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LFM’s Govindini Murty @ The Huffington Post: Appreciating Classic Movies for Yourself: Why the TCM Classic Film Festival is Important

[The post below was featured today at The Huffington Post.]

By Govindini Murty. Each spring, the TCM Classic Film Festival arrives in Hollywood, sparking pleasant reflections on what it is for a film to be considered “a classic.” This year’s TCM Classic Film Festival, running from April 28th to May 1, 2016, promises to be as memorable as the last six. The festival will feature appearances by Italian cinema legend Gina Lollobrigida, French New Wave icon Anna Karina, classic Hollywood star Eva Marie Saint, the premiere of the restoration of Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, a special live musical event of Carl Theodore Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, and an opening night gala presentation of All the President’s Men.

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I and many cinema fans will no doubt be hoping that Anna Karina will be persuaded to reprise her soulful appreciation of The Passion Joan of Arc at the festival, as memorably captured in Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre sa Vie. There will also be premieres of the restored prints of Gregory Peck’s The Keys of the Kingdom and Jennifer Jones’ The Song of Bernadette, along with exhibitions of movie memorabilia in Club TCM in the Roosevelt Hotel’s Blossom Ballroom (the site of the first Academy Awards). These and other delights await cinema fans who make the trek to Hollywood Boulevard over the last weekend in April.

And this brings me to why it’s important to celebrate and remember the classics.
Whether it’s a classic play by Shakespeare, a classic epic by Lady Murasaki, a classic painting by Titian, or a classic piece of music by Tchaikovsky, we appreciate classic works because they are the foundation of what it is to be civilized.

This is no less true of classic films, whether they be Metropolis, Cleopatra, Mildred Pierce, Ninotchka, All About Eve, Lawrence of Arabia, The Searchers, 2001, The Seven Samurai, or Pather Panchali. All these works are the expressions of talented human beings and their personal experiences – and when such works reach an apex of artistry, they transcend time – they become “classic.” A classic work is not old – it is timeless.

And yet today, people are so caught up in the moment – so frantic to keep up with the accelerating pace of the digital age – that they routinely dismiss classic movies as being “out of touch” or not relevant to them. This couldn’t be more wrong. I think classic film is highly relevant – because any form of human expression that is excellent is relevant.

It’s odd that the more we store things in the expanded memory banks of our digital era – the more we forget. Vast quantities of data – including the digitized forms of countless classic movies, TV shows, radio dramas, musical works, paintings, photographs, works of literature, history, and science – are saved in the world’s online archives and are available to the public – and yet somehow, people are more ill-educated than ever. This is an interesting dichotomy. Why is this the case?

In some ways it recalls the transition from the oral age of Homer and the ancient bards to the literary age, when the invention of writing allowed stories to be written down for the first time. As soon as writing was invented, people’s memories of these old oral traditions were no longer needed – and they were rapidly forgotten. (Though, there are still tribal societies that preserve such oral traditions today). Continue reading LFM’s Govindini Murty @ The Huffington Post: Appreciating Classic Movies for Yourself: Why the TCM Classic Film Festival is Important

LFM’s Jason Apuzzo @ The Huffington Post: Memories Await: The 2016 TCM Classic Film Festival & The Searchers 60th Anniversary

[The post below was featured today at The Huffington Post.]

By Jason Apuzzo. The 2016 TCM Classic Film Festival is almost here, and I can hardly wait. This year’s festival – which runs from April 28th-May 1st in Hollywood – will feature Gina Lollobrigida as its special guest, a live orchestral screening of The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), and will celebrate “big-time emotions of big screen stories” with this year’s theme of “Moving Pictures.”

If you’re like me, attendance at these marvelous events long ago ceased to be optional. If you love the movies, if they’re important to you in an emotional way, then these festivals are a necessity – for the same reason that owning a physical copy of a favorite movie (whether on Blu-ray, DVD or even VHS) is a necessity: because it makes your relationship to the film closer, more permanent.

If movies are something you have a passionate relationship with, then TCM’s festivals give you the chance to seal that relationship with a personal memory – and I’m already looking forward to what this year’s memories will be.

The best part of TCM’s festivals – their core appeal – is in seeing classic movies with people associated with the film in attendance, usually introducing the film. At last year’s TCM Classic Film Festival, for example, I had the pleasure of seeing Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer at the screening of The Sound of Music, Sophia Loren at the screening of Marriage Italian Style, and George Lazenby at the screening of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Errol Flynn’s daughter, Rory Flynn, even introduced a screening of her father’s classic pirate film, The Sea Hawk.

Every one of these experiences was incredible – like watching the Dodgers play while seated next to Sandy Koufax, or enjoying a night at the Met sitting next to Plácido Domingo. Watching Sophia Loren being interviewed last year by her son, Edoardo Ponti, was especially poignant; I’ve never seen such an intense, personal interview of a major star before – let alone in person (the interview will be broadcast on TCM during this year’s festival). If it’s possible, I’m even more a fan of Sophia than I was before.

To describe these screenings as “emotional” doesn’t begin to cover it. If you’re like me, carrying around decades of memories of these films, seeing these people in person and hearing their recollections brings their films to life in a whole new way – making them even more vivid and real than they were before. Continue reading LFM’s Jason Apuzzo @ The Huffington Post: Memories Await: The 2016 TCM Classic Film Festival & The Searchers 60th Anniversary

LFM’s Jason Apuzzo @ The Huffington Post: When Aliens Arrived On Oscar Weekend: UFO Diary Recreates the Battle of Los Angeles

[The post below was featured today at The Huffington Post.]

By Jason Apuzzo. For Los Angeles, there’ll never been an Oscar weekend like the one that took place in 1942 – the year a flying saucer nearly crashed the party.

This week marks the anniversary of The Battle of Los Angeles, also known as The Great LA Air Raid, one of the most mysterious incidents of World War II – and one of America’s biggest UFO sightings, taking place a full five years before Roswell.

It’s a story I couldn’t resist turning into a new sci-fi short film called UFO Diary, which debuted this week on Vimeo to mark today’s anniversary of The Battle of Los Angeles.

So what makes the Battle of LA so famous?

In the early morning hours of February 25th, 1942, wartime Los Angeles flew into a panic as an ominous, saucer-like object flew over the city, touching off a massive anti-aircraft barrage. Despite the intense barrage, however, no aircraft wreckage was ever recovered – sparking one of America’s first major UFO controversies.

Indeed, once the smoke had cleared, no one really knew what had been seen in the sky or on radar. Conflicting accounts of the incident from the War and Navy Departments didn’t help matters – leading to accusations of a cover-up.

As if to confirm public fears of extraterrestrial attack, a notorious LA Times photograph (see below) emerged from the incident showing a saucer-like object hovering over the city. It’s one of the eeriest images in UFO history.

An LA Times photograph of the Great LA Air Raid.

Over 100,000 Angelenos witnessed the incident, yet reports on what people saw that night varied – from Japanese aircraft, to a blimp, to stray American fighter planes, to a “lighted kite.” One eyewitness even described seeing an enormous flying “lozenge,” while an LA Times reporter claimed to have seen slow-moving “objects in the sky … caught in the center of the lights like the hub of a bicycle wheel surrounded by gleaming spokes.”

We still don’t really know what people were seeing that night, because the government has never provided us with an adequate explanation for the incident. Probably because they themselves still don’t know.

Since making UFO Diary, I’ve been asked by UFO enthusiasts what I think was really hovering in LA’s skies that night. The answer is that I don’t know – although I doubt it was a lozenge. Nor do I suspect that Orson Welles or Howard Hughes were involved. There have been a variety of competing explanations of what happened – most centering around weather balloons and barrage balloons – but none of them makes complete sense. The truth is that we may never know.

That’s why, with the help of VFX veterans from ILM and Weta Digital, we decided in UFO Diary to depict the incident as an encounter with the unknown. Continue reading LFM’s Jason Apuzzo @ The Huffington Post: When Aliens Arrived On Oscar Weekend: UFO Diary Recreates the Battle of Los Angeles

LFM’s Govindini Murty @ The Huffington Post: Why Should Women Have a Voice in Sci-Fi? Introducing My Film UFO Diary

[The post below was featured today at The Huffington Post.]

By Govindini Murty. Women have been the stars of many of our biggest sci-fi films recently – from Star Wars: The Force Awakens to The Hunger Games and Gravity. This has been a very welcome development – but we need more women behind the camera as creators of sci-fi, as well. We need the female equivalents of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron. But how do we do this, given the many obstacles in the way of women filmmakers?

There is an entire online industry of VFX-driven sci-fi shorts that are launching male filmmakers’ careers right now. If women are to direct and produce blockbuster sci-fi films, then we must also enter this arena of online sci-fi shorts.

I’d like to introduce you to my epic, women-led sci-fi short film UFO Diary, debuting today on Vimeo. UFO Diary is a sci-fi action-comedy about two Women’s Army Corps officers in WWII who fight off an alien invasion of Los Angeles. The film recreates a famous WWII air raid, is edited by Emmy Award-winner Mitch Danton, and features stunning VFX by artists from ILM, Weta Digital, and Digital Domain. UFO Diary was recently featured in the January issue of American Cinematographer.

UFO Diary is inspired by one of the most famous UFO incidents in history – the Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942. We’re releasing UFO Diary today to commemorate the upcoming anniversary of the Air Raid on February 25th.

In the early hours of February 25th, 1942, a mysterious, unidentified flying object appeared in the skies over Los Angeles. The Army fired a massive barrage of 1400 shells into the night sky – but nothing was shot down, and no wreckage was ever recovered. The incident was witnessed by over 100,000 Angelenos, but remains unexplained to this day.

2016-02-22-1456137526-7881730-GovindiniMurtyUFODiarycamera.jpg — Govindini Murty as Captain Diana Ravello in “UFO Diary.”

Making a film about the Great LA Air Raid was a colorful adventure in itself. In addition to producing UFO Diary, I also played the lead role of Captain Diana Ravello, a tough WAC captain and former Caltech rocket engineer. Playing Captain Diana involved me climbing over tanks and half-tracks, firing anti-aircraft guns in the middle of simulated WWII combat, getting my hearing blasted by machine-gun fire, and being swallowed up in massive dust clouds from tanks as I ran around a WWII-era fort. It was a great experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

During all this, I also collaborated on every aspect of the film – from story concept to cinematography to editing – with my filmmaking partner, Jason Apuzzo, the writer-director of UFO Diary. Jason is my husband and one of the most supportive people I know of women in film. We were united in wanting to make a WWII movie with women in the lead roles because we both wanted to tell a WWII story from a fresh perspective.

Producing UFO Diary also meant wrangling a cast of over one hundred WWII actors – including some pretty salty military vets (who were my favorites) – and hiring and supervising everyone on the crew, VFX, and post-production teams.

I’m excited now to be sharing UFO Diary with you, in part to show that women filmmakers can make sci-fi shorts as spectacular and technically-challenging as any male filmmaker out there. Continue reading LFM’s Govindini Murty @ The Huffington Post: Why Should Women Have a Voice in Sci-Fi? Introducing My Film UFO Diary

UFO Diary Premieres Today on Vimeo

I’m delighted to announce the online premiere of UFO Diary today on Vimeo. Our official press release is below. I hope you enjoy the film!

UFO DIARY, EPIC SCI-FI SHORT FILM, DEBUTS ON VIMEO, BRINGS WWII LA AIR RAID TO LIFE

Los Angeles, CA (February 22, 2016) The epic WWII sci-fi short film UFO DIARY premieres on Vimeo today, Monday, Feb. 22nd, 2016, in advance of the anniversary of the Great Los Angeles Air Raid. Highly anticipated, UFO DIARY is the first sci-fi film depicting the Feb. 25th, 1942 air raid – one of the most famous UFO incidents in history. Featuring stunning VFX by artists from ILM and Weta Digital, UFO DIARY brings a historical controversy to life, and was recently featured in American Cinematographer.

LOGLINE: In UFO DIARY, two Women’s Army Corps officers in the early days of WWII fight off an alien invasion of Los Angeles, becoming the unlikely heroines of one of the most famous UFO incidents in history.

BACKGROUND: Directed by Folio Eddie Award-winner Jason Apuzzo and edited by Emmy Award-winner Mitch Danton, UFO DIARY recreates the Great LA Air Raid of WWII. In the early morning hours of Feb. 25th, 1942, wartime Los Angeles flew into a panic when an ominous, saucer-like object flew over the city – touching off a massive anti-aircraft barrage. Over 100,000 Angelenos witnessed the incident, and the Army fired over 1400 shells into the night sky. Despite the intense barrage, however, no aircraft wreckage was ever recovered – inspiring America’s first major UFO controversy, a full five years before Roswell.

Continue reading UFO Diary Premieres Today on Vimeo

LFM’s Jason Apuzzo at The Huffington Post: Stormtroopers and Dinosaurs: Why George Lucas and Steven Spielberg Still Ruled the Box Office in 2015

[The post below is a featured post on the front page of The Huffington Post.]

By Jason Apuzzo. “There’s been an awakening. Have you felt it?” – Supreme Leader Snoke, in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Supreme Leader Snoke wasn’t kidding. In 2015, the Force not only awakened – it drank a whole pot of coffee, scored two touchdowns in the Cotton Bowl, and entered the New Hampshire primary, all before noon. Saturday Night Live even wants the Force to host the show this weekend – but the Force is apparently too busy interviewing for the Eagles’ head coaching job.

Let’s face it, Star Wars and the Force are back in a fist-pumping, Rocky Balboa-kind of way. Interestingly, Star Wars‘ only competition at the box office this past year was Jurassic World – another movie coming from a franchise that otherwise seemed to be enjoying its retirement, sipping guaro somewhere out on Isla Nublar.

The question is: how are these venerable film series still lighting it up at the box office, so many years on? And is there some vital secret about the entertainment legacy of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg – some clue to the amazing, ongoing appeal of their work – that in all the chatter on the Internet we still might’ve missed?

To recap, 2015 was truly a huge, record-smashing year at the movies – #1 all-time, unadjusted for inflation – and the surreal, gravity-defying numbers are still rolling in. Both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World are now among the top 4 grossing movies of all time – with The Force Awakens suddenly becoming the highest earning domestic film ever. Even adjusted for inflation (a more rigorous standard), both films will end up among the top 25 films of all time. That’s apparently even including Taylor Swift videos and Geico commercials.

How unusual is this sort of one-two punch at the box office? Over the past 50 years, only four times (1965, 1973, 1994, 2015) have two films cracked the top 25-adjusted list coming out of the same year. So clearly there’s something going on here.

From "Jurassic World." — From “Jurassic World.”

As most people know, the original Star Wars (released in 1977) and Jurassic Park (released in 1993) were gigantic, sci-fi bookends to an era in popular entertainment largely dominated by Lucas and Spielberg. Working separately or together (as in the Indiana Jones films), the two directors forced a tectonic shift in Hollywood’s business strategy away from making movies to please grouchy East Coast critics and Oscar voters to producing fan-friendly, sci-fi and fantasy fare for teenagers and kids. The industry hasn’t looked back since.

What’s surprising, though, is how popular their signature film series still are. The explanation for this is both simple and complicated.

<<For the rest of the article, please visit The Huffington Post.>>

Posted on January 8th, 2016 at 7:08pm.