Beasts has just won two awards at the National Board of Review Awards!

Benh Zeitlin and Quvenzhané Wallis have won Best Directorial Debut and  Breakthrough Actress! Congratulations!

Check out Quvenzhané Wallis become Hushpuppy in this behind the scenes clip from Beasts!

Also, don’t forget to pre-order the DVD coming out tomorrow for more behind the scenes footage on the special features!

Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin’s score from GLORY AT SEA is featured in a video for the Obama campaign!

Check it out below!

Thanks to your vote, Beasts is now a finalist for the IFP Gotham Audience Award. Voting is now open for the second and final round. We hope you’ll follow the link and help us BEAST THE VOTE!

http://www.beastsofthesouthernwild.com/news/beast-the-vote/

Beasts has been selected to travel with the Sundance Institute’s Film Forward program!

Film Forward uses the power of cinema to inspire curiosity, foster dialogue, promote broader cultural understanding and enhance awareness of shared stories and values across generations, language, education and borders.

http://www.sundance.org/press-center/release/sundance-institute-announces-year-three-of-film-forward-advancing-cultural/

Hi guys! Check out this preview of Benh Zeitlin, Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry speaking to Oprah about Beasts of the Southern Wild:

Why Oprah Loves Beasts of the Southern Wild

In an all-new episode, Oprah sits down with first-time feature film director Benh Zeitlin and breakout stars Dwight Henry and Quvenzhané Wallis from the independent film Beasts of the Southern Wild. Find out why Oprah wants to share lessons from the movie that has Hollywood buzzing.

Unable to quench your thirst for everything south of the levee? Check out the Creators Project, and learn a couple of the secrets behind creating the Bathtub universe:

So, this isn’t something we normally do here, but we’ve recently
had a tragedy in the Court 13 family, and in the spirit of taking care
of each other, I wanted to tell everyone about the struggle of John
Maringouin. He’s one of the wild, soulful, and truly important
filmmakers alive right now.

John Maringouin was diagnosed with a tumor in his lung recently, and
after being completely screwed by his insurance company, is being
forced to pay for an urgent life-saving operation out of pocket.
John’s one of the best people I know, and he’s a Louisiana boy to boot.

Please consider helping him beat this tragic situation with a donation of any size.

Thanks so much, and look forward to meeting more of you on the road with Beasts.
bhz

Really love Beasts of the Southern Wild and want to share the experience with all your friends? Use beastsofthesouthernwild.com to set up an event: parties, lectures, group theater trips, discussions. However you want to deepen your Beasts experience, you can set it up here.

7 weeks into its release, our first feature Beasts of the Southern Wild has now played at 400 theaters across the U.S, and has recieved a ton of love from people across the country.

A lot of you have taken it upon themselves to spread the word to anyone who might listen to them, be it to their friends, family or social networks.  In some cases people tell 10 of their friends (which makes a huge difference) sometimes 50.  And in the case of Oprah, she took it upon herslelf to tell her 13,282,786 closest friends through Twitter.  Actually, like any good member of the court 13 family she did not tell those 13,282,786 friends just once but rather 8 times.  That’s right she tweeted about it 8 times!  Needless to say we are pretty excited.

Here are a few of Oprah’s tweets:

“Saw BEASTS of the SOUTHERN WILD last nite. Speechless! Woke up this morning thinking about it. Still no words.”

“Can’t say enough about BEASTS of the SOUTHERN WILD . If you get a chance see this weekend. Stunning!”

“people had told me about BEASTS of the SOUTHERN WILD. They were all correct. 6 year old girl is STUNNING !!”

Don’t know if you’ve heard or not, but Sundance has worked out pretty well for us.

Much to our delight, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD has taken this tiny cinematic enclave in the middle of Mormonia by storm, so to speak. Volunteers loved it, then premierers loved it, then reviewers loved it, then Salt Lakers loved it — and Sundancers continue to love it. Turns out that people actually understand and vibe on this crazy thing we’ve been doing for the last 3 years! What’s most cool about this is that it means people across the country will have a chance to see it as well.

What to do as you wait for that? Check out the swank new site and join the beast army.

Friends and neighbors,

Come out to see the Court 13 short “Devin’s Ward” at its premiere at the New Orleans Film Festival this weekend! Made on a shoestring budget, that became more of a bootstring budget when all the footage was nearly lost on a bunk hard drive and had to be recovered by emergency room technicians, this micro-slice of life stars Court 13 regulars Dwight Henry, Nicholas Clark, Jovan Hathaway, Levy Easterly, and newcomer Andrae Noel. The crew was a full Court press – Michael Gottwald as director, Casey Coleman as producer, Bob Weisz and Sophie Kosofsky on art direction, Alana Ackerman and Derek Ustruck as best supporting jammers. Post production supervisor: Crockett Doob. Godfathers: Josh Penn, Benhas Zeitlin, Dan Janvey. Bill Ross plays “Man drinking a tall boy in a bakery.”

“DEVIN’S WARD”

Sunday Oct. 16 // 2:10 PM // the Prytania Theatre

Monday Oct. 17 // 5:25 PM // Canal Place

THIS is welcome news.

And if the Saegner holds true to what its marquee currently says (“Re-opening 2011″), we could have two hell of nice venues for cinema–or at least Richard Pryor stand-up shows–back in business in the near future.

If Court 13 ever commandeers these spaces for any big event, hear us now: we exclusively invite you. All of you.

Josh Ente held Court over our full-blown foray into Hotlanta, where he’s riding dirty on 85 + stretching our tentacles into the non-profit arts world. He showed a 50 minute program of Court 13 films and bantered with a local university film professor, and generally pretended like he knew what he was talking about. It only cost $5, and free PBR was served! Thanks, Atlanta! We told you beer was better than Coke!

More on the event here. More about Josh Ente here.

The DEATH TO THE TINMAN screening last night has been postponed. It was going to play before “Dr. Strangelove.” Here are the details from the New Orleans Film Society:

“The drive-in screening of Dr. Strangelove has been rescheduled for next Saturday, July 23. It will take place in the same scheduled location: the parking lot of the First Schwegmann’s Giant Super Market at the corner of St. Claude and Elysian Fields.”

As I’m sure you’ve heard, the Mississippi is reaching historic and disastrous levels, and the good of one populace (Baton Rouge & New Orleans) has been pitted against that of another (the farmers in the Mississippi flood plain) with the opening of the Morganza spillway.

To help his students make sense of this, a professor at LSU recently framed the news using the Court’s seminal film–“Glory at Sea”–to question how nature and religion are imagined in Southern culture. He even went ahead and connected it to titans of other mediums. He begins his blog post by quoting the character Reverend Carlton–”Look out at that ocean, that sky, the fish, the birds, wild and wicked out in the chaos. Is there a god that can deliver us from the chaos of nature?”–before having this to say:

From my perspective, “Glory at Sea” is a film about religion. It is about living in a broken world, seeking order in chaos, and finding meaning in suffering. It is about a people in exile, a people lost at sea, a people without a home. Recently, students in my “Religion in Louisiana” course watched the film and wrote an essay relating its themes to several other books about life in Louisiana and the Mississippi River Delta, including Brenda Marie Osbey’s collection of poems “All Saints,” Tennessee Williams’ play Vieux Carré,” and William Alexander Percy’s autobiography “Lanterns on the Levee”…

Our thoughts go out to those along the river who have lost something vast to nature this time. May they find some sort of meaning in the suffering.

This just premiered online, and we couldn’t be prouder to say it’s a Court 13 Production.

Big Freedia – “Y’all Get Back Now” from stereogum on Vimeo.

Bob Weisz and Josh Ente directed, as Casey Coleman and Michael Gottwald produced– all hard core/corps/Court members. The video also features the talents of innumerable Court 13 cast & crew alumni- including but not limited to Alana Ackerman, Derek Ustruck, Gordon Bell, Cheryl Domino, Jovan Hathaway, Ally Firmin, Lowell Landes, Mama Jo Campbell, Levy Easterly, Henry D. Coleman, Theodore Byrd, Bryonna Williams, and Eddie Granger… with a very special appearance by Court friend and dance machine, Max Goldblatt.

But make no mistake, the star of the show is Big Freedia and our precious hometown, the Big Easy. Court 13 and Sissy Bounce are a match made in Elysian Fields. Enjoy!

Okay, so this actually happened back in early May. But early May was precisely the time when we spent every day from 6 AM to 8 PM battling mosquitos, 90 degree heat, and the temperment of both brackish tides and pre-teen girls, so you’ll forgive me when I say that I slightly lost my mind for a few days and didn’t blog about this.

BUT. There was never a better time to tell you that the good people at the San Francisco Film Society and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation awarded “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD” a grant for $50,000 for post-production! Because as I write, “Beasts” is indeed deep in post-production, and now the transition from Rough Cut to Picture Lock can take us to San Francisco in search of finishing elements.

Court 13 has a soft spot in its cockles for the second best city in America, and we couldn’t be more grateful to Michele, Sara, and the whole crew at SFFS for this opportunity. We raise our Abita to your Anchor Steam.

Apologies for the months-long blog silence. We were deep in the bayou, shooting the feature film tentatively titled “Beasts of the Southern Wild”… We began shooting on April 20th, and we’re wrapping up TODAY in New Orleans! The whole thing has been an amazing experience–exhausting, exhilirating, terrifying, inspiring… and totally insane. Much more to come, soon, as we transition out of the Bathtub and back to Reality. Thanks for sticking with us.

Court 13 Universe! Big big news to report! Perhaps the biggest since our inception!

Our new feature film, formerly titled “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD,” on which we’ve been working and yammering about in the blog the last year and a half, is officially greenlit! THIS WHOLE THING’S REALLY GOING TO HAPPEN!

Through a partnership with our insanely generous friends, New York-based non-profit Cinereach, Court 13′s latest project is all set to start filming April 28th. Our budget’s approved, our crew is assembled, and we’ve hit the ground running.

A mighty brigade of 50 has settled way down the bayou, in Montegut, LA, with our headquarters at its epicenter: a former gas station / 18 wheeler garage turned production office / Art Dept shop. The whole operation was recently featured in two articles in the local newspaper — check them out here, and here.

But words do not do justice to the vibe on the ground here; the sense of community and common purpose in our group is overwhelming. I’ll let the slideshow give you an idea.

Blog posts may become increasingly infrequent as we jam through the rest of pre-production and charge through our 7 week shoot, but every possible effort will be made to update you, loyal Court 13er. Stay hungry.

Happy Mardi Gras, very late! The vibe here in Nola was as euphoric as a Tracey Porter interception. We hope your gris gris was greasy and you got your bead on like a chief.

February has been a cross-continental month for Ray Tintori. First, he broke free of New Orleans for Mr. Jefferson’s Academy in the Appalachians, the University of my home commonwealth, Virginia. Yes, the Court now has scholastic cred: Prof. Tintori was on campus to serve as pedagogue for a one-week crash course in filmmaking for UVA undergrads. Wahoo-wa! You can get the full story here.

A few weeks later, Ray traversed the Atlantic to be on hand for the Court 13 Retrospective at the Glasgow Film Festival, entitled THIS IS NOT A BOAT: The Improbable Story of Court 13, which featured the long awaited United Kingdom premiere of “Glory at Sea.”

A mere seven year career thus far and already we get a retrospective? Are we the John Cazale of indie film? Do the Scots think we’re all going to die suddenly of bone cancer? Either way, we’re very humbled, and appreciate kind words like these:

GLORY AT SEA is the collective’s most ambitious project; the culmination of trial and error, several unwanted breaks due to funding issues, five month’s work and the generosity of a ruined city. It is evidence that Court 13 have a vision, and while many would stumble at the first impossible hurdle, this collective have a way of achieving their goals.This perseverance is more than simply a means to an end – it is the ethos of the Court… Just as Werner Herzog famously dragged a real ship over a mountain to create FITZCARRALDO (1982), the actions of Court 13 echo the actions of their characters in GLORY AT SEA, adding layers of meaning and strength to this already powerful and resonant short.

Also the culmination of trial and error: on-site blogger Paul Gallagher finally caught up with Ray after the retrospective to talk the future of the Court; you can read that post here.

Now Ray is back in Saints-land, where we win football games with our hands and not our feet. WHO DAT!

Last December we welcomed to town Philly pop-gaze band A Sunny Day in Glasgow, who were wanted for several Federal Acts of Indecency committed in the Mormon states. They had fled to Court 13 headquarters in New Orleans, thinking for some reason it was a sovereign state. To help keep their exposure low, they enlisted the help of Mistress of Disguise Z Behl, who, with her team of talented bohemians, helped the group blend into their environment. During the ensuing 3-day bender, their antics were surreptitiously filmed by C13 puppies Josh Penn and Bob Weisz, with the help of half-man-half-camera Jake Springfield. Despite much negotiation with the FBI about exchanging the footage for a Greek-shipping-magnate level of fortunes, Bob and Josh decided to release it to the masses as a music video. Unfortunately the band felt the video would raise their national exposure back up to dangerous levels, and thus they are currently hiding under the floorboards of a schooner on its way to Venezuela. But here it is anyway!

A high res version can also be seen at http://court13.com/sunnyday.mov

Any donations toward Sunny Day’s cause, or to Court 13 in order to make up for the billions lost in the FBI deal, would be much appreciated.

You may recall that our project, formerly “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” currently “(Untitled Court 13 Southern Apocalypse Comedy)” qualified to become an Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award finalist. The new news is that we won! One of four winners from around the world, the project is now guaranteed distribution on Japanese TV, and will collect $85,000 towards its completion! Benh and company were on hand at Sundance to receive the gracious accolade from our Japanese counterparts.

In Sundance’s own words:

Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) today announced the winners of the 2010 Sundance / NHK International Filmmakers Awards. The four winners were selected from 12 finalists by members of an International Jury…

Originally created to celebrate 100 years of Cinema, the annual award recognizes and supports four visionary filmmakers from Europe, Latin America, the United States, and Japan on their next films. Each winner receives approximately $100,000 ($10,000 as a cash award and a guarantee from NHK to purchase the Japanese television broadcast rights). In addition, Sundance Institute staff works closely with the winners throughout the year, providing creative and strategic support through the development, financing and production of their films.

“This year’s winners unsettle, delight and move audiences with their innovative and inspiring work. We celebrate each of their distinct styles and the unique lens through which they view the world”, said Alesia Weston, Associate Director of Sundance’s Feature Film Program, International.

As we head into pre-production in just a few short weeks, we wholeheartedly promise that we will deliver cinema that will unsettle, delight, and move you (but probably not in that order).

Thanks to Sundance for accommodating the Court in the last week. We had a grand old time, especially being the only Saints fans in a bar room full of Vikings fans, during the NFC Championship.

GO SAINTS!

More often than not, the “global warming” hubbub is presented to us detached and distant– like a snuff film starring the Earth that we watch on TV, slightly horrified and mostly stunned stupid. But for Southern Louisianans not only does climate change present itself as visible, prescient, commonly known fact but it also determines an entire way of life–it’s rapidly destroying the road they use to go see their grandparents, it ruins the shrimp crop that makes up their livelihood, and it makes rebuilding your home a near yearly activity.

What follows are links to some articles about the very community in Southern Louisiana where this is happening, the very same community where we’re making the movie. Our film focuses on towns like this–people on the very edge, literally and figuratively, of our global disaster’s front line. We have the environmental dynamics come to a head in a matter of days instead of years, but the issues faced are the same:

What are you expected to do when your natural environment breaks down? When land sinks in front of your eyes?

How do you deal with a government that cuts you out of its protection?

That tries to pay you off to leave the only home you’ve ever known?

Our film makes an attempt to answer these questions through human drama. But for the people we’ve come to know on Isle de Jean Charles, in Pointe-Aux-Chenes, in Dulac, this is no fictional story.

Right, so you follow the blog, and you know “Sundance” is a good thing, but you read about us getting into the Directors/Writers/Producers Lab, and think – What the hell is that? Who’s there? What do you do all day? Does it involve beakers?

Thanks to YouTube, the Sundance Institute has demystified much of the process with a few short videos. In this one, Benh and Lucy hash out the challenges the “BEASTS” script presents, with actors like Eddie Rouse, and advisors like Christopher McQuarrie (screenwriter, “The Usual Suspects”). Enjoy!*

*New Yorkers will be pleased to see that Benh reps Katz’s hard in this video.

A great day in Court 13 land! It has come to our attention that the Court’s new project “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD” has been blessed with the generosity of Rooftop Films and bestowed their Filmmakers Fund Eastern Effects Equipment Grant!

What does this mean? It means that during production we will be given use of one whole grip truck’s worth of equipment (courtesy of Eastern Effects) for free– a load off our back, for sure.

Rooftop Films is a longtime friend of Court 13, with this only being the latest case of their benevolence. Rooftop saw “GLORY AT SEA” through hard times, awarding us a life-saving grant when money was short, and they’ve been kind enough to screen many a Court 13 film on many a New York rooftop–including “EGG,” “I GET WET,” and “GLORY AT SEA.” Check out what they’re up to at www.rooftopfilms.com.

If you live in New York, you have no excuse not to go see a compelling, hard-to-see movie on a starlit rooftop in Brooklyn. Plus, it’s officially Fall now! Outdoor movie weather!

Here is an email we sent out to all Court 13 supporters. If you’re a regular reader of our blog, most of this will not be news to you.

If you’d like to join our e-mail army, please click
HERE.

Hello Court 13 Faithful!

Well it should be no surprise that more than four months have passed since our last “monthly” Court 13 update (The good news is we didn’t clog up your inbox though, right?). But don’t confuse our lack of communication with inertia, because its source is in fact the opposite: we’ve actually been busy as bees down here in New Orleans… and so our silence is even less excusable. Let’s just get right to the bullet points:

* Benjamin Harold Zeitlin attended the Sundance Directors/Screenwriters Lab in June, in service of the new project, “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD.” The Directors Lab allowed Benh to work out directing challenges his and Lucy’s script presents, and workshop certain scenes with talented actors. Benh was grateful to work with Ms. Paula Jai Parker (whom you might recognize from her turn as Craig’s girlfriend in the film “Friday”), and Mr. Eddie Rouse (star of Court friend Zack Godshall’s film “Low and Behold,” and frequent player in the movies of David Gordon Green). Following the Director’s Lab, he and “Beasts” co-writer Lucy Alibar took part in a 2nd Screenwriters Lab to continue workshopping the script.

* In July, Court 13′s Josh Penn and Dan Janvey were 2 of 6 fellows selected for the 2009 Sundance Creative Producers Initiative. The initiative was created to support a new generation of emerging indie producers. While in Utah, they took part in the Producer’s Lab, which is designed to develop a producer’s creative instincts and to evolve their communication and problem-solving skills. At the labs their mentors included Paul Mezey (“Maria Full of Grace,” “Half Nelson”), Jay Van Hoy (“Old Joy,” “Treeless Mountain”), Lynette Howell (“Half Nelson,” “Phoebe in Wonderland”), and Mary Jane Skalski (“The Visitor,” “The Station Agent”). As fellows they also attended the Creative Producing Summit and received grants for further development and pre-production. The fellowship will continue throughout the year as they will receive ongoing creative and strategic support from industry mentors and the Sundance staff, and will attend the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

* Spike Jonze tapped Court 13’s Ray Tintori to write/direct an adaptation of Shane Jones debut novel “Light Boxes,” which Jonze will produce. The book tells the story of a war waged by a group of balloonists against the seemingly endless month of February. As a side note, Court 13 is officially very excited to see Jonze’s new movie, “Where the Wild Things Are”.

* Work continued full steam ahead on “BEASTS”: Benh and Lucy got their creative distributaries flowing by spending a writer’s retreat on top of a bait shop, in the very bayous where the film takes place and where we aim to shoot. The final script is in its last stages. Meanwhile we continue to scour every Parish, community center, and school system in the great state of Louisiana, looking for that one girl, one special girl, who can fill the very large (but actually very small) shoes of the main part in the film (If you know any half-black Cajun 8 year-olds who can gut a fish and operate a fanboat, please contact michael@court13.com IMMEDIATELY).

* It was unusually hot in May.

* The Court 13 Acting/Moviemaking Program for Young People, or whatever we’re calling it today, concluded with the Premiere of each of the three classes’ short films at Colton School. Parents applauded, children blushed, fun was had by all. We have been proudly rolling these movies out on the blog the last couple of weeks; the final one was posted a couple days ago–check it out by clicking here. The kids look forward to appearing in the upcoming feature film.

* Ray Tintori’s long-awaited music video for MGMT’s “Kids” (filmed at Colton and in New Orleans) was released, and a small blogstorm ensued. Click here to see what all the fuss was about.

* Religious war broke out in the comments section of the “Glory at Sea” YouTube page (page 2 is where the fun is). Everyone is being very amiable and tolerant, as is standard practice for YouTube discourse.

* Court 13 Omnimedia’s music video for “Evident Utensil,” by Chairlift, was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award, for Best Breakthrough Video. Ray directed, Bob Weisz produced and datamoshed. We expect EVERYONE to tune in to the prestigious ceremony this Sunday, to support your favorite Omnimedia organization.

That’s it for right now! Development on the film charges ahead, army and weapons will be assembled in winter, and the big sha-bang will go down in early spring. Stay tuned! You can keep slightly less sporadic tabs on us by visiting our blog at court13news.blogspot.com, and you can catch even more news and silly status updates by facebooking us here.

Thanks for your time, and may you have a good harvest season.

Love,

The Court

Our final presentation from the kids of the Court 13 Acting/Moviemaking After School Program… “The Big Hide-and-Go-Seek” is a whodunit set in the halls of Colton, where a legendary Hide-and-Go-Seek game went down, recalled “Rashomon”-style by its participants on a daytime talk show.

Starring Alexis, Kenneth, Larielle, Margot, Saida, Tione, and Wynton.

As promised, here’s the next kids’ film- this one from the Wednesday class. It’s a horror/psychological thriller/movie about a talking grasshopper. Sort of.

Starring Antonio, Bryonna, Eddie, Nicholas, Ryan, and Terielle.

As mentioned in prior posts, Court 13 runs what could best be termed an after school program for the handful of talented, creative, and hilarious kids who we have chosen to appear in our next big feature film… the name of which you already know, if you read this blog at all, so I will refer to it with a title that one might use to tout its concept in one of those anxious Hollywood pitch sessions–”FIDDLER ON THE LEVEE.”

Before they appear in “FIDDLER ON THE LEVEE,” we wanted to give these micro-performers some experience acting and making a movie. So each of the three classes came up with their own story ideas for a short film, and, as a kind of final project, we shot them, edited them, and premiered them. We think they’re pretty good!

We’ll be rolling all three out over the next couple weeks, but for right now, here’s the Tuesday class movie, “SCAREDY CAT SUPERHEROES.” Starring Amari, Jonshel, Lauren, Nathan, Nyla, Theodore, and Mr. Chris. We tried to drop it on YouTube, but music industry tyrants jacked our audio before you could say “fair use.” You can protest the handicapped version here.

Look for the Wednesday movie, described as “Polanski-esque,” and the Thursday movie, a murder mystery without any murder (we swear, parents), coming soon.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Court 13 Omnimedia’s music video for Chairlift’s “Evident Utensil” has been nominated for “Best Breakthrough Video” for this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. The video was directed by Ray Tintori and produced and special effected by Bob Weisz.

Please watch and vote for the video at
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2009/breakthrough-video/

As I type these very words, two of the producers of the upcoming “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” Dan Janvey and Josh Penn, are on a mountain in the land of the Utes, gleaning knowledge from the independent film world’s best and brightest.

Yes, that’s right, we’ve batted for the cycle: after the invaluable chance to attend both the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the Directors Lab, Court 13 was also accepted into the Sundance Producers Lab! The press release from Sundance has more info:

The Feature Film Creative Producing Lab, a five-day Lab for narrative feature film producers takes place at the Sundance Resort in Utah from July 20-24, 2009, just prior to the [Creative Producing] Summit. The Lab is designed to develop a producer’s creative instincts in all stages of film production and to evolve his/her communication and problem-solving skills. The fellows will also attend the Creative Producing Summit, the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, receive ongoing creative and strategic support throughout the year from industry mentors and the Feature Film Program staff, and also grants for further development and pre-production.

Needless to say, we are very very appreciative and humbled by this opportunity–Benh came back from the Directors Lab gushing with praise for what Sundance has set up on that there mountain. We fully intend to jam all over it.

On July 2nd, friends and family joined the 19 kids enrolled in the Court 13 Acting and Moviemaking School for Young People, for the premiere of their films. The turnout was remarkable–around 100 people showed up at the Colton Auditorium! The films were shown in order of the classes that conceived them: “Scaredy Cat Superheroes” (Tuesday), “Detention Equals Doom” (Wednesday), and “The Big Hide-and-Go-Seek” (Thursday).

These are some pictures from the event. You can spot Mr. Chris Kaminstein, Michael Gottwald (two of the teachers of the classes), as well as Benh Zeitlin, and most of the 19 kids.

Over the past 3 months Court 13 has been teaching Filmmaking and Acting Classes at the Studio at Colton to 3 groups of children ages 7-12 from the New Orleans area. As the final project of the classes, the kids led the creative process of making films; they came up with the ideas for the stories, acted in all the roles, and even improvised some of their own dialogue.

The 19 children in the classes were selected from over 300 kids who auditioned from a wide variety of public schools in Orleans, St. Bernard, and Jefferson Parishes. In addition to taking the class and making these films, all of the students in the class will appear in Court 13’s feature film.

This Thursday, July 2nd at 7:30 PM we will be premiering the 3 movies the children made in the classes. The premiere will take place in the Auditorium at the Colton School at 2300 St. Claude Ave. The event is free and open to the public.

Below are a few photos from the classes.

In the tradition of our unique community approach to filmmaking, this spring we have introduced the inaugural class of the Court 13 Acting and Moviemaking School for Young People… aka the Court 13 After School Program, aka COURT THIRTEENIES: THE NEXT GENERATION.

Through grass roots outreach into Orleans and Jefferson Parish schools (not to mention flyers at po’ boy shops and radio shout-outs on Q93), Court 13 garnered the interest of over 300 young, aspiring actors who came in to audition. From these we selected just 19 who will not only appear in our upcoming feature film “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD” (in which kids feature prominently), but who have also been attending weekly acting and moviemaking classes at Colton, taught by Court 13. Not only do they get to flex their acting muscles, but they get to learn first hand what it takes to make movies, so they know what’s going on when it’s shoot time.

The classes will culminate with the creation of short films borne of the kids’ own ideas–much like the Zeitlin micro-classic “I GET WET.” We hope to premiere these short films in a few weeks at Colton with the friends and family of the kids, and share them with you shortly thereafter!

In the tradition of our unique community approach to filmmaking, this spring we have introduced the inaugural class of the Court 13 Acting and Moviemaking School for Young People… aka the Court 13 After School Program, aka COURT THIRTEENIES: THE NEXT GENERATION.

Through grass roots outreach into Orleans and Jefferson Parish schools (not to mention flyers at po’ boy shops and radio shout-outs on Q93), Court 13 garnered the interest of over 300 young, aspiring actors who came in to audition. From these we selected just 19 who will not only appear in our upcoming feature film “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD” (in which kids feature prominently), but who have also been attending weekly acting and moviemaking classes at Colton, taught by Court 13. Not only do they get to flex their acting muscles, but they get to learn first hand what it takes to make movies, so they know what’s going on when it’s shoot time.

The classes will culminate with the creation of short films borne of the kids’ own ideas–much like the Zeitlin micro-classic “I GET WET.” We hope to premiere these short films in a few weeks at Colton with the friends and family of the kids, and share them with you shortly thereafter!

Court 13 Omnimedia artiste Ray Tintori has just dropped another talk-of-the-town MGMT video, the long awaited “Kids” jam. Click HERE to watch if you haven’t already.

The video was born and bred in New Orleans, with much of the monsters created and shot in Court 13′s temporary home, the Studio at Colton. Many a Court 13 associate put their blood, sweat, and fears into bringing those monsters to life; check out this here photo slideshow for a glimpse behind the scenes.

All particularly dope pictures are the property of Mr. Ben Rowland. Do the right thing and check the other stuff on his website, here.

As part of preproduction, the Court makes frequent trips south of New Orleans–not only to scout locations, but to conjure inspiration for our next feature film, “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD.”

An admittedly long overdue post-

Court 13 friend Cary Fukunaga recently paid us a visit here in New Orleans, and between the racquetball and the Cajun food, also found time to premiere his new feature, “SIN NOMBRE.” A nearly packed house gathered at Canal Place on the opening night of May 8, to watch the film and stick around for the Q & A Cary held afterwards. A picture from the premiere of Court 13ers (from left to right) Josh, Michael, Dan, and Justin, with Cary in the middle, below a somewhat silly marquee:

Cary came into the Court 13 world somewhat serendipitously; when we were in the last of 4 legs of production on “GLORY AT SEA,” he and 3 blessed friends from NYU came down to help us finish it. Cary was the Director of Photography for the underwater sequences, and, with risk of tooting our own horn, we think he did a pretty good job to say the least.

“SIN NOMBRE” is the story of a young Honduran girl making the dangerous trip from her homeland to the United States, via the trains of Mexico–where she meets an exiled member of the deadly Mexican gang Mara Salvatrucha 13, on the run himself. Besides being visually stunning, the film has an attention to the detail of the reality it depicts that is based in anything but conjecture; Cary went down to Mexico and actually rode these often hijacked, gang-ridden trains himself.

Everyone should see this film, and not just because we’re friends with Cary. It’s one of those movies that sheds light on an experience that would otherwise never infiltrate most people’s consciousness; it breathes visual life into subject matter that we rarely hear about, and when we do it’s relegated to the words of print journalism or pundit talk fests. But right now, it is (probably) playing at a theater near you. Do your darndest to go see it.

As announced in a prior post, Court 13′s Benh Zeitlin was fortunate enough to be selected for the Sundance Directors Lab for the upcoming Court project, “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD.” A large part of the lab provides Benh the opportunity to workshop the script with some talented actors ideal for the main parts. The parts to be filled in this case include WINK, a high spirited, semi-devoted father and fully devoted crazy man, who wages war against FEMA, mother nature, and the disease in his body; and BATHSHEBA, a no nonsense pedagogue who rules over her schoolchildren with an iron fist and the stunning form of a lady bullfighter.

Recently, the Court received word that its two top choices to workshop these parts would be able to do so with Benh in Utah. Wink and Bathsheba will be rehearsed by…. (drum roll please) EDDIE ROUSE and PAULA JAI PARKER.

Mr. Rouse’s credits include “GEORGE WASHINGTON,” “UNDERTOW,” Zach Godshall’s “LOW AND BEHOLD,” and “PINEAPPLE EXPRESS.”

Ms. Parker’s credits include “FRIDAY,” “DON’T BE A MENACE TO SOUTH CENTRAL WHILE DRINKING YOUR JUICE IN THE HOOD,” “GET ON THE BUS,” and “HUSTLE & FLOW.”

Needless to say, the Court is extremely excited and humbled to be able to rehearse the script with such fine thespians. We leave you with a clip of the inestimable Ms. Parker, from the cinematic masterpiece “Friday.”

The new Court 13 project “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD” is a tale of many things: fathers and daughters, drunks and cowards, pirated ferry boats, hallowed half-time shows, ramen noodles and gator grits. But on a certain, larger scale, it’s also about the beginning of the End. And the agent of the apocalypse in this case is none other than a fearsome, beastly creature called an Aurochs.

Long extinct, the aurochs has thawed from its icy grave thanks to the global thermometer’s steady climb, to rise again and wreak havoc on Canada… and then our young protagonist’s beloved Southern environs.

Sound far-fetched? The stuff of mere fantasy? I present the following video, from National Geographic. Undead woolly mammals: coming soon to a tundra, or cinema, near you.

You can get the skinny on the whole discovery here, at the National Geographic page: photos, the mammoth lab, and a piece on mammoth cloning.

The real aurochs actually have a well carved out place in cultural history, recorded by everyone from the cavemen at Lascaux to Vladimir Nabokov. In fact, we’ll leave with a quote about them from Julius Caesar, describing their ferocity in “Gallic Wars”:

“These are a little below the elephant in size, and of the appearance, color, and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied. These the Germans take with much pains in pits and kill them. The young men harden themselves with this exercise, and practice themselves in this sort of hunting, and those who have slain the greatest number of them, having produced the horns in public, to serve as evidence, receive great praise. But not even when taken very young can they be rendered familiar to men and tamed.”

A momentous occasion for the Court krewe..

Court 13′s current feature film project “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD” was just accepted into the Sundance Directors’ Lab! This means that in June, writer/director Benh will flee to Utah from New Orleans (which is just so pleasant in the summer), to meet up with co-writer Lucy and workshop the new film with a hand-picked, top-notch, crack team of advisors/filmmakers/rocket scientists. Beautiful cinema will result.

The press release on the Sundance website gives a brief synopsis of the film:

Beasts of the Southern Wild/Benh Zeitlin (co-writer/director) and Lucy Alibar (co-writer), U.S.A.: In this epic tale, a ferocious ten-year-old girl refuses to evacuate her home in the Louisiana Delta without her dying father as the Southern Apocalypse descends upon them.

The news was also picked up here and here. This is Benh and Lucy’s second time to Utah–back in January they had the opportunity to attend the Sundance Screenwriters Lab for the same project (The Screenwriters’ Lab is like the Directors’ Lab… but for screenwriters).

Go Court, and onward to the land of the Utes!

Court 13 hit the road last weekend, first spending a couple nights in lovely Lafayette, Louisiana, at the Acadiana Film Festival. Acadiana is a small but welcoming festival, celebrating local filmmakers and the rich history of the area. “GLORY AT SEA” won the prize for Best Short Film (thanks Acadiana!), but the real treat was the Cajun dance parties and getting to see a few of the other films screening at the festival. Court friend Zach Godshall premiered his new documentary, “GOD’S ARCHITECTS,” about five men who each build their own beautiful, peculiar monuments to God and love… It garnered 3 thumbs up from our crew; we really cannot recommend this film highly enough. Click here for some clips from the movie.

From Lafayette, we headed southeast to do some scouting for the upcoming film. Swamps, airboats, gators, good food, and beautiful landscape abounded. A rough summation of our voyage is below.

Stay tuned for some pictures from this and earlier scouting missions.

Below is our monthly e-mail update that we recently sent out. If you regularly read the blog, you may already know much of the information contained in it.

If you would like to sign up for our mailing list please go to

http://court13.com/mailman/listinfo/court13_court13.com

HELLO AGAIN COURT 13 FAMILY!

Apologies for the long hiatus! Especially since there have been a lot
of exciting things going on in the Court 13 empire since our last
update…. For instance!:

*In January, Benh and playwright Lucy Alibar were two of 12
screenwriters selected to take part in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab
in Utah, where they workshopped Court 13’s first feature film script
tentatively titled “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD,” which they are
currently co-writing. The Lab gave them the opportunity to receive
mentorship from some of the industry’s top screenwriters. Variety
Magazine covered Benh’s trip to the lab in this nice little blurb:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118001729.html?categoryid=3584&cs=1

*In February, much of Court 13 moved back to Louisiana to start work
on the early stages of the feature film. Part of this process
involved the launching of The Court 13 School- an after-school acting
and moviemaking class for New Orleans area children. Each of the 20
kids in the class will be featured in “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”
The classes aim both to prepare them for acting in and and being on
the set of a feature film, as well as allow them to collaboratively
make their own short movie in the process. Our first classes started
last week.

*”GLORY AT SEA” has also continued its barnstorming of the film
festival circuit. In the last month the film won:

* Best Narrative Short Film at the Cinequest Film Festival in San
Jose, California

* Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the Florida Film
Festival in Orlando, Florida

You can always catch what we’re up to, in news, photo, or video form,
at our blog:

http://court13news.blogspot.com

And, we’re finally on Facebook! Happy 2004! Click below to show your love:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Court-13/43357059961?ref=nf

Finally, we also wanted to take this opportunity to ask for your help with one of Court 13’s closest partners. For those of you not yet acquainted with Rooftop Films, it is a truly unique non-profit organization that works year-round not only to plan for its spectacular summer festival, but also to serve as an unparalleled resource to filmmakers, film fans, and the New York film community in general. The Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund gave the first grant to “Glory at Sea,” without which it is likely we would have never made the film. Rooftop was also the first organization to jump to Benh’s aid after his terrible accident last year, and was at the forefront of the fundraising effort to help pay Benh’s medical bills.

If you value the work done by Court 13 or are as passionate as we are
about fostering and expanding the community of independent film, please
consider making a donation to Rooftop Films. (And yes, it’s tax
deductible)

http://rooftopfilms.com/donate.html

Thanks, always, for your support,

Josh

Court 13
www.court13.com

If you would like to Unsubscribe, please go to (and scroll to the bottom
of the page):
http://court13.com/mailman/listinfo/court13_court13.com

This past Saturday, the Studio at Colton–the community arts center where Court 13 rests its mighty headquarters–had its first art show, and Court 13 was well represented.

For a half a year now, Colton has provided studio space for local artists; Saturday’s event marked the first public gallery showing of the work created in and around Colton. Said art show was engineered and pulled off masterfully by Court 13′s Annie Evelyn, whose own work was on display as well as that of Court 13 corps members Eliza Zeitlin, Bob Weisz, Kate Ferencz, and Z Behl.

If you look closely in the photos you might catch a glimpse of Eliza, Annie, or Z, not to mention Eliza’s brother Benh, Z’s roommates / Court 13 friends Lila and Charlotte, and of course one of the stars of “GLORY AT SEA,” Miss Mama Jo.

The show will be up till the first week of May, so come on by and see what we’re up to!

This is a real tattoo that a fellow in St. Louis will have on his body for the rest of his life. The tattoo depicts a scene from the Court 13 film “Death to The Tinman”.

Wow!

“Glory at Sea” recently made a whirlwind tour of the great state of Florida, grateful to be chosen to screen at both the Sarasota Film Festival and the Florida Film Festival in Orlando.

The trip ended fortuitously, as “Glory” took home the gold at the FFF, winning the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short!

So long Florida, and thanks for all the oranges!

The new feature length Court 13 project, tentatively titled “BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD,” is among many things, an epic tale of man vs. nature, with Cajun country as its backdrop.

So, in a certain way, one might consider the following video our film’s teaser trailer. Lassez le bon fish roule!

Beats Crocodile Dundee’s method for sure.

Court 13′s world headquarters, better known as the Studio at Colton (and formerly Charles J Colton Middle School, pre-storm) made it above the fold this week in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. An extensive feature article dominated the front page of the local periodical, detailing all the who what and how that goes down at Colton.

Court 13 is just one of many artistic outfits that has mounted a shingle. As per the article:

Several times a week, more than 150 students, mostly high schoolers from the Recovery School District, spend time at the Studio at Colton — a fledgling arts center where an idle campus has been transformed into work space for dozens of artists.

The article also dishes out some words of wisdom from Court associate Annie E, who also works and teaches out of Colton, pimping the rides of neighborhood youth through her re-upholstery class.

Read the whole article here.

Only a few days overdue, Court 13 wishes you a merry close to the Carnival season. From the Krewe de Vieux parade out of our home studio at the Colton School, to chasing chickens and cutting a rug with the good folks of Eunice, Louisiana, on Mardi Gras day, it has been an eventful last couple of weeks in New Orleans. But now, the floats are retired, the beads are around the bedposts, and the work of valuable cinema continues.

In any case, Happy Mardi Gras!

Court 13 Omnimedia artist Ray Tintori is out with his latest music video, a visual stimulus package to the tune of “Evident Utensil” by Chairlift.

You should watch it in hi-resolution by going here. But if you’re lazy and prefer low resolution to high, I’ve also placed it below:

Also, brand news: Rae Rae’s Sundance-able short, “Death to the Tinman,” is SECRETLY available to be watched for free, at no iTunes cost to you, riiiiiiight HERE.

Do you like making comments? Cause we like reading them!

This past fall, Court 13 found its perfect spiritual home: the Colton Studio, on St. Claude Avenue in New Orleans.

Colton was a public school that closed shortly after Katrina. Now it has been reopened as 3 floors of studio space, inhabited by some of the area’s artists as a place where art and community come together. Every artist at Colton teaches free classes to the public, and Joe New Orleans can walk in whenever he wants to peruse the wonders on display.

These include Court 13′s own “Saints of Atlantis” exhibit (showcasing a gussied up version of the raft from “Glory at Sea,” and featured currently on the Court 13 website here), Court ally Annie E’s furniture art, a light spectacular from the guy who did the fireworks at the Beijing Olympics, and much more.

The Court itself inhabits 2 to 3 rooms at a time – 2 for workshopping, 1 for brainstorming. And most importantly, to help storm the brain, Colton is located a stone’s throw away from the Daiquiri Shop at Elysian Fields and St. Claude.

Come up and see us some time.

Happy Hanukkah, and otherwise, from every one of us here at Court 13. May your toddies be hot, and may you and your family catch a flick at the theaters that doesn’t totally suck.

Just in time for the holiday season, the “Glory at Sea”/”Death to the Tinman” Soundtrack is now available on iTunes! The much-lauded score from Dan Romer and director/writer Benh Zeitlin–swooping, sweeping, instantly recognizable from any Obama YouTube video you may have watched in the waning days of the campaign–is accessible by merely clicking HERE.

So for all YouTubers who dropped a comment on us along the lines of “Dude, where can I get the soundtrack?” here is your answer. It’s also available on Amazon, here.

Repeat the sounding joy,

Court 13

As one of the short films featured on the latest Wholphin DVD, “Glory at Sea” is currently available for view on YouTube!

Click here to check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2hBZToDSbM

More than 200,000 views and counting! Generous comments abound!

Enthusiasts are reminded that a high resolution version can be viewed at:

http://www.court13.com/gloryatsea.mov

Thank you for your continued support!

11/8 Chicago – Empty Bottle
11/9 Chicago – The Hideout
11/10 Minneapolis – 7th Street Entry
11/11 Iowa City – The Picador

Up this month at Studio at Colton – 2300 St. Claude Ave.

Court 13 production designer Eliza Zeitlin and engineer Jimmy Lee Moore bring together puppets and treasures from across the mythic landscapes of Court 13’s short films into a shipwreck of saints and scoundrels; a vision of Atlantis, the lost underwater city, rising up from the deep through a layered universe of Gods and Insects, mega-universes and micro-landscapes, built from submerged, decaying relics found on New Orleans’ post-flood street corners and infinite junkyards. This resurrection of the lost ship from Benh Zeitlin’s Glory at Sea features the once-limo of a St. Claude Funeral Home.

Barack Obama’s national campaign picks up the Glory at Sea score by Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer for multiple videos in the final days of the campaign:

We Have a Lot of Work to Do:

One Day to Change the World:

There’s Nothing We Can’t Do:

Soundtrack and DVD available at www.court13.com

GO OBAMA GO!

Benjamin H. Zeitlin’s new music video for Court 13 friends O’Death drops today.

Check the hi-res for “Low Tide” here or the low-res version below:

Glory at Sea winning streak continues at The New Orleans Film Festival! Benh and Eliza Zeitlin and cast members Jimmy Lee Moore, Maria Moore, Levy Easterly, and Chris Lewis were there to accept the award.

Court 13 is officially replanted. With the inconceivable efforts of the Creative Alliance of New Orleans, the crumbling palace of Colton Academy, on St. Claude ave in New Orleans has been opened up to arts organization and Court 13 has founds its new home. We’ll be opening wood, metal, props shops, an office and editing studio, and a gallery within its hundreds of languishing empty classrooms and founding the Court 13 Film Series in its 1000 seat auditorium.

The USS Jimmy Lee will be reborn for all Saints Day at the beginning of november.

The new era has begun.

by Peter Bowen
http://www.filminfocus.com/account/peter_bowen/?include=blog&blog_id=woodstock_lives

…..As a juror for the Short Film Category, I saw a number of imaginative films, each which stood out more by its sheer originality than by any stars or fancy production costs. The winning film, Benh Zeitlin’s Glory at Sea, a daydream of a movie, infused as much with the poetry of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and American folklore as the hard reality of its post-Katrina landscape, was a triumph of can-do filmmaking.

http://www.edmontonfilmfest.com/
Thanks Edmonton!

Glory at Sea wins Best Short Film at Woodstock Film Festival!

Glory took home the Special Jury Prize and the fabulous, debaucherous, brilliantly programmed Sidewalk Film Festival. THANK YOU SIDEWALK!
http://www.sidewalkfest.com/

Sidewalk Moving Pictures Film Festival – Birmingham, Alabama
Sept. 28 – Carver Theater – 11am
http://www.sidewalkfest.com/

Edmonton International Film Festival
Sept. 29 – Metro Cinema – 9:15pm
http://www.edmontonfilmfest.com/

Woodstock Film Festival
Oct. 4 Woodstock Community Center – 11:30am
Oct. 5 Woodstock Community Center – 3:30pm
http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/

POP Montreal
Oct. 5 Cinema du Parc – 9pm
www.popmontreal.com/film/en

New Orleans Film Festival
Oct. 13 – CAC – 5:30pm
http://www.neworleansfilmfest.com/

Hamptons International Film Festival
Oct. 17 – East Hampton UA6 – 7pm
Oct. 18 – East Hampton UA6 – 7pm
http://hamptonsfilmfest.org/

Olympia Film Festival
Nov. 8 – Capitol Theater – 2pm
http://www.olympiafilmfestival.org/

Glory at Sea conquers in the motherland of Viktor Jakovleski

http://www.cinedaysm.com/Awards.html

THE MOST SCENIC DISASTER
Post-Katrina cinema pours out of New Orleans.
by DEREK JENKINS
http://www.oxfordamericanmag.com/content.cfm?ArticleID=393&Entry=Extras

New Orleans has always been among the most photogenic of places. A beauty on par with Paris, New York, and the country of India, the city’s strange allure goes beyond wrought iron, hanging moss, and the wet sheen given to a lively palette by that muggy climate. But whereas New York had Woody Allen, India Jean Renoir and Satyajit Ray, and Paris the Poetic Realists of the thirties (as well as the what-have-yous of every decade since), pre-Katrina New Orleans maintained a cinematic mystery only occasionally penetrated by cameras. That is, until Les Blank and his crack team of ethnographic documentarians lifted the curtain. Beginning with his work on Easy Rider and on through Always for Pleasure and J’ai été au bal, Blank captured the color and sound of New Orleans like none before and revealed a secret truth about New Orleans that opened the cinematic floodgates. The city has a face with no bad side, a visage that’s mystifying from all angles.

Give that face a black eye, an urgent fragility, a tragedy on the scale of Katrina—the pull only grows stronger. Filmmakers from across the country drew a bead on the most scenic disaster to hit our shores, and the result is a cinema of anger and indictment and senselessness but also beauty and humanity and even hope. Spike Lee, in a heroic feat equal to those of impromptu WWII documentarians like John Ford and Frank Capra, released his epic When the Levees Broke just under a year after the hurricane made landfall. It’s Emergency Cinema, a First-Response Film. I daresay no other filmmaker could have accomplished the same depth and scope in so short a time, and also that Lee’s never made a more important film. Three years later and at their own mortal pace, other filmmakers, working in both fiction and nonfiction formats, have likewise trained their talents on the aftermath of Katrina.

Countless motion pictures bob in the wake of this disaster, but future generations will likely find in the seven astonishing films featured here the most complete and useful records of that same harrowing story.

…………

GLORY AT SEA

Glory at Sea departs radically from the everyday. Director Benh Zeitlin’s apocalyptic and lyrical tale of rebirth after the flood, the film begins underwater, where the dead stay. A little girl narrates from beyond her watery grave, telling the story of a man only half-dead—”his eyes were living”—who has been pulled away from his dead loved one. Life under water is static. Down there the storm “didn’t sound like nothing.” It’s back on the shore—where he’s at last washed up, where life happens—that the storm itself still lives on. The people had retreated into alcohol and religion until the man showed up. When he begins building a boat out of the debris, the people rush to help, ignited by hope. They carry along treasures of their past life. Where that boat takes them isn’t half so important as the unforgettable images that get them there. Now on sale through the Court 13 website and soon to be available on the McSweeney’s offshoot DVD magazine Wholphin, Glory at Sea is a vision you shouldn’t dare miss.

The Angry Flood and the Stories in Its Wake
By DENNIS LIM
Published: August 15, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/movies/17lim.html

It did not help the emerging genre of Hurricane Katrina cinema that the first responder appeared in many ways to have the last word. When Spike Lee’s documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” had its premiere on HBO in August 2006, just a year after the hurricane landed, it had the authority of a definitive history. It was filled with convulsive sorrow and concentrated fury, and it made clear that Katrina was not just a natural disaster but also a moral and political one.

Relatively few Katrina movies have reached the screen since then. Which is not to say that relatively few have been made. There is by now a rich, although unheralded subgenre of independent films — shorts and features, ranging from avant-garde tone poem to vérité docudrama — dealing with Katrina and its aftermath.

…………….

Standing apart from the other Katrina movies, Benh Zeitlin’s “Glory at Sea,” a 25-minute film that screened at South by Southwest, displaces the tragedy to the realm of myth even as it evokes the celebratory rituals of New Orleans as it used to be. In this exuberant fantasy, a ragtag band of storm survivors build a boat from materials found on the streets — car parts, a bed, a bathtub — and set sail in the hopes of reuniting with their loved ones at the bottom of the ocean.

Mr. Zeitlin said the giddy communal spirit of the story carried over into the production. “A community really did form around the excitement and madness of building a boat out of Katrina trash and sailing it out into Lake Pontchartrain,” he said.

“Glory at Sea” derives a special poignancy from its site-specific particulars, but in its folkloric expansiveness, the film also transcends the realities of Katrina. “It’s about how we can respond to tragedy with love, and hope, and total insanity,” Mr. Zeitlin said. “And that emotion, I hope, translates universally.”

Benh Zeitlin

A true original, Benh Zeitlin‘s 27-minute short film Glory at Sea rocked audiences at this year‘s SXSW Film and Music Conference. Sharing short film prizes with John Magary‘s The Second Line and Andrew T. Betzer‘s Small Apartment, Glory at Sea has instant classic written all over it. Produced by the Court 13 collective, which counts Sundance (Ray Tintori) and National Board of Review (Dan Janvey) winners among its members, Zeitlin‘s intimate yet epic look at a ragtag group of heartbroken refugees, ever searching for their lost loved ones in a post-Katrina, postapocalyptic New Orleans of the future, is both funny and graceful, touching and altogether strange. Meticulously art directed and photographed, it retains an improvisational looseness and wanderlust, both in its style and its narrative, which verges on genius. What could have inspired such a singular work?

“The spark was an image of naked Greek men catapulting out of the ocean in a symphonic hairy porpoise-inspired resurrection finale that settled on an island paradise of obese naked love, which, of course, has almost nothing to do with the finished film,” said Zeitlin, who is still recovering from a broken hip and pelvis suffered in a car crash as he was driving to Austin for the film‘s SXSW premiere. “The script was written in the middle of an absolute spree, in an hour, then immediately sent to The Rooftop Filmmakers‘ Fund and it wasn‘t until I got the grant that I realized I was actually going to make it.”

Zeitlin, who has worked with his editor and camera operator Crockett Doob since playing Superman in Doob‘s Batman: The Movie at age 6, scouted Europe for locations before settling on New Orleans. “I met the people who ended up acting in the film, who brought with them a force of communal tenacity and fatalistic passion that shifted the focus of the film from just wild surrealistic bombast to something that‘s more human,” he explains. “Something that‘s about how people can respond to senseless tragedy rebelliously with hope and love and total insanity.”

An admitted football junkie, how does Zeitlin plan to follow up the veritable Hail Mary pass that is Glory at Sea? “I‘m heading back to New Orleans to develop two guerilla features about the end of it all,” he says. “The first is a comedy about a 10-year-old girl in Georgia preparing for orphanhood in the wild as her father‘s cancer and a mythological Southern apocalypse descend on her world. The other takes place in 90 minutes of real time aboard a boat led by a maniac who has acquired all the ingredients for a new civilization but has gotten stranded in the middle of the Arctic ocean. It‘s tentatively titled Santa Maria.” — Brandon Harris

Contact: benh‘àt’court13.com

Benh Zeitlin of GLORY AT SEA: The Media Diet
By Brandon Harris
http://blog.spout.com/2008/08/12/benh-zeitlin-of-glory-at-sea-the-mediadiet/

2008 has proven to be a year of many ironies for filmmaker Benh Zeitlin, some sweet, others sour. His film, the visionary SXSW shorts winner Glory at Sea, is a sprawling post-Katrina, post-Apocalyptic New Orleans epic about a roving band of vagabonds and their child companions, all searching for their things or people they’ve lost within the watery gulf. The film bowed just days after Zeitlin was nearly killed in a horrible car accident while on his way to Austin for its premiere. While recovering, a small cult has built around the film and Zeitlin’s profile has only continued to gain steam, culminating last month when he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces in Independent Film. He’s a true blue cinephile, with taste that ranges from the esoteric to the height of 80’s Hollywood trash (we’ll forgive him for not digging Antonioni’s masterful The Passenger).

We caught up with Benh to discuss the inability of contemporary movies to depict dynamic female characters, his obsession with filmmaking on boats and why Van Morrison is his dream collaborator.

What films or television shows have you seen recently?

After seeing Wanted I got incredibly depressed and vowed not to return to the theater until Pineapple Express comes out, so my list is all old stuff: Except Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World.

Other than that, Preston Sturges’ Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, Palm Beach Story, and Christmas in July, Lukas Moodysson’s Together, Capra’s Meet John Doe, Cassavetes’ Love Streams, Kon-Tiki the doc made aboard a homemade raft crossing the pacific in 1947, Hawks’ Ball of Fire and this French Medieval Huguenot massacre flick Queen Margot that is totally bonkers. OH! and the fucking The Gravy Train AKA The Dion Brothers was one of the best buddy comedies I’ve ever seen, it was double featured with Tango & Cash in David Gordon Green’s BAM series.

I feel like I’m forgetting some stuff because those movies are all totally fantastic and life hasn’t been that good lately.., oh yeah, I turned off Explicit Ills by Mark Webber, and I hated Antonioni’s The Passenger, that guy’s vibe just rubs me the wrong way, I think he’s totally full of shit.

Which ones stick with you and why?
Together by Lukas Moodyson. He’s my favorite director who is still working and not over the hill. It takes a set of characters surrounding a Swedish hippie commune with a deeply ridiculous outlook on life, and instead of humiliating the characters for laughs, takes their fears their insecurities, and tries to understand them, tries to forgive them their limitations, and succeeds in embracing people that you would otherwise dismiss as bunch of fools. It’s just a beautiful humanist attitude to try to see people in all their complexities, and diversities, and absurdities and embrace them on screen. There’s so much condescension and irony, and emotional distance in what passes for indie movies these days, this movie has none of that. And its funny. And it has a big middle aged woman who is a bombshell.

A bunch of the movies in that list have ladies that stick with me, the ladies in Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, Ball of Fire, Meet John Doe, Palm Beach Story, and Love Streams are so far and above anything going on today. Female characters in general have to be the most gaping disparity between life and cinema. Women are amazing, how come not in movies? I’m mean, look around you, women are friends with each other, I can count the number of believable female friendships I’ve seen on screen on one hand, and I’m not talking about that hackneyed faux-feminist Thelma and Louise shit. Minnie and Moskowitz has a great friendship, Days of Heaven has one, Rosie and Madonna in A League of their Own totally make it happen, Fucking Amal by Moodyson has one, and then I draw a blank.

I think the easiest way to make a good film is just to write three dimensional women, you’ll already be way ahead of 98% of movies these days. And it’s not just talking about art films, 10 or 15 years ago, in big movies you had great women, Die Hard, great, Point Break, Aliens, and its not like these ladies are such brilliantly rounded figures, but they at least have some spunk, some personality, a sense of humor, and a degree of humanity to them, unlike the cardboard cut outs they’re serving up today. Even in the better blockbusters, Spiderman, Pirates of the Caribbean, these women are total nonsense, even if you’re just going to write a damsel in distress to motivate your dude hero, you got to give him something to fight for with a little personality.

Does your interest in them have anything to do with your own work as a filmmaker?
Yea, my first two films were animated, and after spending 3 years alone in room with puppets I really wanted to get outside and make something with my friends, with people. I get less and less interested in the bizarre and fantastical and more and more into characters. No movie is good unless you care about the characters, I can’t understand people that make films about people they clearly don’t like or respect. I want to watch directors who love people and who go after emotions, Casavettes and Moodyson are my guys right now. Sturges too, his women are dynamite.

How often do you read fiction? Do you wish you read more?
These days, and whenever I’m between films doing research, I read a lot of non-fiction, these days most especially the Ocean Almanac by Robert Hendrickson which is the world’s absolute finesest collection of sea-lore and sea-knowlege, and a general compendium of the best facts and stories on earth. I would very happily make only movies set on ships, I would have no problem being typecast that way. All I really want to do is live on a boat, filmmaking is just a mean to that end.

What would be your ideal literary adaptation and why?
Moby Dick, without question. But just to go into something a little less public, In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick, it’s written as a story but taken from the actual diaries of one of the sailors on the Essex, which is the maritime disaster that Moby Dick was based on, where a whale rammed a ship repeatedly, sank it, and propelled its passengers into a voyage in row boats back toward South America that ends, as most survival stories tend to, in cannibalism. I’d want to fuse it with some of the lore from the Raft of the Medusa whose story is beyond insane, there are a couple good books about it. Basically, these cowardly fuckers stranded over a 100 people on this tiny raft with barely any food and tons of wine and absolute mayhem ensued. They were there 3 days and only something like 15 people survived, mostly because they all massacred each other in a drunken suicidal rage. I don’t know what gets me about these stories, I guess I feel that a good story is about someone who is really, truly in trouble. When we face the most extreme facets of ourselves at the pivotal moments of our lives. And that they’re on the water.

How, if at all, has reading informed your filmmaking?
Authors are really great to steal from, because they’re really smart and no one reads anymore so you’ll never get caught. I’m sure it does but not sure how, I admire writers and strive and fail to tell stories
with the same kind of power as they do. My favorite writers off the top of my head are Hemingway, Miller, Carver, Melville, Calvino and Faulkner. A bunch of drunken dudes, not sure what that says about me. Oh, and let me recommend What is Not to Love? by Jonathan Ames.

What are you listening to recently?
Sam Cooke’s Live at the Harlem Square Theater, Kate Bush’s The Dreaming, Richard and Linda Thompson’s I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, Meat Puppets, The Dubliners, The Melvins, ODB and the first Wu Tang Clan album. OH! and Gigi D’Agostino, the genius of Italian dance pop. My next film will feature a ton of his music. Kate Ferencz, Ann Peebles, John Prine’s 1st album, O’Death, Mozart’s Requiem, Rachmaninov piano concerto #3, Skeletonbreath, the Woes, Metallica’s Kill ‘em All. I had this mix when I’d go on 3 day editing sprees that randomized Andrew WK, Creedence, Queen and Meatloaf, that was an incredibly powerful sauce.

If you could collaborate with one musician on a film, who would it be and why?
Van Morrison, I have this dream film where I get Van Morrison to play himself traveling through war-torn NATO strike era Yugoslavia after being shot down in a airplane trying to get to Belgrade where he’s set up his farewell show after seeing a TV spot about a Van Morrison cover band that’s playing “bombing-parties” where all the high school kids go out during air raids, set up speakers somewhere that’s already been hit, get drunk and play “Gloria” and make out. Van, if you’re out there, it’s gonna be a hit.

_May508
Posted byMichael Tully
GLORY AT SEA – Pomp and Transcendence
http://www.hammertonail.com/?p=54

Every once in a rare, long while, a film appears with such a sweeping gust of rejuvenation that it has the power to restore not only one’s faith in cinema but in humanity as a whole. These miracles—some minor, some major—are truly blessed creations. They exist on a timeless plane, feeling both brand new and classic at the very same time. They are worlds unto themselves, borne out of a passionate vision, torn from the spiritual recesses of an individual’s soul and transferred miraculously onto the big screen. Benh Zeitlin’s Glory at Sea is one of these miracles. If ever a short film deserved to be written about as a feature, Glory at Sea is it. Which is what makes Zeitlin’s epic spectacle even more stunning. By the time the film’s closing credits appear—after just twenty-five minutes—it feels like one has been taken on a deeply lasting feature-length journey.

Conceived and executed by the youthful Court 13 collective—who is also responsible for the award-winning short Death to the Tinman—Glory at Sea ups the ante of Ray Tinori’s stylish, invigorating work (here, Tintori steps into the role of Production Designer) by telling the story of a group of individuals struggling to survive in an apocalyptic post-Katrina New Orleans. Zeitlin’s vision of a dilapidated future feels strangely archaic, as if the storm destroyed the past half-century of technology, instead leaving behind mementos of an earlier era (bathtub, wooden bed, acoustic guitar, trumpet, etc.). The residents in this flooded world have no use for technology, for without electricity, what good is technology? And without their families, what good is anything? Their only desire is to sail into the sea in order to reunite with their loved ones, who are submerged somewhere under all of that water. To do that, they must band together as a community—in the most spiritual sense of that word—and use their own hands to build a boat from scratch. All they’ve got is their undying spirit, hope, and love to keep them going. According to Zeitlin’s unapologetically sincere vision, that’s more than enough.

By all accounts, the production of Glory at Sea was a daring, reckless folly. Much like the world that was being created inside the frame, the filmmakers took a lived-in, hands-on, communal approach to the production. The result is a film that feels as if it’s on the verge of snapping into pieces at any given moment. Every shot is infused with throbbing, manic energy that reflects the “let’s go for it!” state-of-mind of each and every character, filling the screen with a relentless jolt of visceral, propulsive electricity. However, Zeitlin didn’t rest on his film’s visual laurels in capturing that frantic edge-of-the-world spirit. His original score, co-composed with and orchestrated by Dan Romer, sways and swells like the ocean itself, surging from soft, tender moments of smooth, quiet tides to melodic crescendos of forceful, crashing waves. Each of these technical attributes makes Glory at Sea a wonder to behold, but when placed on top of each other, the film becomes almost unbearable in its relentless assault upon the viewer’s emotional senses.

What ultimately makes Glory at Sea a truly landmark achievement—one that should be taught in film schools all across the country from this point forth, in fact—is the economy of its editing and overall pacing (compliments of Zeitlin and Crockett Doob). How often does one watch the work of a confirmed master and wish that master had understood the painful realization that more is not always better. It happens all the time, and yet no one seems to grasp this concept. Yet with Glory at Sea, Zeitlin has delivered a film refreshingly devoid of all filler. When he does slow down, it is only for a very brief moment, to let the worried preacher take stock of the collapsing world around him. Zeitlin certainly had more footage to incorporate, but adding exposition would have done nothing to add greater weight to the film’s overall impact. In this case, it might have detracted. If executed properly, one shot can express the thoughts and emotions of five or six. Glory at Sea is compiled of these singular moments, in which each and every shot carries the dramatic weight of several scenes. (Note: I am writing this after having watched the film almost ten times; on an initial solitary viewing the daring narrative presentation might feel jarring and oblique, but I have always been of the belief that one should watch their favorite films as often as they listen to their favorite records.)

If all of this mythical production lore and staggering technical proficiency were in the service of a lesser cause, Glory at Sea would still be required viewing. But the fact that Zeitlin has a deeply spiritual purpose is what makes it an absolute must-see. While the film is first and foremost about New Orleans, celebrating the undying spirit of that city and its people, it also succeeds as a universally uplifting tale about humanity on a grander scale. Glory at Sea celebrates hope and community and love in a world that is cruel and indifferent. To survive we must all stick together, we must love one another, we must believe. Without those grand human forces at work, we’ll never make it to the bottom of the sea to hug our loved ones once again.

— Michael Tully

SXSW 2008: Glory At Sea
By David Lowery
http://blog.spout.com/2008/03/14/sxsw-2008-glory-at-sea/

I’ve long been of the opinion that films should not be defined by their running time. Terms like ’short’ and ‘feature’ are handy for categorical purposes but have otherwise become unfairly exclusive, creating betwixt them a no-man’s land in which few filmmakers dare tread. I’ve heard enticing rumors of a theater in Paris that showcases films between forty five and sixty minutes and length, and I always admire those filmmakers that go against the advice of festival programmers who suggest that unless a short film is really, really great it shouldn’t run much longer than 10 minutes – just as I admire the programmers who select the 25 and 30 minute shorts that are, indeed, really really great, just like the 5 minute shorts they might be screening alongside of. It’s quality, not quantity, and I don’t care about the latter when there’s an abundance of the former. Suffice to say, I really love short form filmmaking, and I always make it a point at festivals to catch all of the short programs. I’ll be covering some of my favorite short selections from this year’s 2008 SXSW Film Festival in an upcoming article, but there was one film in particular that I felt warranted its own review.

If you were at SXSW this past week, you may have heard rumors about Glory At Sea, whose production and premiere both are almost as epic as the film itself. Directed by Ben Zeitlin and produced by the same folks behind last year’s festival favorite Death To Tinman, the film is a fable of such exorbitantly epic proportions that it could only be described as Herzogian. “Fitzcarraldo!” shouted one audience member, apparently too bowled over by the film to express himself in the form of a question, during the post-screening Q&A. Given that the film took six months to shoot (many of those spent out on open water), its Sisyphean qualities correlate quite well with Herzog’s effort. At the same time, Zeitlin’s vision seems quite a few degrees more ambitious – and even moreso removed from reality – than anything Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald might have dreamed up.

Set on the coast of an antediluvian New Orleans and narrated from the bottom of the ocean by a dead little girl, the film tells the tale of a group of shellshocked residents who rediscover a sense of hope after a man thought lost to the storm washes ashore and immediately sets about constructing a raft, with which he might return to sea on an Orphic quest to find his waterlogged love. For reasons as elemental as they are inexplicable, the townspeople decide to join him in this effort, and together they turn his driftwood dinghy into a grand patchwork vessel, hewn together out of old memories and keepsakes: a rusty automobile, a janky upright piano. A bathtub and a bed. Hints at former lives laid to waste by the hand of God. A new community forms there on the beach. Everyone brings something, everyone does their part, including the local preacher, who joins the crew after his church is accidentally torched during a rather Dionysian Mardi Gras parade.

At least, I think its the church that burns down; the film is so jam packed with incident that it occasionally steps on its own toes. I’ve seen it twice now and I’m still not sure what’s happening at a few points. That was also a problem in Death To Tinman, whose narrative form viewers may recognize here. Tinman’s director, Ray Tintori, produced this one, and helped write the story (in addition to providing production design). The hyperbolic storytelling, the flatly declarative dialog and madcap pace are the same, as is the ever insistent score, but gone is the absurdist irony and emotional detachment. Zeitlin’s after something bigger. This is a grand romance, an allegory, a story about, yes, post-Katrina New Orleans. Above all, this is a cinematic experience explicitly designed to move audiences, and as such it is explicitly, overtly manipulative; every little detail is designed to evoke a response; the strings always swell at all the right moments. It’ll hardly leave a dry eye in the house, and I’d cry foul if the filmmakers hadn’t achieved something so truly bizarre with their formal choices: because the film is what it is, and because it’s all crammed into a 25 minute running time, being bombastic and grandiose with every emotional gesture isn’t just appropriate but pretty much necessary. This isn’t traditional narrative. It’s an ancient myth racing at breakneck speeds to catch-up with the times.

All of this sound and fury didn’t win Glory At Sea the grand jury prize for short film at SXSW, and I actually think that’s appropriate. Those films that did win (more on them soon) are excellent works, and it’s hard to argue that they aren’t more mature or formally sound. Indeed, they’ve got just as much going on as Zeitlin’s film, but it’s all restrained beneath the surface. But I think Glory At Sea, for sheer ambition, deserved an award all its own, and that’s pretty much what it got: Brent Hoff and Emily Doe presented it with the Wholphin award for Best Short. As they announced the prize, Doe and Hoff stated that it was going to a film that demonstrated everything a short film can be. The key word is can; a short film doesn’t have to go this far to be great, nor should it. But it is possible, and Zeitlin and his cast and crew did it, and I’ll be darned if I’ve ever seen a film of any length with the same scope as this one. It may be less than half an hour, but it’s just as much a feature as anything else at the festival.

Now, I mentioned that the premiere here in Austin last Sunday had its own shares of ups and downs; word trickled out after the screening, and soon the film festival was abuzz with what had happened: it was a massively successful first screening, marred only by the fact that Zeitlin wasn’t actually there for it. He was in transit to the theater when he was involved in a terrible car accident that sent him straight to the hospital with a shattered pelvis. He’s been waylaid there all week, missing both his screenings and the award ceremony. Rooftop Films, which helped finance the picture, has set up a page with information on how to assist Zeitlin with his suddenly mounting medical bills. Benefit screenings are being set up in New York and Austin, and donations are being accepted. Help him out, so he can put that money towards making another film. Of whatever length.

Review by Robert A. Nowotny —
http://www.needtovent.com/reviews/glory-at-sea.html

The previous accomplishments of the Court 13 coterie are well known to anyone who follows the short film genre. EGG, DEATH TO THE TINMAN, THE ORIGINS OF ELECTRICITY and JETTISON YOUR LOVED ONES are among the best shorts produced over the past few years, and so GLORY AT SEA!, the latest production to come from Benh Zeitlin, Par Parekh, Ray Tintori et al, was highly anticipated. The wait was well worth it.

This cinematic jambalaya which explores post–Katrina New Orleans is so emotionally riveting, so inspirational and so lovingly crafted you will never forget the viewing experience. Never. Like Katrina, GLORY AT SEA! is a Category 5 event by all standards imaginable.

The brilliant screenplay by writer/director Zeitlin is loosely based on the Orpheus myth, although in this case Hades is an underwater hell, not a flaming inferno. The horrific tragedy experienced by the residents of the Crescent City could not be more vividly portrayed than by seeing the condemned souls of those who perished now planted at the bottom of the ocean, much like undersea corn stalks, each alone, lost, without hope. However, one of these Katrina victims doesn’t belong here, yet, as he still has the slightest bit of life beating within. He is jettisoned from this watery grave only to find a dystopic landscape of equally lonely and lost, but living, souls. As this lone underwater survivor begins to build a raft he is joined by a cadre of other survivors, each desperately seeking some sense of reunion with their departed loved ones. Eventually the makeshift raft is completed and it sets sail. What happens next is not going to be divulged here; simply put, it is something every reader of this review must personally see and experience for themselves.

Virtually all of the actors were actual survivors of Hurricane Katrina with little or no acting experience. All are absolutely wonderful, and many of the scenes and props and accoutrements found in GLORY AT SEA! were brought to the film as the result of their personal Katrina experiences, lending a realism and a poignancy that is impossible to forget. As for the film itself, Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and “Producer Par Excellence” Parekh have pulled off what appears to be the impossible. This was a tremendously ambitious undertaking and the production values are impeccable. Editing, cinematography, production design, music — the list goes on and on. Collectively, every facet of the filmmaking process is so well done that GLORY AT SEA! will undoubtedly raise the standard by which all future short films will surely be judged.

This is high praise — high praise, indeed — and it is 100% deserved.

Some years ago Francis Ford Coppola was asked who the next notable American filmmaker might be. His response: “Probably some little fat girl from Ohio.” We still await the arrival of Coppola’s little Buckeye; in the meantime, one can surely look to Zeitlin and Parekh and the rest of the Court 13 International personnel based in New Orleans (and elsewhere) to rightfully take their place among the next great generation of filmmakers on the horizon.

Let the good times roll…

“GLORY AT SEA” WINS SXSW WOLPHIN AWARD
http://www.rooftopfilms.com/blog/2008/03/glory-at-sea-wins-sxsw-wolphin.html

Like the film itself, this story has (in its own way) a happy ending. As you probably read in my other posts below, Benh Zeitlin–the director of “Glory at Sea,” a miraculous short film that Rooftop co-funded–was in a brutal car accident the day of his first screening at SXSW. He’s doing much better now, with his metal hip, painkillers, and tremendous set of friends and supporters. Contrary to a popular rumor, the infamous welder-turned-actor who plays Sergeant Major in the film, Jimmy Lee Moore, did NOT perform Benh’s operation.

Although Benh wasn’t able to attend the first two screenings of his film, he may actually be able to get to the Friday March 14 show at 2:30pm (so go join him if you can for what promises to be a very emotional screening). And so, laid up in a hospital bed, the festival has come to him.

Many filmmakers sent along copies of their films so Benh could watch them in his hospital bed (holding his laptop inches from his face as he awaits new eyeglasses to replace the ones lost in the car). Many more people cheered on the film and sent their well wishes. I know Benh would like to pass on his thanks to all of you.

And last night, “Glory at Sea” took home the SXSW Wolphin Award for Best Short Film.

Brent Hoff and Emily Doe from Wholphin, the excellent DVD magazine that is part of the beneficient McSweeney’s empire, presented the award to “Glory” producers Josh Penn, Dan Janvey, and Par Parekh. Fittingly for such a funky, underwater film, and for a DVD zine named for a cross between a whale and a dolphin, the award itself was a pinky-sized vial containing a tiny squid, found some 6,000 feet beneath the sea by an official Wolphin oceanographer.

Immediately following the awards ceremony, I went with about 20 people to visit Benh and celebrate. He was moved and delighted and proud, and really loving the symbolism of this tiny dead creature pulled from the depths of the sea.

Facts about the accident, car insurance and medical bills are still sketchy, but plans for celebration / benefit screenings in Austin and New York are in the works.

BLEEDING RUST: “GLORY AT SEA!” IN NEW ORLEANS
“Glory at Sea!” plays at SXSW in the Shorts 3 program on March 9, 11th and 14th, at the Alamo Lamar Cinemas.

In the guidelines to the Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund–the grants that Rooftop offers to filmmakers whose work has screened with us–we say “We are more likely to fund films that make the most of their resources and community.” We don’t have the means to fund big-budget films, so we want to help support filmmakers who are clever and collaborative, and show that they uphold the collective ideals of Rooftop Films.

Last night, I was in New Orleans for the cast and crew screening of “Glory at Sea!,” a short film which Rooftop co-funded. The movie is based on the myth of Orpheus, and in this version a man who washes to sea aims to sail back to the underwater Hades that has taken his girlfriend. While he builds a raft, the community watches, and becomes interested, and finally rushes to his aid, carrying with them the busted and rusted icons of their lives–all that remains of their husbands and wives, children and parents–strapping to the boat trumpets and bathtubs, charred church crosses and unspooled mix tapes, in the Bayou-inspired voodoo-like belief that these talismans will lead them to their drowned loved ones. The rickety craft sets sail with a song (fitting for Orpheus and Orleans), and the crew finds salvation in sinking.

The film is an irrational fable, a rich and poetic impossibility, and it gains its power from its myth logic. In dream logic, you do something crazy and need to look at the subtext to understand why. But in myth logic, you do something crazy because you have the tenuous belief that it will help. “Glory at Sea!” captures that pathos perfectly: the filmmaking is stirred with music video madness as it strains at the conventions of traditional narrative filmmaking. The film invokes this need for a community to bond–not a logical need, based on survival or chances of success, but an inherent need which transcends logic and gets to the core of who we are as people, as neighbors, as people who need each other in life and in death. In post-Katrina New Orleans, where all everyone has left is water-soaked memories of missing persons, “Glory at Sea!” is the perfect parable.

The director Benh Zeitlin choked up when he welcomed the crowd, saying that “making this film was the greatest experience of my life, and it’s thanks to so many of the people in this room, who bled rust for this movie.”

There were 300 people there.

300 people in support of a short film!

They volunteered their time. They lent their own heartbreak to the telling. They literally risked their lives riding this home-made raft out onto Lake Pontchartrain. One guy, Jimmy Lee Moore, a local guy who was cast as an actor, ended up doing much of the complicated welding on the boat. I spoke to him after the premiere, and he was beaming with pride. He told me about how the Coast Guard didn’t think the craft was sea-worthy, and no one would take responsibility for towing it out onto the water. But they hooked it up a speedboat, and tore the tail off it in the process, because they had no other option, and for days on end the actors and crew were doing things no one in their right mind would do, all for this film. Now Jimmy wants to modify the boat and make it a Mardi Gras float, to represent the film, and New Orleans independent filmmakers, and the spirit of this project.

Benh was originally going to make this mythical film in Greece, but he told me that when he received funding from Rooftop–where the money comes from ticket sales and submission fees, the fans and filmmakers who make up our community–he knew he had to make a populist film, and that it had to be in New Orleans. Seeing not only the power of the film, but the glorious power of the community that made it, I can’t express how proud I am, on behalf of all of us at Rooftop Films, to have had a small part in such an inspiring project.

The court 13 news feed is now open.