable day jobs and an epidemic of pop music.”

Send news of your indie cinema to edmkoz@gmail.com.