News & Updates

  • No Más Bebés to Air on PBS’ Independent Lens Feb.1

    Posted by on January 28, 2016

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    On Feb. 1 the film “No Más Bebés” will be nationally broadcasted telling the story of the ten women behind Madrigal v. Quilligan, a little known case that sheds light on the reproductive justice issues Latinas continue to face including the right to bodily autonomy, immigration, poverty, and linguistic & cultural competency when accessing health services.

    See the conversation @Latinas4RJ @votolatino @NLIRH @colorlatina @FwdTogether @AdvocatesTweets and @YwuWomen had Thursday, January 28 on the #ReproJustice issues that affect Latinas. Follow the convo: #StillWeThrive #NoMasBebes

  • From Visual Effects On ‘Machete’ To Winning A Grant To Make Her Sci-Fi Short: Meet Emerging Director Maru Buendia-Senties

    Posted by on January 25, 2016

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    By Manuel Betancourt @ Remezcla

    With issues of diversity dominating the conversations surrounding the film industry, it’s always heartening to see film festivals supporting minority talent. Last week, at the Latino Reels panel at the Sundance Film Festival, NALIP (National Association of Latino Independent Producers) announced the winners of its 2015 Latino Lens: Narrative Shorts Incubator. Latino Lens is a new, exclusive incubation and media content production program designed to develop, nurture and produce a series of creative Latino projects.

    “With Latino Lens, NALIP is thrilled to provide original production programming and support and promote Latino content creators and filmmakers. With the embarrassing and shameful lack of diversity seen yet again at this year’s Oscars, NALIP focuses on actions that directly address this need for change within and without Hollywood’s antiquated system,” said Axel Caballero, Executive Director of NALIP. Winners receive contributions for pre-production, production, and post-production tools, resources, and assets to support the successful completion of their short films.

    Among the winners was Maru Buendia-Senties, whose short film Windows joins three others —One Halloween by writer/director Rebecca Murga,Swimming in the Desert by writer/director Alvaro Ron, and Dying Man by writer/director Rodrigo Reyes—as the finalists of this months-long search. The final shorts will screen in June at 2016 NALIP Media Summit.

    Born in Mexico City, Buendia-Senties got her Masters at the University of Texas-Austin and has slowly been building an impressive resume, alternating between doing visual effects work for films like Spy Kids 4, Predators, and Machete, and writing, producing and directing her own shorts via her production company, Bloodbank productions. Windows is the result of a collaboration with Glenn Eanes, who she’s known and worked with for over ten years—a friendship that was nurtured by their mutual love of genre films like Robocop, Lethal Weapon, The Thing and Alien. The deceptively simple short centers on “two isolated women who bond by sharing their lives from a distance through their apartment windows,” and without giving too much away, they teased it as a cool Black Mirror episode.

    Fresh off receiving the news that her project had been named a winner, Buendia-Senties jumped on the phone with us alongside her Windows co-writer. They filled us in on how this twisty sci-fi short came together and shared some words about how the immigrant experience sneaks its way into their creative process.

    Read More at Remezcla.com

  • NALIP Announces "Latino Lens" Finalists During Latino Reel Panels at the Sundance Film Festival

    Posted by on January 22, 2016

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    Park City, Utah (January 22, 2016)  – Today finalists were announced for NALIP’s new Latino Lens incubation and production initiative during the Latino Reel panels at the Sundance Film Festival.  The final four selections will receive NALIP contributions for pre-production, production, and post-production tools, resources, and assets to support the successful completion of each short film. NALIP will also consult with these content creators on a viable distribution strategy to maximize exposure.

     

    Projects and creators are in no particular order are as follows: “Windows” by writer/director Maru Buendia-Senties, “One Halloween” by writer/director Rebecca Murga, “Swimming in the Desert” by writer/director Alvaro Ron, and “Dying Man” by writer/director Rodrigo Reyes.


    Latino Lens, presented by NALIP and supported by a group of industry, media and organizational sponsors, is a new, exclusive incubation and media content production program designed to develop, nurture and produce a series of creative Latino projects.  Serving simultaneously as a distribution model of Latino media screenings, festivals and speaker showcases, the Latino Lens program highlights Latino talent as producers, directors and writers. 

     

    "With Latino Lens, NALIP is thrilled to provide original production programming and support and promote Latino content creators and filmmakers. With the embarrassing and shameful lack of diversity seen yet again at this year’s Oscars, NALIP focuses on actions that directly address this need for change within and without Hollywood’s antiquated system," said Axel Caballero, Executive Director of NALIP.

    Latino Lens sponsors include Time Warner Foundation and NEA.

     

    About NALIP

     The National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) seeks to inspire, promote, and advocate for Latino content creators in media.  As an established non-profit organization, NALIP advances the development of Latino content creation through its programs focusing on narrative, documentary, TV, and digital formats.  For more information, visit www.NALIP.org.

     

    Media contacts: 

    Paulette Kam / Brittany Mathieu

    P: (310) 248-6114

    E: [email protected] / [email protected]

     

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  • NALIP Partners with MiTú Network for Content Incubation Program

    Posted by on January 22, 2016

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    NALIP is excited to announce a continued partnership with MiTú Network, a collaboration part of our Latino Lens incubation and media content production program that works to generate talent and projects directly developed, pitched and placed.

     

    As a NALIP Latino Lens program incubator, the recently completed MiTú/NALIP Content Incubation Program falls collectively under the Latino Lens Digital and TV program tracks. The purpose of the MiTú/NALIP Content Incubation Program is to identify emerging filmmaking talent and provide them with the opportunity and resources to write, direct, and complete a sizzle/teaser video for an original web or TV series concept.

     

    This first MiTú/NALIP Content Incubation Program was successfully launched and completed. The participating NALIP members/content creators within this incubator were specifically curated for this program.

     

    This initial effort culminated in the selection of two projects from NALIP members: PLAY ON  and CLUSTERTRUCK. 

     

    PLAY ON, created by Nancy Mejia, is a scripted rock n’ roll series centering around a four-piece, all-female indie band from East Los Angeles, as they fight internal and external battles to make music history far from Hollywood and the Sunset Strip.

     

    CLUSTERTRUCK, created by Alberto Belli, is a long-form, single-cam comedy about two young, clueless Latino twin brothers who risk every last penny they have to fulfill their dream of owning a food truck. But soon, the guys find out they’re in way over their heads.

     

     

     

  • New LES Movie Theater to Show Independent Movies and Documentaries

    Posted by on January 22, 2016

    By Lisa Arino

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    Metrograph

    LOWER EAST SIDE — A mix of cult classics, independent films and new documentaries are coming to the Metrograph, a movie theater opening next month.

    The two-theater movie house, at 7 Ludlow St., near Canal Street, announced its first season of programming Tuesday afternoon.

    The inaugural schedule includes international releases like “The Measure of a Man," a French drama that was nominated for the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, as well as works by directors like Andy Warhol, Martin Scorsese and French filmmaker Jean Eustache.

    The theater plans to show its films in both 35mm film and digital projection, its founders said. Metrograph will open on Feb. 19 for private events and begin its public programming in March.

    “We want to revive the joy of going to the movies in a newly designed venue that will be welcoming to all filmgoers for a breezy afternoon matinee, a Saturday night out at the movies, a day-long epic binge or a late-night marathon — all are waiting for you through the doors of Metrograph,” said the theater’s artistic and programming director Jacob Perlin in a statement.

    In addition to the two movie theaters, Metrograph will include a restaurant inspired by the dining areas of old film studios from the 1920s, 30s and 40s, as well as a bookstore, lounge and café.

    Further details about its first-year programming, as well as ticket information, will be announced in the upcoming weeks, according to the theater.

    Metrograph's inaugural schedule is as follows:

    ► March 4-10: “Surrender to the Screen,” a collection of movies that “kidnap us into the theater and transport us to the world of filmgoing.” Titles include “Taxi Driver,” “Desperately Seeking Susan,” Jean-Luc Godard’s “Vivre sa Vie” and “Goodbye, Dragon Inn,” directed by Tsai Ming-liang.

    ► March 9-17: Jean Eustache retrospective, which includes his two feature films “The Mother and the Whore” and “Mes Petites Amoureuses” as well as “rare imported prints.”

    ► March 11-17: “The Student Nurses” by Stephanie Rothman.

    ► March 16-April 21: “Welcome to Metrograph: A-F,” the theater’s first installment of a year-long, alphabetically ordered series of films it considers “must-sees.”

    ► March 18-24: “A Space Program,” a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the art installation "Space Program 2.0. Mars” at the Park Avenue Armory.

    ► Sundays beginning March 20: “Old and Improved,” a presentation of a newly preserved or restored 35mm or 16mm film.

    ► March 25-April 14: “Three Wiseman,” a trio of documentaries by Peabody Award- and a George Polk Career Award-winning filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, whose work includes a documentary about Jackson Heights.

    ► March 25-31: “Office 3D,” a musical starring Chow Yun-fat and Sylvia Chang by Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To.

    ► April 1-7: “Afternoon” by Tsai Ming-liang, which showed at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival last year.

    ► April 15-21: “The Measure of a Man,” which will be part of a retrospective of French actor Vincent Linon’s work that includes four other films like “Seventh Heaven” and “Friday Night.”

    ► April 15-21: “Los Sures,” a documentary of the Puerto Rican and Dominican community in 1980s Williamsburg.

    ► April 22-28: “Hockney,” a documentary about English artist David Hockney.

    ► April 22-28: “Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Top Ten Films on 35 mm.” Metrograph will show a list of the filmmaker’s 10 favorite movies, according to a list published in 1982 ahead of a new documentary about the German filmmaker.

    ► April 29-May 5: “Fassbinder: To Love Without Demands,” a documentary about Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who was a major figure of the New German Cinema movement during the 1960s to 1980s.

    For more information, visit its website.

    Check this out on dnainfo.com

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  • Forget Hollywood: Vimeo Will Just Fund Female Filmakers Itself

    Posted by · January 22, 2016

    By Angela Watercutter

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    Vimeo

    Things aren’t so hot for women in Hollywood right now. We kind of always knew that, of course, but now that Jennifer Lawrence is writing letters about not getting paid as much as her male costars and The New York Times Magazine is writing huge features on how tough it is for women to get anywhere as filmmakers, it’s getting harder to ignore.

    The thing is, it shouldn’t be ignored—it should be fixed. To help with that, Vimeo is launching Share the Screen, an initiative to help female filmmakers by funding their projects, teaching them the business, and promoting their movies.

    “From its beginning Vimeo has always stood for the democratization of filmmaking, and of sharing videos, and of gaining access to audiences,” says Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor. “When we see all of the information from the past couple years about just how wide the gender equality gap is in the entertainment industry, lending our support identifying and celebrating female voices made all the sense in the world.”

    Under the initiative, announced today at the Sundance Film Festival, Vimeo will bankroll at least five projects from women filmmakers this year. It will identify burgeoning directors through its current acquisitions pipeline, the team behind its original series, and the in-house group that handles the platform’s Staff Picks. Staffers also will meet with female filmmakers during Sundance in a bid to find candidates.

    Once Vimeo chooses the filmmakers, it will help promote the films  offer them for sale or rental. It’s similar to what the video streaming site has done with original programming like High Maintenance, but with a female focus. Trainor says the amount Vimeo is willing to invest in the programming—be it a series of episodes, a full-length feature, or a short film—is “uncapped,” and five the minimum number of projects it will fund this year.

    The idea, of course, is to change the vicious cycle in Hollywood. A recent study, by the Center for the Study of Women in Film and Television at San Diego State University, found the number of women directors for top-grossing movies remained at 9 percent from 1998 to 2015. While it’s hard to say exactly why that number remained static, it might have a lot to do with studios’ low confidence in female filmmakers’ bankability—which will never change if women don’t get to make films and prove the studios wrong. That’s what Vimeo hopes to change.

    Share the Screen kicks off with Darby Forever, a short from Saturday Night Live cast member Aidy Bryant, on February 18. In case you’re wondering why the name doesn’t have the word “female,” “women,” or “lady” in it, it’s because future ventures will finance and support filmmakers of other backgrounds and minorities.

    “The ability of the Internet, and Vimeo specifically, to put power in the hands of anyone who wishes to create great video,” Trainer says, “is something that we’re very excited to get behind.”

    Check this out on wired.com

  • The Oscars 2016 Race Controversy Isn't Just About Black Actors

    Posted by · January 22, 2016

    By Jessica Eggert

    Last week's Oscars 2016 nominations reveal prompted widespread criticism after not a single actor of color was nominated for an award. Several black actors and filmmakers have spoken out about the exclusion of African-American artists among nominees, threatening to boycott the awards show. Lists of actors of color who were snubbed include mostly black people — but the lack of color extends beyond black artists. 

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    Hispanic actor Oscar Isaac, Jordan Strauss/AP

    The scarcity of nominated African-Americans has been dominating the Oscars diversity criticism. "For too many years when the Oscars nominations are revealed, my office phone rings off the hook with the media asking me my opinion about the lack of African-Americans and this year was no different," director Spike Lee said when he announced he'd boycott the Oscars. 

    Mashable fashion editor David Yi pointed out on Twitter that while the lack of people of color nominated for an Oscar is "tragic," exclusion of actors of color includes "an extreme lack of Asian and Hispanic faces."

    Others voiced similar sentiments.

    There have been roughly 50 African-Americans nominated for one of the four major acting categories since Hattie McDaniel became the first black woman to receive an Oscar in 1939, ABC News reported, and the number of Asians and Hispanics nominated is even more underwhelming. 

    The lack of diversity among nominees reflects the lack of diversity among Academy members who vote for the nominees. A majority of Academy members are still Caucasian men older than 50, Variety reported, and because membership is based on experience in the industry (and the industry is historically white men) the demographic can't change overnight.

    In response to artist's threats of boycotting the Oscars, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the first black and third female Academy president, released a statement Monday stating she's "both heartbroken and frustrated" about the lack of diversity among nominees and promised to improve "inclusion in all of its facets: gender. race. ethnicity and sexual orientation."

    Check this out on mic.com