I.    Announcements

II.    Film Screening with Q & A:

III.   A 15-minute Networking Break

IV.   Guest Speaker-of-the-Month:   Anne Nelson

Anne Nelson’s career spans the fields of writing, human rights, and international affairs.  Nelson, a native of Stillwater, Oklahoma, graduated from Yale University.  As a young journalist she covered the wars in El Salvador and Guatemala.  Her work appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and Maclean’s magazine, and on PBS, NPR, and the BBC.  Her 1986 book, “Murder Under Two Flags,” was adapted as a feature film starring Robert Duvall and Kevin Spacey.  In 1989 Nelson won the Livingston Award for best foreign correspondence for her reporting on the Philippines.

As of September 11, 2001, Nelson was the director of the International Program at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.  She based her first play, “The Guys,” on her experiences following in the attack.  It opened at The Flea Theater off-off-Broadway on December 4, 2001 (only twelve weeks later) starring Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray, and ran there for over a year. Tim Robbins produced and starred in “The Guys” with Helen Hunt at the Actors Gang in Los Angeles, and with Susan Sarandon at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.  “The Guys” was published by Dramatists Play Service and Random House, and has been produced in 48 states and fourteen foreign countries. The audio version, featuring Swoosie Kurtz and Bill Irwin, won the Audie Award for best recorded play of 2002. Variety stated:  “The Guys will likely forever be the primary theatrical artifact of the immediate post-September 11th moment.”  Nelson wrote the screenplay for the feature film version, starring Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia, which premiered at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival.  “The Guys” was featured at the Lincoln Center New Directors/New Films series, and won a 2002 National Board of Review Award for Excellence in Filmmaking.

Nelson’s 2006 play, “Savages,” was based on the true story of a Marine officer tried for war crimes during the U.S. occupation of the Philippines in 1902. It was a finalist for the Human Festival and was produced off-Broadway and at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival.  The New Yorker magazine wrote, “Anne Nelson’s historical drama has a lacerating beauty.” It was published by Dramatists Play Service.  Nelson’s series of short plays deal with themes of globalization.  “Petra,” set in Jordan, was a Humana finalist and was included in the Cherry Lane Theater’s 2006 program, “Middle East in Pieces.”  “Delinquent” was presented at the Epic Theater’s 2008 “First Vote” program. “Global Melt” is currently a finalist for the Humana Festival.

Nelson’s newest book is “Red Orchestra: the Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler” (Random House April 2009; Germany, C. Bertelsmann, 2010).  It is the true story of a group of German theater artists and intellectuals who infiltrated the Nazi regime in the effort to defeat it. The New York Times Book Review praised the “deep sympathy and unsentimental compassion of ’Red Orchestra,’ with its story of a tiny band that somehow managed to summon the wild courage to take a stand against a barbarous status quo.”  Nelson has completed a screenplay based on the book, in conjunction with Salty Features. She is working on the first English translation of “The Illegals” (1946), a play by Günther Weisenborn, a Brecht associate who belonged to the resistance group in Berlin.

Nelson was a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow for her research on “Red Orchestra.” She is an adjunct professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, teaching international media studies, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  She and her husband, author and environmentalist George Black, have two college-aged children and live in New York.

Q & A session and special book-signing to be held thereafter.

Upstate Independents meets the first Tuesday of every month at  The Linda: WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, 339 Central Avenue, Albany, NY from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Click the About Us tab to view the Google map and get directions. It is a great opportunity to network with others who are interested in all aspects of film and television production.

Check out the best independent film and media resource in Upstate New York. For more information, e-mail us at info@upstateindependents.com

I.      Announcements

II.   Film Screening with Q & A:

A.)    “Confinement”: 30 minutes

Written, directed, and edited by upstate NY filmmaker John McCarty

Confinement is a modern re-telling of the classic macabre, feminist short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935). It is about a woman whose physician husband has determined she is suffering from depression following the birth of their only child and has installed her in the upstairs bedroom of their rental house to recuperate. There, she becomes fixated on the color and design of the paper that surrounds the room. The film, which is currently making the festival rounds, portrays the impact of this confinement on her mental state and feelings about marriage and motherhood. www.confinementmovie.com

B.)    UI Member John Holser will be screening his demo reel.

III.             A 15-minute Networking Break

IV.           Guest Speaker-of-the-Month:  Kathleen Carroll, Artistic Director & Co-Founder of the Lake Placid Film Forum

Kathleen Carroll was a film critic for the New York Daily News for nearly three decades. Variety described her at one point as “the critic who picks pix people like.” While at the News, she interviewed almost all of the leading directors and actors of the late ‘60’s,‘70’s, ‘80’s and early ‘90’s, including Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Natalie Wood, Federico Fellini, Jane Fonda and even Gloria Swanson. She regularly covered the Cannes Film Festival, co-producing as well as appearing in a documentary called “Diary of the Cannes Film Festival” (which featured the very last interview with actor Peter Sellers). She presented film programs at the Toronto Film Festival and the Sarasota Film Festival. She also attended film festivals in Tehran, Hong Kong and Karlovy Vary. She served on the juries of the Berlin, Montreal and Santa Barbara film festivals. She was a featured programmer, along with Roger Ebert and Richard Corliss, on the Floating Film Festival. A three-time chairperson of the New York Film Critics Circle, she has written for numerous publications. She was an adjunct Associate Professor at St. John’s University and an advisor to the university’s Communication Arts division (1972-1983). In addition she taught film courses at New York University and Marymount Manhattan. A native of Lake Placid, she is both the co-founder (along with novelist Russell Banks) and the artistic director of the Lake Placid Film Forum.

Q & A session to be held thereafter

I.   Announcements

II.  Film Screening with Q & A:

A. Rich Lounello will be screening his short, “The Loop.” (13 minutes)  Destiny has a way of following you.”   Rich has been a professional actor for over 15 years. He is a member in good standing with all 3 unions, SAG, AFTRA, & Equity. This marks his directorial debut. He also has 2 completed screenplays, one with partial funding.

B. Susie Griswald will be screening an excerpt from her screenplay short, “A Killer Game” (6.5 minutes).   This thriller short, written by UI Member Susie Griswold, is based upon an excerpt from her screenplay – read most recently at Upstate Independent’s January Meeting Program.  It was shot entirely with a pocket camera.

III.  A 15-minute Networking Break

IV.  Guest Speaker-of-the-Month:

Heidi Philipsen will be discussing committees forming under her Programming Chair and ways to get involved with UI’s Program Outreach and bring more to UI’s Program.  Q & A session to be held thereafter

I. Announcements – Guest Host, Upstate Actor and UI Member, Rich Lundy!

II. Actors’ Demo Reels – Film, Television & Voice-over

We continue with the second session of our Actor Demo Film/Television/Internet/Voice-over Reel two-part series.

If interested in sharing your reel with the audience, please arrive NO LATER than 6:10 p.m. with a DVD reel in hand to be delivered to The Linda/WAMC’s Performing Studio Associate Manager, Graeme McKenna. Unfortunately, if you are late delivering your reel, it won’t be shown – so get there on time!

Take advantage of this opportunity to exhibit your Demo Reel to the Upstate Indie Industry – and check out the work of your fellow artists!

III. A 15-minute Networking Break

IV. Guest Speaker-of-the-Month:

Due to a cancellation, we will be having “OPEN NETWORKING NIGHT.” Come and share your business card, actor’s postcard, and enjoy the opportunity to meet, greet and connect with your fellow UI members/peers.

I.  Announcements

II.  Film Screening with Q & A:

Actors’ Demo Reels – Film, Television & Voice-over

Take advantage of this opportunity to exhibit your Demo Reel to the Upstate Indie Industry – and check out the work of your fellow artists!

III.  A 15-minute Networking Break

IV.  Guest Speaker-of-the-Month:

Film Screenplay Readings

Upstate Independents continues to kick off 2010 by featuring the work of regional artists and professionals.  This month, join us as we watch local actors read make screenplays by local writers come to life on stage.

Q & A session to be held thereafter

Where we’re located:
Upstate Independents meets the first Tuesday of every month at The Linda: WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, 339 Central Avenue, Albany, NY from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Click here to view the Google map and get directions. It is a great opportunity to network with others who are interested in all aspects of film and television production.

Check out the best independent film and media resource in Upstate New York. For more information, e-mail us at info@upstateindependents.com

For last-minute changes in the schedule, please visit www.upstateindependents.com on the day of the meeting.

Thanks and see you there!