6-23-06
Boinski Goes Legit in Spain
James W. Boinski in Legit.
Erik Baron of Red Baron Entertainment brokered the deal with Madrid distributor Cinedigital for a minimum 2-week run beginning in August.
“We knew Chicago gangsters were hot, but we’re realizing just how big a market there is, even for a small film like ours,” said producer John Stemberg.
Cinedigital minimizes its costs by transmitting the film via satellite from its home studio to theatres throughout Spain, a technology being pioneered domestically by Ira Deutchman’s Emerging Pictures that’s gaining traction in Europe faster than it is here.
Kitchen gets a percentage of box office as well as impending cable and DVD releases in Spain, and without the cost of a film transfer and multiple prints, revenues come in a lot more quickly.
“We’re excited to get a big summer release” in Spain, Stemberg said. “We’re hoping it will spill over into Italy, France and England.”
Domestic distributor Echelon Entertainment released the DVD of Legit to online retailers June 6. It hits Netflix July 15, with a street date for stores planned for August.
“Domestic sales have been really strong,” Stemberg said. “We’re ranked in the top 6 percent of sales on Amazon right now.”
Also starring Allen Kalfas, Angelynn Schoofs, and Norm Boucher.
Usama Alshaibi (top left) shooting Nice Bombs in Baghdad.
Usama Alshaibi hosts a benefit preview screening July 9 to cover final post-production costs for his personal Iraq documentary Nice Bombs, which will be the opening night film of the Chicago Underground Film Festival in August.
An Iraqi native who grew up in the U.S., Alshaibi hadn’t been to Iraq in 25 years when he returned after the U.S. invasion, with his father and his wife, fellow filmmaker Kristie Alshaibi.
“I told my story to tell many stories,” Usama Alshaibi said. “As I got closer to the soul of the movie, it was more about my journey, and my discovery of my position as an American citizen and an Iraqi-born person and an Arab. That resonated more, and the film got darker as I found the heart of the film in that tension within myself.”
Ben Berkowitz and Ben Redgrave of Benzfilm are producing along with Kristie Alshaibi.
The Nice Bombs benefit is July 9 at 7 p.m. at Darkroom, 2210 W. Chicago Ave. Featuring performances by Bobby Conn, Cabaret Lavender, Naif Rafeh, Sonya of Arabesque, Yuri Lane, Lorin Cohen, and DJs Crumpler and Stepsata. $20 at the door, $18 at www.nicebombs.com.
Tatiana Marie Tien in Buscando a Leti (In Search of Leti).
Dalia Tapia is weeks away from closing a deal for domestic DVD distribution of her debut feature Buscando a Leti (In Search of Leti).
A Pilsen school teacher and alum of the Columbia College MFA film program, Tapia shot Leti in Chicago and Mexico in 2004. The Spanish-language film tells the story of a 10-year-old girl (local Tatiana Marie Tien) left behind when her parents immigrate to Chicago, then finally brought across the border to join them.
Tapia connected with a number of prospective distributors at Leti’s premiere last October at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival.
“We’re going for the offer that’s going to give the film the most publicity,” Tapia said. “We’re targeting the Latino market, in the hopes that it will grow to other communities.”
Tapia is also negotiating with sales agents she met at the Guadalajara Film Market for international distribution.
“In Search of Leti,” the short version that Tapia made before the feature, is wrapping up the first year of a two-year broadcast deal for regular rotation on cable network Si TV.
Tapia is seeking international production partners, and possibly someone else to direct, her follow-up feature, Silent Shame. “I realized after visiting the market in Guadalajara that in the independent world, the films that lend themselves to success are co-productions, not limited to the U.S.,” Tapia said.
Silent Shame is the story of a young man whose mother died of AIDS, searching for and reconnecting with his estranged father.
“We’re dealing with a lot of taboos within the Latino community as far as sexuality,” Tapia said.
See www.daliatapia.com.
Arthur Jongewaard of Artward Films shoots his debut feature Space Capsule June 6-21. Wesley Walker (“Prison Break,” “Street Thief,”) stars as a schemer offering to launch investors’ selected material into outer space “so that they can achieve some sense of immortality.” Featuring legendary house music DJ Derrick Carter, Lennie Johnson and Danielle Carter.
A University of Iowa grad, Jongewaard is an assistant director and assistant editor on Simon Leibovich’s doc on Highland Park activists, A Change of Seasons, and camera operator on Heather Ross’ doc on the Warrenville juvenile detention center.
Space Capsule crew includes DP Dan Fridman, editor William Lehman, line producer Mark Armstrong, and production designer Justin Lieb. E-mail markarmystrong62@aol.com.
Kirkland Tibbels of Funnyboy Films, producer of the recent comedy Adam andSteve and the gay Mormon romance Latter Days, has optioned local screenwriter Travis Hughes’ script Homeland Security, about “a duo of stoners who stumble onto a terrorist plot and must save Chicago from a perceived threat.”
Japanese actress Ericka in Ed’s Okinawa Project.
I’m going into production on my own feature film Untitled Okinawa Project, which I’m writing, directing and producing with Junko Kajino. Japanese screen actress Erika, an Okinawa native, stars with Katori Eason and locals Sean Nix and Ric Arthur.
Okinawa Project is a revenge drama about an Okinawan woman who journeys to the U.S. to track down the former U.S. servicemen who raped her when she was a teenager. Rei kidnaps the teenage son of one of the marines and holds him captive in a motel, drawing the young man to her side as his father closes in on them.
We’re shooting in Okinawa in July, and in Chicago in August. See www.homesickblues.com/okinawaproject.html.