Maine's got Moxie! Maine International Film Festival '07

DIRECTOR/PRODUCER JEN VENDITTI & PRODUCER CHIEMI KARASAWA

We had a great time at the 10th Anniversary Maine International Film Festival in Waterville. We met a bunch of cool people, got tons of feedback from the screening, and even managed to scout a few new faces. Thanks to Ken and Beth Eisen at Shadow Distribution. We also got to check out the film Girls Rock and found out director Arne Johnson rocks, too!

Here are a few of the highlights:

It wouldn't be Maine without Frank the Moxie Man!

Adam Roffman (or "Adam as in Adam West" according to Billy) AKA the Fried Food Man, Program Director from the Independent Film Festival of Boston

The aforementioned fried foods

Billy and his new friend/fan Carl who runs Autistic Duck, a website about his own experiences with Asperger's

Billy with Carl's sister Elizabeth (looks like Billy's got his eyes on her)

Jen's always on the lookout for a new face

Random scouting of Billy the Kid bumper sticker

Philosophy Professor David “Hutch” Easton's notes on the screening

From Dazed & Confused

Go pick up a copy of the July issue of Dazed & Confused and read Hannah Lack's review of Billy. Here's an excerpt:

"'Before I went to Maine, I made a list of all these scenarios I wanted to do with Billy that would help give context to his life,' Venditti recalls. 'But as soon as I got there, I realised that in his beautiful mind, Billy had been the director of his own film for a long time. He saw the world as a film, and himself as a character, constantly changing his role to survive. So my job was just to observe, listen, and document.' It's an odd feeling, and a tribute to Billy, that after an hour and a half in his company, it's the world that seems crazy , rather than him."

If you can't find Dazed & Confused where you live, here's a scan of the article:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

25 New Faces of Independent Film

Jennifer was just named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine:

JENNIFER VENDITTI. PHOTO BY RICHARD KOEK

Jennifer Venditti

Jennifer Venditti has always walked backward into her future. “I was obsessed with characters and character through clothing — that’s what got me into fashion,” says the casting director turned director, who started out in the magazine world. She quit when she got close enough to see that for all its creativity and access to talent, the fashion industry espoused an idea of beauty that was as narrow as its waistlines.

Photographer Carter Smith had noticed Venditti’s keen eye for street casting and brought her to Scotland to find real people for a W magazine shoot. That first job grew into one of the most dynamic and successful print-casting agencies in the city, stuffing its files with characters Venditti pulls off streets from Minnesota to Rio. Smith came back to Venditti to populate the world of his Sundance-winning short Bugcrush. She was casting with Smith in Maine when some bullies told her about the boy who would become the subject of her first film, Billy the Kid.

“Sometimes, of course, casting gets trying, seeing face after face,” Venditti says. “It’s a huge turnoff when people are trying to please or impress me. Billy wasn’t even aware of the idea of conforming to the accepted. He wanted what other people had, but he didn’t have any idea of changing himself.”

Billy the Kid is as deep a character study as one is likely to find in documentary, and it was honored with a Jury Prize by the SXSW Film Festival. Billy, 15, is a strange and singular person, alone in his articulate, curious, passionate opinions. Without narration or any third-party commentary, Venditti plays the audience’s temptation to judge and diagnose with a maestro’s touch. He might be autistic, he might have Asperger’s, but who cares? Venditti believes in willing away labels and seeing beauty without demanding to understand it, and the film proves her right. — Alicia Van Couvering

Bottom Line: This revealing documentary about a teenage misfit will haunt

Stephen Farber reviews Billy in today's Hollywood Reporter.
Here's an excerpt:

"The film doesn't force a conclusion on us. It allows us to see that Billy has the potential to become dangerously antisocial, but he has a rock-solid ally in his mother, who proves to be far more generous and complicated than first impressions suggest. Like the best docus, "Billy the Kid" introduces us to some unique characters. Technically it's fairly simple but just accomplished enough to keep us riveted. Cinematographer Donald Cumming captures the small-town New England ambience. The movie's main virtue is its intimacy; it takes us astonishingly close to its characters, and this is a tribute to the trust and empathy that Venditti and her unobtrusive crew achieved. One hopes that the film finds a life in theaters, then on television and DVD, where it will last as an indelible record of adolescent turmoil."

Read the rest of the review here.

Docs That Inspire Podcast

Jen sat down with Joel Heller & Gaea Logan from Docs That Inspire for a podcast interview about Billy.

Joel Heller writes, "I fell for the film when I saw it premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival (where it also won the top jury prize). And I made a point of getting to know Jennifer in Toronto when we were both at Hot Docs."

We are the Winners of the 2007 LA Film Festival!

We couldn't have done it without all of your support! Thanks to everyone who saw Billy the Kid! A very special thanks to the Jury, Patrick Creadon, Rob Epstein, and Lisa Schwarzbaum.

Jen with John Larson of the Directors Guild of America at the awards ceremony
(image courtesy of indiewire)

In awarding Billy the Kid with the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Documentary Feature, the jury stated the following: “The jury awards the Target Documentary Award to Jennifer Venditti for Billy the Kid. Inspired by her extraordinarily guileless young subject and matching his unique adolescent openness with her own artistic integrity in her auspicious filmmaking debut, Venditti finds a graceful documentary voice – patient, respectful, even tender – that perfectly matches the delicate turmoil observed in the life of one disarmingly articulate 15-year-old young man with, as he says, ‘issues.’

For more check out businesswire

Film Threat Q&A

Jen sat down with Mark Bell from Film Threat to talk about Billy.
Here's an excerpt from the interview:

At the end of the day, what do you hope audiences take away from "Billy the Kid"?

"Billy the Kid" is an odyssey into the soul of an American teenager.

I want the audience to get to know a character for who he is rather than how he has been labeled. As much as I acknowledge the benefit of a diagnosis, that is not the story I am telling. I would like this film to be about celebrating our differences and realizing our similarities - how we all want the same things in life: acceptance, love and to be understood - and as a result have more compassion for each other and ourselves.

We live in a time right now where so many kids have or will be diagnosed with some sort of behavioral disorder. My hope is that people will not let that label be the definition of who they are. Our society is filled with people who have rage whether it is due to bullying, racial or sexual discrimination, domestic issues or just feeling misunderstood. So many times we only hear about this kind of "outsider" after their emotions have come to fruition in some tragic way. Although Billy has a keen insight to his feelings and a compassionate understanding of others, he still very much struggles with the demons from his past and present. His future is unknown but I hope that through his story we can start to increase our tolerance and compassion towards those who we believe are "different" from us. Hopefully that will enable us to confront and take responsibility for larger issues that stem from that divide.

Get the rest of the Q&A here and also check out Don Lewis' Film Threat review (four and a half stars!)