Anyway, I've just returned from a private screening of Tonky, a short film Craig directed along with Elisabeth Andre, written by Budd Harbis, and produced by Julie Shaer.

The film screened at the Ansley Park Playhouse to a crowded room full of enthusiastic fans. While I wasn't overly impressed with the 15-minute film, I was impressed with the support and turnout of the audience. Not that I'm surprised...Craig is a first-class guy and a well-known film editor in town. Clearly, there was a lot of support for the making of this film. And when Tonky plays in your local film festival (which it probably will), go watch it and see what you think!

Elisabeth Andre and Craig Tollis, directors of Tonky

by Jay Blodgett

Pearl Cleage interviewed Alfre Woodard as part of the National Black Arts Festival (July 20-29, 2007) in Atlanta at the Woodruff Performing Arts Center. After a series of introductions (Stephanie S. Hughley, Executive Producer; the 'sponsor moment' by a representative of Wal-Mart; and finally, a couple of hysterical anecdotes from Tanya Richardson, aka Samuel L. Jackson's wife), Ms. Cleage and Ms. Woodard began.

Now, it would have been easier for me to have sneaked in a tape recorder than go over the four pages of notes I made of the conversation, but I'll just include a few highlights here. The interview was a step above James Lipton's "Inside the Actors Studio," mostly due to Ms. Cleage's listening skills and the opportunity to watch Alfre Woodard trail into a brilliant stream of consciousness. Questions about her past sent her down paths of memories, most of which were humorous.

Her first moment of performance was when she was 14 and played a Nazi in Weiss' "Investigation," at the Catholic school she attended in Tulsa. The nun told her she could do it because she had witnessed her "fascist ways in the playground." She said she found a "sense of freedom and place" on stage and she knew she belonged in Los Angeles even then. Regarding her preference in performance, i.e. stage, television or film, she said she is "built for the stage" and that is where she can let "blow out [her] inner Jaguar."

She LOVES film, though she hates the system it has become. She used the example of trying to get a project about Harriet Tubman off the ground and the blockade of "committees" of producers who can't reach the "white male demographic" with such a subject. However, she loves "the state of refinement" that film allows her to achieve in a performance. She had some very interesting things to say about television. First, it is a daily grind that she does not particularly like. However, she appreciates that her "healing work" (she did a lot of referencing to a universal power which she taps into and guides her work) reaches everyone's home, and that the medium allows people access to artists that can transport them from their daily stress.

As for her "process" she is of the "body as an instrument" school and NOT of sense memory, or as she referred to it "psychodrama" technique. She says she just "squats and breathes" to relax her body and get it out of the way of the character. She also had advice for young performers. "Train for the stage... offer what you do as a service... spiritualize your thoughts..."

The audience was highly receptive, particularly as the conversation moved to more spiritual matters. So with that in mind, I feel compelled to point out how out of place I must admit I felt. However, I did NOT feel uncomfortable. Well, except that I was under dressed. Tickets were only $15 and, coming from a San Francisco perspective, I thought that this meant I could show up in shorts and a blousey casual shirt. People dressed up for this like an opening night, which it was. Also, I was one of two Caucasian males in the audience, the other one being Ms. Woodard's husband. (My copious note-taking throughout the evening was also a bit conspicuous, as people around me asked who I was writing for.)

C-47 just announced the Winter 2007 Showcase winner, and I'm not surprised to find out that it was Lyra Lezama, written and directed by Clayton Haskell. I was a judge on this showcase, and Lyra Lezama was my # 1 choice. It got a perfect score of 20 from me, based on originality, technical proficiency, content, and style.

There were 26 films on three DVDs to judge, and interestingly, my two favorites showed up on the last DVD — they saved the best for last! After hours of sitting through the other 24 films (all good films and fun to watch), I finally found myself saying, "Wow!" after watching Lyra Lezama. I was so enthralled, here are the only notes I took while watching: "Cuba! Dog in the light! Subtitles….beautiful!"

You can see Lyra Lezama on July 3, 2007 at 1:00 am on Georgia Public Broadcasting television. Why 1 a.m.?? I don't know -- it seems a shame to screen this beautiful short just for night owls. Luckily, you can also watch this gorgeous and fascinating piece on the C-47 website.

Let me go ahead and tell you about my second favorite film from the entries. White Feathers, from filmmaker Rebecca Scott, blew me away with its film rendition of a beautifully choreographed dance describing the horrendous act of female genital mutilation in Africa. It's a dance film without dialog, but powerfully conveys its message in symbolism, dance, and music. (Ironically, the only downside to this film was that the opening and closing titles were almost impossible to read.) I don't know how you can see this film, but I hope you get a chance. It was amazing! And a short!

Both these short masterpieces came from SCAD film students. They're doing something terrific down there in Savannah with their film program, it seems.

I definitely was waiting to watch this movie. Daniel Pearl's story shook the world and a movie made based on accounts by none other than his wife was something to look out for. Somehow though, it left me cold and untouched, more like a very impersonal third person documentary rather than an actual real-time run through of events. The filmmaker tries to give the audience a feel of the place and time by interspersing the actual timeline of the movie with the ongoing investigation and bits of video and imagery that form some sort of flashback sequence. But this in no way deals with who Daniel was as an individual or to throw more light on his situation.

The movie really is just about Mariane and that's it! The investigation scenes seem very unrealistic and a lot is left to the imagination especially scenes that are meant to imply some physical force and there isn't any except expressions on the actors faces to make up for that. Personally, I don't want any more blood and gore than we already have in action-packed movies these days but in resorting to that tactic, the director simply left it to the actors to portray the emotion of the moment and it simply just did not come through at all.

The only saving grace to this movie is Angelina Jolie and the pull factor her name provides to the project. The scene where she screams out crying after first receiving news of her husband's death resulted in a couple of sniffles and sobs among audience members but the general feedback from the group of folks I watched the movie with seemed to be quite unfavorable.

This is one of those movies you hope will release soon and you want to watch it, hoping it tells you something you didn't know, or hits you with really strong emotions and brilliant acting that you want to run out and recommend it to everyone. In that aspect, the movie fails terribly. I wouldn't have you wasting your money watching this movie at the theatre, or even bothering to watch it all! Believe me, you aren't missing anything.

By Ruksana Hussain

In case you didn't know it, your friend and mine, local Atlanta filmmaker and actor, Ken Feinberg, is at Cannes this week premiering two short films.

He's also creating a video blog while he is there, which you can watch at his myspace page -- pretty entertaining!

He has several blog entries up already, with more to come, he says.

Southern Screen Report wishes Ken all the best at Cannes! Way to go, bud!

For more info, see www.sevengenerationsfilm.com .

Recently, I was asked to be on the jury of the C-47 selection committee. If you don't know, C-47 is a new project sponsored by GPB-TV that airs short films (up to 25 minutes) by Georgia filmmakers. That's right--these films air on public television.

(For loads of info on C-47 and other short film screening opportunities, pick up a copy of the March print edition of SSR at one of these locations.)

Anyway, after agreeing to the task, I received a package in the mail with the films. 26 films on three DVDs in a smart little folder—I love good packaging! It's my favorite things about Apple—have you ever unpacked one of those 30-inch monitors? Anyway…

The C-47 instructions were to rate each film on a scale of one to five on these four elements:

• Originality
• Technical Proficiency
• Style
• Content

There were fairly specific directions on the meaning of each of these elements. A perfect score for each film would be 20. I gave out one perfect score, for a film I will tell you about after all the selections have been made. I gave out one 19 score, and three 18 scores. The rest fell off pretty quickly into films you would never want to sit around and watch on your weekend, which is what I did.

But out of 26 short films, five were outstanding. In fact, I enjoyed these five C-47 films more than any of the short programs I watched at the recent Atlanta Film Festival. (I wonder if these were submitted to AFF and didn't make the cut there? I don't know.)

But it was great fun to see the talent of these Georgia filmmakers! There were several notable submissions from the Savannah College of Art and Design—student films! (I will tell you that two of my highest-rated films were student submissions from SCAD—filmmakers I will keep an eye on.)

I so enjoyed the experience that I've already volunteered to do it again for the Fall Showcase. There are 11 judges, so don't blame me if your film wasn't picked. You can see a full jury list at http://www.cforty7.com/main/jury.

If you're a Georgia filmmaker and you have a short film, send it to C-47. There is no submission fee. Deadline for the Fall Showcase is June 30. There are deadlines for each quarterly showcase, so you can submit a different film four times a year.

For complete info, see http://www.cforty7.com.

I can't wait to see your film!

Pam Cole
Editor-in-Chief, Southern Screen Report