PAULA FROEHLE is in production on her 2004 IFP/Chicago Production Fund-winning short “Up on the Rope.” Froehle is shooting on an elaborate set at Resolution Digital Studios, part of the Production Fund’s $100,000 in in-kind goods and services.
She’s the production program director at Columbia College and co-owner of the avant-jazz label Atavistic.
Froehle adapted the script, a love-story about a 12-year-old tight rope walker who has spent his entire life 10 feet off the ground, from a short story by Cristina Peri Rossi. She has optioned two other Rossi stories for development as a feature-length triptych.
Froehle is collaborating with Macarthur Genius Grant winning improvisational horn player Ken Vandermark on the film and live music work “Chance: Change: Conflict in Five Parts.”
“Up on the Rope” DP is David Blood, who shot Bruce Terris’ 2001 Production Fund winner “Flying,” a 2002 selection of the Cannes Film Festival. Don Smith, who runs Columbia’s semester in Los Angeles program, is producing.
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| Garry Walker |
GARRY WALKER shoots his “hip hop ?Sin City'” “Dirty Cash,” this August. It’s a rotoscope superhero film noir about a band of b-boys and ?girls taking on a deadly, anti?hip hop City Hall.
DP Eli Rosenberg will shoot live actors on DV against a green screen. Animator John Losacco will draw over the actors and combine them with urban backgrounds shot by still photographer Matthew Quinnan.
Cast includes Sarah McComber, Chauntrell W. Wright, F. Tyler Burnet, Kristi Simmons, Claudia Fijal and Blair Marisa Rudd. Walker is self-financing through his PYRE Productions. He’s also scoring, with songs from hip hop trio Top Notch. Email bodyflame@yahoo.com.
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| Jonathan Vukelich |
JONATHAN VUKELICH directs his dramatic feature “An Addict for My Addictions” here and in his hometown of Milwaukee beginning July 11. Vukelich is self-financing “up to $50,000” through his Purple Eye Productions, and says he’s negotiating with investors to cover the cost of bringing on name actors.
“Addict” is a tragic love story between a privileged junkie and a homeless prostitute. DP is Nick Patin; production designer Jeanie Dean; production manager Marty Alivo. Music from Machine Records.
Vukelich, who directs under the pseudonym Thomas J. Tribble, started out as a child actor. He’s developing a film set in Las Vegas in 1929, about the town’s nascent underground gambling industry.
He’s in post on “Divergent,” a feature about a corrupt cop looking for redemption, and says he’s in talks to show it here through IFP/Chicago’s screening series. His first feature, 2000’s “Suicide’s Reflection,” is about a dysfunctional family coming to terms with their mother’s death at her own hand. Email peyeproductions@aol.com.
SHOWCASE ENTERTAINMENT is in preproduction on its 30-minute short film “The Dark,” which is part one of a triology Showcase hopes to complete by spring of 2006. Executive producer is Dorthea L. Johnson; producer/director is David W. Johnson and DP, Patrick Charles. Showcase’s first film, “Severed Ties,” was picked up for home video distribution and will be released in July. Email Showcase at showcase1@hotmail.com.
STEPHEN CONE directs the short “Church Story” from his own script this August. Cone is a playwright, whose “Just Wanderer” played at the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre last spring. Rose Hall is producing. Mark L. Anderson of Los Angeles is DP. Email churchstoryfilm@hotmail.com.
HORNBILL FILMS, producers of the recently completed gay porn industry sendup “Bowser Makes a Movie,” has postponed production of its intended followup “The Last Hurrah” until September. Instead, Hornbill dives into a June shoot on the sex addict comedy “Get a Life.” See www.hornbillfilms.com.
MOLLY HANSEN joins the IFP/Chicago staff as outreach coordinator. A Columbia College alum, Hansen worked on “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” and was a volunteer coordinator for the IFP Market. See www.ifp.org.
Email info to edk@homesickblues.com.
