An intimate portrait ten years in the making, of Hollywood’s pre-digital master craftsmen, “Something’s Gonna Live” celebrates the work, friendship and indelible contribution of renowned production designers Robert F. Boyle (NORTH BY NORTHWEST), Henry Bumstead (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD), Albert Nozaki (THE WAR OF THE WORLDS) and Harold Michelson (STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE), as well as master cinematographers Haskell Wexler (IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT) and Conrad L. Hall (IN COLD BLOOD).

Written & Directed by Academy Award®-Nominated Filmmaker Daniel Raim
Featuring Cinematography by Two Time Oscar®-Winner Haskell Wexler, A.S.C.

Filmmakers in-person: Please join us Friday September 10th after the 7:10pm show for a Q&A with director Daniel Raim and cinematographer Haskell Wexler.

Additional Q&As with the director throughout all weekend screenings.

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT September 10-16, 2010
Laemmle Music Hall 3
9036 Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills, CA 90211 (310) 274-6869
Showtimes:
Friday 5:00, 7:10 & 9:40
Saturday 12:40, 2:50, 5:00, 7:10 & 9:40
Sunday 12:40, 2:50, 5:00 & 7:10
Mon-Thu: 5:00 & 7:10

For tickets, go to http://www.laemmle.com/viewmovie.php?mid=6542 and click on Laemmle’s Music Hall 3.

On opposite pages of August’s ICG Magazine, two cinematographers look at each other.  The President’s Letter gives us information on the new Canon DSLR cameras, all of it loaded with the first person singular and letting us know, from his vast experience, how well he is acquainted with this new technology.

So much for the important information from Our Union President, all of which is available over the counter at Samy’s.  Looking at him from the opposite page is Chris Menges, one of the great cinematographers of our time, an outspoken, progressive union man. He seems to be smiling at Poster. Perhaps it is with indulgence, but I’m sure there is something in the expression that’s asking, “What the hell is he talking about?”  Kodak paid for Menges to be in the magazine.  It costs $500,000 a year to put out a Union publication in which Poster is the only union voice permitted. Perhaps ICG should allow Chris Menges to submit an article that not only excites us about technology, but discusses the fundamental reason for having a union.

- Haskell Wexler, ASC

Lisbeth Scott’s “Hope Is A Thing” is released.  I enjoyed shooting this.  Watch the VIDEO.

WHO NEEDS SLEEP? receives standing ovation at Labourstart 2010 Global Solidarity Conference!

Trade union delegates from over 28 countries and members of the Toronto film and television community attended a screening of Who Needs Sleep? followed by a lively discussion with Haskell Wexler on Saturday, July 10, 2010 as part of the first annual Labourstart 2010 Global Solidarity Conference.

Brothers and sisters from across the labour movement pledged their support and solidarity for the 12on12off campaign, expressing their shock at the industry standard for working hours and the total unwillingness of the unions to address the issue, despite a clear message from the rank and file that this is a crisis situation.

A number of university professors and union educators said they will be using the film as part of their curriculum.

With thanks to the support, wisdom and expertise of brothers and sisters from other unions, efforts are underway to develop a political and organizing campaign to move 12on12off forward across North America, including screenings for industry workers, enhanced petition efforts and the development of organizing kits.

 

THE DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL® PRESENTS THE EXCLUSIVE NETWORK PREMIERE

OF  “WHO NEEDS SLEEP?”

FROM OSCAR® -WINNING CINEMATOGRAPHER HASKELL WEXLER

Documentary Features Interviews With Hollywood Stars Including Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Annette Bening, Billy Crystal, Paul Newman and Tyne Daily, among many others

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 1, 2010) — The Documentary Channel® (DOC) presents the exclusive network premiere of the critically acclaimed feature-length documentary “Who Needs Sleep?” from Academy® Award winner Haskell Wexler on Friday, June 25 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT.

NEXT scheduled screening is Sunday, July 11th at 6pm

Distributed by Chatsworth, Calif.-based Image Entertainment (NASDAQ: DISK), the film features intimate interviews with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Annette Bening, Billy Crystal, Paul Newman, and Tyne Daly, as they discuss health risks associated with long production work days surpassing the 14-hour mark.

Award-Winning Filmmaker Haskell Wexler Returns to Chicago

Haskell Wexler is considered one of the most influential cinematographers in film history. And with Oscar-winning films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Bound for Glory to his credit –you can see why. His most famous film is a little more outside the movie mainstream. Medium Cool was shot in and around the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. The film combines real footage of the protests and violence with a fictional framework – an unorthodox approach at the time. The Chicago-born filmmaker has lived in California for some time now. But he’s back for a special screening of Medium Cool at the University of Chicago’s Film Studies Center this evening. And we’re delighted he decided to stop by our studio for a chat.

LISTEN to THIS

Thursday, May 27th, 2010  7:00 pm

Introduction by Judy Hoffman, Department of Cinema and Media Studies

Within the framework of the groundbreaking film Medium Cool (1969), Haskell Wexler will discuss his approaches to cinema, filmmaking and the career he forged in Chicago during the era just before video changed the method and technique of documentary image gathering. What does it mean to film on film…as a documentarian… as a cinematographer? These questions intrigue and resonate with Wexler and will inform the discussion of his work in this very special screening with the award-winning director.

Taking place during the real events of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, an event remembered for its police brutality and rioting, Wexler’s feature Medium Cool has been described as a film that systematically questions the ideological power of images by combining documentary techniques such as ‘talking heads’ and cinéma vérité with staged scenes between the actors. By the time Wexler and his crew started filming the cast among the actual events at the convention, all barriers between fiction and fact had broken down, as, in a most famous moment during the film, Wexler’s assistant can be heard off camera warning, ‘Watch out, Haskell, it’s real.’

Winner of two Academy Awards in cinematography for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Bound For Glory, Wexler was adjudged one of the ten most influential cinematographers in movie history, according to an International Cinematographers Guild survey of its membership. He began his career working on industrial films in Chicago (particularly noteworthy is his work with Encyclopedia Brittanica) and moved into independent documentary and feature production working with such directorial luminaries as Mike Nichols and Terrence Malick. In addition to his masterful cinematography, Wexler directed several films including the seminal 1960s film Medium Cool. Wexler is the recipient of an Emmy for his 1980 documentary Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang, an Independent Spirit Award for cinematography on John Sayles’ Matewan, and was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993 from the American Society of Cinematographers.

I found this interview which may be of interest to 12on12off. Not that we movie workers need confirmation of the debilitating effects of excessive hours. Check this out.

- Haskell Wexler

Katherine Faulkner in her blog states:

“This government’s ‘legacy’ will be the demise of plain English” referring to the British government, I believe, but fully applies to the United States. She goes on to say,

“The main point of political prose, said George Orwell more than half a century ago, was to give ‘an appearance of solidity to pure wind’. Orwell accused politicians of the being deliberately unclear in their prose, pretending to communicate but really aiming only to obscure.

You don’t need to look very far to see Orwellian echoes in the political language of our times. Take ‘credit crunch’, a word which popped up in newspapers as it became apparent that the country was facing recession. While ‘recession’ conjures unsightly images of bread lines and derelict factories, ‘credit crunch’ sounds inherently benign, like a breakfast cereal containing free toys in little plastic sachets.”

Another article by John Pilger on the same subject puts the Obama administration in perspective:

“In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell described a superstate called Oceania, whose language of war inverted lies that ‘passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’, ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past’.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Dr. Charles Czeisler is known in the N.B.A. as the Sleep Doctor. He advises players to sleep 8.2 to 8.4 hours a night, which requires nine hours in bed.

A growing interest in sleep science — and a recognition that players need more time to recharge — is fueling the trend. Simply speaking, N.B.A. players often fail to get enough sleep.

READ THE ARTICLE from The New York Times