Film notes: Indie filmmakers to meet, mingle and swap ideas ...

Key creators of five independent movies or shorts will be guests tonight at a meeting of the Pennsylvania Film Industry Association at Sheraton Station Square.

Such sessions, which also include time for socializing with complimentary appetizers, in the past have hosted producers and other top crew from ?Jack Reacher? and ?Out of the Furnace.?

Today?s event, 6 to 9 p.m., will feature: Producer Brian Hartman, ?Riddle?; directors-writers Gavin Rapp and Ron Hankison, ?Since I Don?t Have You?; co-producer and writer John Mowod and director Frank Johnson, ?Amazing Racer? (formerly called ?Shannon?s Rainbow?); producer Paula Gregg, ?Christmas in Compton?; and director Randy Kovitz and co-writer, production designer and editor Deborah Hosking, ?Lightweight.?

Admission is free for PaFIA members, $20 for others at the door (fee may be applied toward membership). See www.pafia.org for details.

?Film Factory? contenders

A dozen candidates are one step closer to winning $30,000 to make a short film in Pittsburgh courtesy of the Steeltown Film Factory competition.

The fourth annual contest, organized by the Steeltown Entertainment Project, received more than 250 entries, which were winnowed to submissions by 10 men and two women. They will appear at Film Factory: The Writer?s Pitch at 11 a.m. (doors open at 10:30 a.m.) March 23 at the University of Pittsburgh?s Frick Fine Arts Building.

General admission, $10, and students, $5. For details: www.steeltownfilmfactory.org.

A panel of three judges ? director and Pittsburgh native Rusty Cundieff (?The Wanda Sykes Show,? ?Chappelle?s Show,? ?Fear of a Black Hat?), Oscar-nominated film editor Douglas Crise (?Babel,? ?Spring Breakers?) and screenplay expert Asher Garfinkel ? will weigh the pitches from the dozen who dabble in dark subjects, a mayoral run, dreamy dates and squatting in abandoned houses alongside a homeless man.

They are, in alphabetical order:

?Randy Baumann, ?Tire Stem Sushi.?

?Brandon Clemens: ?Meet-Cute.?

?Laci Corridor, ?Two Thousand Bridges.?

?Jarrett Fisher-Forester, ?The Escapist.?

?Kevin Fuller, ?Cruelty Toward Animals.?

?Heather Gray, ?Life After Deaf.?

?Bruce Johnson, ?Fish.?

?Samuel Krebs, ?Couriers.?

?Dennis Schebetta, ?My Date With Adam.?

?Glenn Syska, ?The Sketch.?

?Cameron Roeback, ?The Greater Image.?

?Dan Wilkerson, ?Secondhand Start.?

Gimme ?Shelter? aka ?6 Souls?

In the movie world, five years can be an eternity. That?s how long it?s been since ?Shelter? wrapped up filming in Pittsburgh.

Since then, the movie starring Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been renamed ?6 Souls,? is on demand (if you?re a Comcast customer, it?s available on Xfinity On Demand for $9.99 until April 4) and headed for some theaters.

At the time filming ended, details were being kept under wraps, but Ms. Moore plays a psychiatrist who has made a career out of defying the notion of multiple personality disorders and providing such convincing courtroom testimony that many defendants have been sentenced to death.

Mr. Rhys Meyers is a patient who prompts her to question her beliefs in God and science and to fear her family is in danger.

?Elefamilia? showing

Cranberry Cinemas will show ?Elefamilia? on Saturday after some pre-show activities, including Afrika Yetu drummers, animal guests from the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, trivia and children?s games. Those start at 10 a.m., with 52-minute film at 11 a.m.

Also on tap: a question and answer session with filmmakers Mia Boccella Hartle and Thomas Hartle along with elephant expert Willie Theison. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children 13 and under.

Go to moviescoop.com/cranberry-cinemas/ to buy tickets in advance. See www.elefamilia.com for more information about the documentary, chronicling the births of two calves in Pittsburgh in 2008.

?Miss Representation?

The documentary ?Miss Representation? will be screened at 6 p.m. March 22 at the University of Pittsburgh?s Frick Fine Arts Building in Oakland.

The documentary, by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, explores how the media?s misrepresentation of women has led to women being underrepresented in positions of power and influence.

The movie features stories from teenage girls and interviews with politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and academics such as Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Margaret Cho, Rosario Dawson and Gloria Steinem.

Women in Film and Media Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh are sponsoring the showing, with a panel discussion to follow. Students will be admitted for free while the general public and members of WIFM can register for $10 at www.wifmpit.org or pay $15 at the door.

In brief

?It?s never too early to start speculating about the 2013 Oscar race ? at least for RopeofSilicon.com, where writer Brad Brevet singled out the made-in-Pittsburgh ?Out of the Furnace? and ?Foxcatcher? as possible contenders.

In the first, Christian Bale and Casey Affleck play brothers in the movie written and directed by Scott Cooper and shot in Braddock, North Braddock, Rankin and elsewhere in Western Pennsylvania.

?Foxcatcher,? directed by Oscar nominee Bennett Miller and starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo, is the real-life story of a chemical fortune heir who went to prison for killing an Olympic gold medalist and wrestler.

?Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported Iran is planning to sue over the Oscar-winning ?Argo? because of what it says is an ?unrealistic portrayal? of the country. Several Iranian news outlets said French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre was in Iran for talks with officials over how and where to file the lawsuit.

The AP reports that although the movie isn?t showing in any Iranian theaters, many Iranians have seen it on bootleg DVDs and it?s set off a debate often split along generational lines about the 1979 revolution.

On the web

Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri and staff writer Adrian McCoy talk about ?The Call,? ?Flight of the Butterflies,? ?The Incredible Burt Wonderstone? and ?Rust and Bone? at

post-gazette.com.

Movie editor Barbara Vancheri: bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. Read her blog: www.post-gazette.com/madaboutmovies.

Source: http://www.onwardvoice.com/film-notes-indie-filmmakers-to-meet-mingle-and-swap-ideas/

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