Creative husband and wife team, Alex Meillier & Tanya Ager Meillier, first became involved with the East Timor region in 2005 when they were stationed there as part of a documentary unit for the United Nations Mission of Support to East Timor. They came across the autobiography of the former First Lady, Kirsty Sword Gusmão, and found the point of view for the story that was right for them. In the meantime the pair honed their filmmaking techniques working in features producing, photographing and editing the film "Obscene" which premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and then working as editors for Michael Moore on "Capitalism: A Love Story." In 2009 they began planning to shoot their latest work, "Alias Ruby Blade." What it's about: "Kirsty Sword, a young Australian activist, aspired to be a documentary filmmaker in East Timor, but instead became an underground operative for the Timorese resistance against Indonesia in Jakarta.
- 4/13/2013
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
From John Gall, art director for Vintage and Anchor Books, comes word that legendary publisher and film distributor Barney Rosset has passed away at the age of 89. Gall points us to a lively profile by Louisa Thomas that ran in Newsweek in late 2008: "Rosset's publishing house, Grove Press, was a tiny company operating out of the ground floor of Rosset's brownstone when it published an obscure play called Waiting for Godot in 1954. By the time Beckett had won the Nobel Prize in 1969, Grove had become a force that challenged and changed literature and American culture in deep and lasting ways. Its impact is still evident — from the Che Guevara posters adorning college dorms to the canonical status of the house's once controversial authors. Rosset is less well known — but late in his life he is achieving some wider recognition. Last month, a black-tie crowd gave Rosset a standing ovation...
- 2/24/2012
- MUBI
In 1951, Barney Rosset took charge of Grove Press, and via its flagship literary magazine Evergreen Review he spent the next few decades publishing some of the most important writers of the 20th century—Samuel Beckett, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Edward Albee, and more—along with some of the most spurious. According to Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor's documentary Obscene, Rosset didn't just help shape his times; he was a product of them. Born in 1922 and raised in Chicago, Rosset fought his boyhood inclination to sympathize with anti-social types like John Dillinger, and instead tried to be an upstanding citizen, with a wife and a college degree and distinguished military service. But once Rosset was exposed to the freethinking European art community and the New York jazz scene, it occurred to him that both he and the American culture at large could handle a lot more free expression than they'd been.
- 10/2/2008
- by Noel Murray
- avclub.com
'I feel personally that a word has never been written or uttered that should not be published," free-speech hero Barney Rosset says in "Obscene," a compelling documentary about him directed by neophytes Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor.
As publisher of Evergreen magazine and owner of Grove Press in the 1960s, Rosset introduced Americans to such writers as Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Malcolm X and Harold Pinter.
Perhaps more importantly, he sued...
As publisher of Evergreen magazine and owner of Grove Press in the 1960s, Rosset introduced Americans to such writers as Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Malcolm X and Harold Pinter.
Perhaps more importantly, he sued...
- 9/26/2008
- by By V.A. MUSETTO
- NYPost.com
By Neil Pedley
If the old maxim "What I really want to do is direct" still holds true, this week's releases confirm that the filmmaking game is more open than ever. Anyone can have a crack at it; actors, teachers, digital artists, preachers. Perhaps you should have a go yourself. Hell, if Paul W.S. Anderson can get work doing it...
"The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela"
Offering up the most unlikely fairytale you're ever likely to see, Icelandic filmmaker Olaf de Fleur Johannesson draws on his documentary background with this endearing low-budget, semi-improvised Cinderella story. As a young Filipino lady-boy, the spunky, pre-op sex worker Raquela longs to be the belle of the ball as she trawls the Internet looking for love. When an American suitor pledges to be her Prince Charming and proposes a meeting in France, Raquela departs for her long-awaited date with destiny under the glittering Paris skyline.
If the old maxim "What I really want to do is direct" still holds true, this week's releases confirm that the filmmaking game is more open than ever. Anyone can have a crack at it; actors, teachers, digital artists, preachers. Perhaps you should have a go yourself. Hell, if Paul W.S. Anderson can get work doing it...
"The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela"
Offering up the most unlikely fairytale you're ever likely to see, Icelandic filmmaker Olaf de Fleur Johannesson draws on his documentary background with this endearing low-budget, semi-improvised Cinderella story. As a young Filipino lady-boy, the spunky, pre-op sex worker Raquela longs to be the belle of the ball as she trawls the Internet looking for love. When an American suitor pledges to be her Prince Charming and proposes a meeting in France, Raquela departs for her long-awaited date with destiny under the glittering Paris skyline.
- 9/22/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
LONDON -- Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure, Chris Waitt's A Complete History of My Sexual Failures and James Marsh's Man on Wire are three of 22 documentaries selected to unspool during this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Nine of the documentaries come from the U.S., organizers said. These include Daniel O'Connor and Neil Ortenberg's Obscene, Ron Davis and Stewart Halpern's Pageant, Margaret Brown's The Order of Myths and C. Karim Chrobog's War Child.
The documentary section also includes Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World, Erik Nelson's Dreams With Sharp Teeth and Peter Geyer's Jesus Christ Savior.
The 19 films in the documentary festival sidebar, along with three docus presented as galas, will compete for the festival's best documentary prize.
This year's festival runs June 18-29, The First Edition not to take place in its traditional August dates.
Nine of the documentaries come from the U.S., organizers said. These include Daniel O'Connor and Neil Ortenberg's Obscene, Ron Davis and Stewart Halpern's Pageant, Margaret Brown's The Order of Myths and C. Karim Chrobog's War Child.
The documentary section also includes Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World, Erik Nelson's Dreams With Sharp Teeth and Peter Geyer's Jesus Christ Savior.
The 19 films in the documentary festival sidebar, along with three docus presented as galas, will compete for the festival's best documentary prize.
This year's festival runs June 18-29, The First Edition not to take place in its traditional August dates.
- 4/21/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Obscene, the chronicle of a publisher's fight to print the works of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Malcolm X, Che Guevara and others, has been picked up for worldwide distribution by Arthouse Films.
Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor's docu looks at Barney Rosset, the publisher of Grove Press and Evergreen Review who waged repeated U.S. court battles over freedom of the press. Interviews and footage with Amiri Baraka, Jim Carroll, Al Goldstein (no relation to the author), Erica Jong, Ray Manzarek, John Sayles, Gore Vidal, John Waters, Lenny Bruce and William S. Burroughs are featured.
Obscene, produced by the directors' New York-based Double O Film Prods., examines Rossett's public fights and personal demons. The soundtrack includes music by Bob Dylan, the Doors, Patti Smith, Warren Zevon, X and Ella Fitzgerald. Arthouse plans a 2008 theatrical and DVD release.
The deal was negotiated by Arthouse's David Koh and Curiously Bright Entertainment's Lilly Bright with Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment on behalf of Ortenberg and O'Connor.
Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor's docu looks at Barney Rosset, the publisher of Grove Press and Evergreen Review who waged repeated U.S. court battles over freedom of the press. Interviews and footage with Amiri Baraka, Jim Carroll, Al Goldstein (no relation to the author), Erica Jong, Ray Manzarek, John Sayles, Gore Vidal, John Waters, Lenny Bruce and William S. Burroughs are featured.
Obscene, produced by the directors' New York-based Double O Film Prods., examines Rossett's public fights and personal demons. The soundtrack includes music by Bob Dylan, the Doors, Patti Smith, Warren Zevon, X and Ella Fitzgerald. Arthouse plans a 2008 theatrical and DVD release.
The deal was negotiated by Arthouse's David Koh and Curiously Bright Entertainment's Lilly Bright with Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment on behalf of Ortenberg and O'Connor.
- 11/7/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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