See What I’m Saying
After this year’s Academy Awards, you might think that everything’s been done. A woman finally won best director, the lady from Speed won a best actress nod and the phrase “uber bingo” was used in an acceptance speech. That’s why we’re excited about the upcoming documentary “See What I’m Saying,” which breaks new ground for the deaf community. Directed and produced by filmmaker Hilari Scarl, the film not only follows four deaf/hard of hearing performers–a subset of the entertainment community that mainstream audiences know little about–but every print of the film is open captioned making it available to all audiences, including those who don’t know sign language. Unlike most films, where deaf audiences are limited to only a handful of options if they want to catch a captioned screening, all showings of SWIS will be accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing.
This heartfelt documentary follows four entertainers in the deaf community as they attempt to cross over to mainstream audiences during a single year: CJ Jones, an internationally celebrated comic in the deaf world, but virtually unknown to hearing audiences fights to cross over to the mainstream by producing the first international sign language theatre festival in Los Angeles; Bob Hiltermann, a drummer in the world’s only deaf rock band, Beethoven’s Nightmare, produces the largest show in the band’s 30 year history; Robert DeMayo, a brilliant actor who teaches at Juilliard, struggles to survive when he becomes homeless; and TL Forsberg, a hard-of-hearing singer finds herself caught between the hearing and deaf communities when she attracts a major producer to record her first CD “Not Deaf Enough.”
The world premier is being held at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater on March 18th.
Tickets are available here.
The film opens in Los Angeles March 19-April 1st. Tickets are available at www.seewhatimsayingmovie.com
The film premiers in New York City on April 9th – April 22nd at the Village East Cinema.
Tickets are available here.
For more information and screenings, visit www.seewhatimsayingmovie.com
First Annual Your It List Oscar Pool
This year’s Oscar season seems a bit more tame than past years. What with the 35 nominated films for Best Picture (none, by the way, being (500) Days of Summer, ahem). There are a lot of familiar names on the nominees lists, not quite as many “Who?” nominees… a lot of people seem to think the winners will be the obvious choices.
I’m hoping for a return to the surprise a la 1966 when Richard Burton lost the best actor nod for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf to Paul Scofield in A Man For All Seasons. Luckily Mrs. Burton won that year for Virginia Woolf, though rumoredly the couple abstained from attending due to Mr. Burton’s fear of losing (and worse his fear of losing and watching Mrs. Burton win). It was the first time either Burton ever abstained from anything.
The votes have been cast, somewhere a really boring looking accountant has them in a sealed briefcase. But let your voice be heard in the first annual Your It List Oscar Pool.
Click here to let us know who you think is going to win (don’t forget to leave your email address so we can contact you!).
On Monday, the person with the most correct answers will win a FULL BOX of movie flavored books, including:
Heads On and We Shoot
Avatar
My Word is My Bond
Pieces of My Heart
George Lucas’s Blockbusting
Showgirls, Teen Wolves, Astro Zombies
Tales from the Script
Some Like It Hot Companion
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Shutter Island
Crazy Heart
Coraline
Making of Coraline
We’ll announce the winners on Monday!
Click here for complete rules.
Re-visiting The Door in the Floor
Thursday’s New York Times features an eloquent love letter to Jeff Bridges, written by my favorite contemporary film reviewer, Manohla Dargis. Her rhapsodic prose makes me want to lock away my keyboard and retire from this whole wordsmithing gig, but, alas, I must put bread on the table.
Bridges has long been one of my favorite actors–an avuncular leading man whose characters would be a hell of a lot more fun to hang out with than any Clooney-portrayed slickster. And unlike most of his out-of-touch peers, you get the feeling the man himself would be a great guy to (political cliche notwithstanding) have a beer with.
Dargis’s piece did a fine job of capturing those very same qualities that make Bridges such a compelling actor, and her graceful words do him justice better than mine can. Yet in her short career retrospective, she left out my favorite Bridges’ performance: as children’s book writer/illustrator Ted Cole in 2004′s The Door in the Floor. The film–an adaptation of the first third of John Irving’s novel A Widow for One Year–didn’t make much of a splash commercially, and I only learned of it from my much better informed filmmaker friend Joel. But there’s something really special in Bridges’ character that has stayed with me more closely than his other fantastic roles.
In her piece, Dargis quotes the legendary film critic Pauline Kael as saying, “Jeff Bridges is enough to make a picture worth seeing.” This certainly holds true for The Door in the Floor. What could come off as a melodramatic (children have died, parents grieve, beaches are wind-strewn), mediocre film is elevated to must-see status by the complexity of Jeff Bridges’ performance. He’s a man employed to write books less than 100 words in length, yet he hires an aspiring writer as an assistant–ostensibly to type and retype his brief manuscripts, but in actuality to act as his chauffeur since he has a suspended license. He plays squash in a caftan in a converted barn. He’s a fucker and a fighter, but you get the feeling it’s only to conform to the stereotype of the aggressive, masculine artist pioneered by his Hamptons’ predecessor Jackson Pollock. In other words, this is The Dude, if only recreational bowling and pot smoking paid as well as writing blockbuster children’s literature. You get all of the nonchalance and unforced coolness of his classic Lebowski role, in a setting that’s much more relatable to your average viewer.
If you haven’t seen The Door in the Floor, and you’re looking to brush up on your Jeff Bridges’ oeuvre, add it to your Netflix queue for an excellent pre-Oscars primer. Then when he finally gets his long-deserved Academy Award on March 7th, you’ll have even more reason to cheer the Academy’s good sense.
Celebrities: Lent me your ears!
Ash Wednesday (aka “Night of the Living Ash-Cross Zombies” to the non-practicing) is upon us. While everyone else is giving up chocolate, reality TV and cussin’, we’ve turned our attention to what other people should give up for the next 40 days. To wit:
Kevin Smith: Give up flying coach (or at least Southwest). If, as you say, you “have enough money” to buy two seats, why, perchance, don’t you just fly first class?
Celebrity Mags: Give Up the ‘Celebs Without Make-Up’ features—nothing about 
seeing a star breakout (not to be confused with a breakout star) is pretty.
Betty White: We’re giving you a pass this year—never give up an inch. Everything you do makes us laugh.
Jeremy Renner: You gave a riveting performance in The Hurt Locker, but give up the Oscar—it’s Jeff Bridge’s turn! We see more noms in your future anyway.
Mr. Clean after Rogaine
“The Bachelor” Producers: Give up casting watching-paint-dry-boring bachelors, floozies, and pregnant gals. Okay, fine, keep casting the floozies and pregnant gals, otherwise why would we watch?
Robert Downey Jr.—you’ve given up enough vices for all the Lents to come—just never give up acting. And never give up that muse you married!
John Mayer: Do yourself, more than anyone else, a favor and STOP GIVING INTERVIEWS. Forty days might not be enough for this one–40 years might be a better plan. Exhibit A and Exhibit B.
