This Day in Indie History

This Day in Indie History: Alan Arkin

New York comeback kid Alan Arkin was born this day back in 1934. The actor began his career as part of the folk group The Tarriers, but soon found his rightful path as an original member of Chicago’s “Second City” acting troupe.

Arkin’s stage career took off with a Tony Award for Carl Reiner’s 1963 comedy “Enter Laughing.” Four years later, he earned his first Oscar nomination for his debut feature, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. His second nod came in 1969 with The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

After dozens of screen appearances in-between, Arkin finally received his first Academy Award this year for his supporting role in the independent movie sensation Little Miss Sunshine. Other roles made memorable by Arkin include Captain Yossarian in Catch-22, opposite Peter Falk in The In-Laws, John Cusack’s therapist in Grosse Pointe Blank and a desperate salesman in Glengarry Glen Ross.

Quotable: Never missing a beat, Alan Arkin returned last year as the oddly comforting grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine. Despite a filthy mouth, his Grandpa character cleaned up around young Olive, who counted on him for support. When doubting her beauty, Grandpa classically assured her, “I’m madly in love with you and it’s not because of your personality.”

March 26th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Hope Davis

Hope Davis was born on this day in Englewood, NJ in 1964. The acting bug bit Davis early on; as a young girl she often performed neighborhood skits with childhood friend Mira Sorvino. Later, after attending Vassar and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, the actress took to Chicago’s theater scene, where she performed under the direction of John Cusack and Joel Schumacher. Her bond with the famous action director led to her first feature film role in Flatliners.

Her next role was a blip on the cultural scene as the French ticket agent that does little to help a distressed Catherine O’Hara in Home Alone. Since then Davis has found herself an independent film staple, with roles alongside Nicolas Cage (Kiss of Death, The Weather Man) and Campbell Scott (The Daytrippers, The Imposters, Duma, The Secret Lives of Dentists and the ABC drama “Six Degrees"). The blonde actress can be seen later this year in Charlie Bartlett with co-stars Robert Downey Jr. and Anton Yelchin.

Factoid: Hope Davis has had many a noticeable role since first affecting that French accent years ago. In 2004 the actress was nominated for both a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actress Award (for her work in American Splendor) and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female in The Secret Lives of Dentists.

March 22nd, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Stolen Summer

After the impressive and immediate success of Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck put together “Project Greenlight,” a competition aimed at allowing other “little guys” to strike it big. The first feature film result, Stolen Summer, was put into limited release on this day in 2002. Written and directed by rookie moviemaker Pete Jones, the cast included Aidan Quinn, Bonnie Hunt and Kevin Pollack. But the real stars were the young boys--an Irish-Catholic lad who believes his newfound friend, a terminally-ill rabbi’s son, will not go to heaven until converting to Catholicism. The movie made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2002. Despite high hopes and an inflated budget, Stolen Summer performed poorly in box office sales and never saw a wide theatrical release.

Factoid: The “Project Greenlight” HBO television series documented the trials and tribulations that went on behind the scenes from conception through production of Stolen Summer. It returned for another two seasons with limited success, producing the coming of age tale, The Battle of Shaker Heights, and the stylized horror spectacle Feast.

March 21st, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Thoroughly Modern Millie

Fifty years ago today Thoroughly Modern Millie hit U.S. theaters nationwide. Set in the 1920s, the musical stars Julie Andrews as the titular Millie Dielmount, Mary Tyler Moore as Miss Dorothy Brown, the unsuspecting woman in distress, and a supporting cast of Carol Channing, James Fox and John Gavin.

When Millie moves from small-town Kansas to the center of New York City, she changes her appearance and her occupation to score herself a wealthy husband. Her new home, at the Priscilla Hotel, turns out to be the cover for a white slavery ring, which Millie discovers just in time to save Miss Brown. The movie went on to receive seven Academy Award nominations in 1968, ultimately winning for Elmer Bernstein’s original score. Screenwriter Richard Morris also received an award for the Best Written Musical from the Writers Guild of America.

Connections: Before working together on Thoroughly Modern Millie, director George Roy Hill and Julie Andrews released Hawaii in 1966. Elmer Bernstein received his fifth career nomination for the same movie at that season’s Academy Awards, but it was with Thoroughly Modern Millie that he brought home his one and only trophy.

March 20th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Spike Lee

Socially-conscious director Spike Lee was born Shelton Lee in Atlanta, Georgia on this day in 1957. As a child, Lee moved with his family to Brooklyn, where he formed the New York identity that still follows him today. After receiving degrees from Atlanta’s Morehouse College and NYU’s film school, the aspiring director began a hot streak of successful movies beginning with 1986’s She’s Gotta Have It. The movie won recognition at Cannes and the Independent Spirit Awards. Lee followed two years later with School Daze, a comedy of class and race where “gammas” face off against the darker-skinned “jigaboos.” Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever and Malcolm X weren’t far behind--all released within six years of the director’s first commercial success. Lee’s blunt portrayal of race relations in America brought popularity, controversy and awards to his doorstep. From his Academy Award-nominated documentary, 4 Little Girls, to his most recent feature, Inside Man, with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen, Lee has managed to remain within the Hollywood system while all at once bucking it.

Quotable: “Wake up. The black man has been asleep for 400 years."—from his Student Academy Award-winning NYU thesis film, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barber Shop: We Cut Heads.

March 19th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Harvey Weinstein

One half of the infamous behemoth brother producing team, Harvey Weinstein was born on this day in 1952. While at the State University of New York at Buffalo, the Flushing, Queens native produced concerts with his brother, Bob. It was with the profits from this venture that the boys began Miramax Studios in 1979. Through persistence and bravado, the company went on to become one of the earliest driving forces behind the independent film movement.

Sometimes referred to as “Harvey Scissorhands” because of his willingness to cut, discard or reconfigure the work under Miramax’s umbrella, the looming figure has nonetheless earned the respect of the industry’s top talent. Alone, Weinstein has been nominated for two Academy Awards, but for the features he has produced has earned 220 nominations, three Best Picture Oscars and a total of 53 statues. Over the years, the producing giant has had a keen eye, gathering up such films as The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, sex, lies, and videotape, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Fahrenheit 9/11 and the upcoming The Nanny Diaries.

Factoid: With Bob acting as the man behind the curtain, Harvey has had a chance to shine, forming connections with (and in some cases, careers for) Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Kevin Smith, Renee Zellweger and directors of the new Grindhouse feature, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.

March 18th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Isabelle Huppert

Parisian actress Isabelle Huppert was born on this day in 1953. Her English-language debut came in 1974 with a notable role in Otto Preminger’s Rosebud, but this thespian was working her way to the top long before then. By the age of 21 she had acted in over 15 respectable films and can now count nearly 100 credits to her name. Some of Huppert’s most famous and controversial work includes Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Jean-Luc Godard’s Passion, 8 Femmes with Catherine Deneuve and 2001’s The Piano Teacher. Her international appeal still reigns supreme, however, and you can still catch her in the occasional English-language indie (see David O. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees).

Factoid: To date, Isabelle Huppert has received 12 nominations and one win (for La Cérémonie) from the César Awards in France. Other honors bestowed upon the French actress include the Best Newcomer award from BAFTA in 1978 and two Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival (for Violette and The Piano Teacher).

March 15th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Circle of Friends

Seasoned Broadway performer Alan Cumming was brought to life on-screen for the first time as Sean Walsh in Circle of Friends, released on this day in 1995. The movie also stars a slightly awkward, deliberately dowdy Minnie Driver and an Irish-accented Chris O’Donnell. The movie, based on Maeve Binchy’s novel of the same name, never really received much in the way of popular acclaim but critics found the romantic comedy darling. Not only did it bring about a new audience for the movie’s protagonists, but for Englishman Colin Firth, who found international acclaim shortly thereafter with his roles in the BBC miniseries “Pride & Prejudice” and Anthony Minghella’s epic love story, The English Patient.

Quotable: “You mustn’t mess me about. I know I may look like a rhinoceros, but I’ve got quite a thin skin really.”--Minnie Driver as Bernadette ‘Benny’ Hogan, who, in the film’s 100-plus minutes, deals greatly with, and attempts to overcome, issues of image and self-worth.

March 14th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Love Jones

After premiering earlier that same year at the Sundance Film Festival, Theodore Witcher’s Love Jones was released on this day in 1997. It ultimately left the renowned Park City festival with the Dramatic Audience Award and a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize. The movie was the first for writer-director Witcher, who went on to write the little-seen Body Count starring Forest Whitaker. Larenz Tate lent his acting chops to this movie’s talented cast (including Nia Long and Isaiah Washington), deftly moving through the urban streets of the Chicago poetry scene and the tribulations of love. With characters all at once general and race-specific, Love Jones made an impact on the future of black cinema.

Factoid: Larenz Tate won notice for his portrayal of Darius Lovehall in this small-scale dramedy about love—quite different from his previous roles as a Vietnam vet in 1995’s Dead Presidents and troubled O-Dog in Menace II Society. For his turn as the lovelorn poet, the actor received a nomination from the Acapulco Black Film Festival, but lost to veteran scene-stealer Samuel L. Jackson. It only took one year for the award to catch up with him though: Tate won the same award the following year for Why Do Fools Fall in Love.

March 14th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Emile Hirsch

It was on this day in 1985 that young, burgeoning actor Emile Hirsch came into the world, or, more specifically, Topanga Canyon, California. His early career involved series television, including recurring roles on “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Third Rock From the Sun.” Fans of the Olsen twins might also remember him from the sitcom “Two of a Kind.” Thankfully, he soon left his teeny-bopper side behind and took off with head-turning, provocative roles in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, The Emperor’s Club, Imaginary Heroes, The Mudge Boy and Alpha Dog. Look for him to shine next in the Sean Penn-penned (and directed) drama Into the Wild, alongside Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener, William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden.

Connections: Emile Hirsch was approached by the producers of the now-defunct Matt Damon/Ben Affleck television series, “Project Greenlight,” to star in its second independent production, The Battle of Shaker Heights. Hirsch ultimately turned the role down, paving the way for fellow budding actor Shia LaBeouf to take it.

March 12th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Bend It Like Beckham

Bend It Like Beckham finally arrived in the United States on this day in 2002. Written and directed by Indian sensation Gurinder Chadha, the movie covers the lives of two separate London girls looking to buck their family’s ideas and ideals in creating their own identities. Popularity among audiences young and old gave the movie steam and lead to a wide release in August of the following year. The soccer movie (its title a reference to popular then-Londoner David Beckham) stars Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley, in her first major film role, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers before he too became a recognizable face in films such as Woody Allen’s Match Point.

Factoid: Since starring in Bend It Like Beckham, Keira Knightley’s star has risen to the nth degree. Her turn as Beckham’s Jules won her the British Newcomer of the Year Award from the London Critics Circle. Just three years later she found herself seated amongst the best in her field when nominated as the Best Leading Actress for 2005’s Pride & Prejudice.

March 12th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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George Burns

Comedian George Burns died in his sleep on this day in 1996, just weeks after his 100th birthday. Burns came from a family of 12 children who, especially after his father’s passing, had to pull their own weight. As a result, by fourth grade the young entertainer traded school for show business—tired of shining shoes and selling papers. The rest is history, based largely on his teaming with and marriage to Gracie Allen. Together, the comedy duo starred in a few unsuccessful short comic films, aired their own radio show and eventually became wildly popular with the “George Burns & Gracie Allen Show.” It took a while after Allen’s death for Burns to regain his stride but in 1975, he finally got it back, winning an Oscar for his supporting role in Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys. The role also earned him a Golden Globe nod for Best Actor.

Factoid: Other movies credited to George Burns included the Oh God! series, starring the actor as God, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Radioland Murders, his last screen role. Over his lifetime, Burns was also honored with a SAG Lifetime Achievement Award and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

March 9th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Chungking Express

The Hong Kong film Chungking Express opened in the U.S. on this day in 1996. Written and directed by Wong Kar-Wai, the movie tells the story of two cops and their destructive love lives. The first plot follows Cop 223, who finds meaning in canned fruit, while the second tracks the strange new love interest of Cop 663. Interestingly, the stories hold their own plotlines throughout most of the film, intersecting only slightly. Chungking Express went on to receive an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Foreign Film in 1997. Before that, the movie won four of its 10 top honors at the Hong Kong Film Awards of 1995.

Connections: Known for his love of Asian cinema, it comes as no surprise that moviemaker Quentin Tarantino was the one to bring Chungking Express across borders. He helped Wong Kar-Wai distribute the movie via his Rolling Thunder distribution company.

March 8th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Peter Sarsgaard

An independent movie icon for Generation X, actor Peter Sarsgaard was born on this day in 1971. The Illinois native pursued history in college before finally discovering his acting talent during his senior year at Washington University. Shortly thereafter Sarsgaard moved to New York City, joined the Actors’ Studio and found himself working in the 1996 production of John Cameron Mitchell’s Kingdom of Earth. Since his screen debut in 1995’s Dead Man Walking, Sarsgaard has entertained audiences with varied performances in such indie fare as Boys Don’t Cry, The Salton Sea, Garden State, Kinsey and Jarhead. His latest two films, High Falls and Year of the Dog, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Factoid: In 2004, Peter Sarsgaard was recognized by his moviemaking peers at the Golden Globes and Independent Spirit Awards for his role as the deceived New Republic editor Charles Lane in Billy Ray’s Shattered Glass.

Molly Shannon and Peter Sarsgaard star in Mike White’s Year of the Dog (2007). Photo: Paramount Vantage.

March 7th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Raising Arizona

It was on this day 20 years ago that the Coen brothers’Raising Arizona was released in theaters. The movie stars Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter as a married couple unable to conceive or adopt a child of their own. After news of the local Arizona family’s newborn quintuplets reaches the couple, it becomes their mission to kidnap and care for one of the babies. The Arizona’s reward for the return of their son drives the couple and other random acquaintances to fight and sabotage in pursuit of the money.

Quotable: “Edwina’s insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase.” –Nicolas Cage as H.I. McDunnough, explaining the reason his wife could not conceive.

March 6th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Adriana Barraza

Mexican actress Adriana Barraza was born on this day in 1956. Long popular in her native land for her directing and acting work on various telenovela series, Barraza was finally noticed on an international this year for her big-screen work in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s epic Babel. The role of an immigrant caretaker and her struggle to protect the children she loved earned the actress SAG, Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. Babel marks the second time Barraza has worked with both director González Iñárritu and co-star Gael García Bernal; the trio previously worked together on 2000’s Amores Perros.

Factoid: Adriana Barraza is even more than an actress and director. In addition to her day job, the actress moonlights as an acting and dialect coach. Her latest and most notable contribution was to James L. Brooks’ 2004 film, Spanglish.

Elle Fanning and Adriana Barraza star in Babel (2006). Photo: Paramount Vantage.

March 5th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Easy Rider

On this day in 1968, director Dennis Hopper and producer Peter Fonda welcomed the crew of Easy Rider to the first morning of production. As recounted in Peter Biskind’s 1998 study Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, the moviemaking process proved--at its best--to be rocky and unstable. Fighting against Hopper’s overblown ego, disputes over a finalized script, consistent substance abuse on the set and rampant financial troubles, the production suffered its way to completion with the filming of the now-famous graveyard sequence. Despite production woes, however, the movie launched the careers of Hopper, Fonda and most notably Jack Nicholson, whose portrayal as idealist George Hanson garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Factoid: Easy Rider became a new American classic upon its release--proving to Hollywood that studios didn’t have to finance big-budget extravaganzas, but instead favor those with artistic direction and appeal. The movie was also noted for a soundtrack that featured only rock music--a move never before seen in cinema.

February 22nd, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Monsoon Wedding

Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding opened in New York and Los Angeles on this day in 2002. The fictional story weaves five smaller stories around the central plot of an arranged Punjabi wedding in New Delhi, India. Nair’s directorial masterpiece brings together the Verma family as both heat and tensions build as the Indian’s monsoon season approaches. Monsoon Wedding fast became a critical and audience darling--winning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film in addition to the prestigious Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Film Festival. (Nair was the first woman in the festival’s history to receive this award.)

Filmmaker Factoid: Director Mira Nair is the Indian-born, Harvard-educated movie director well-known for her universal, Bollywood-style productions. Her debut film, 1988’s Salaam Bombay! was the first Indian feature to be nominated for the Academy Award’s Best Foreign Film honor.

February 21st, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Lost Highway

The twisted new-age film noir Lost Highway was released 10 years ago today. The movie, directed and co-written by David Lynch, tracks an often intriguingly hard-to-follow plotline that involves the dual identities of Robert Blake and Patricia Arquette, the mysterious motive behind two murders and the Lost Highway Hotel. Lynch pushes and pulls his audience through a maze of characters and subplots, providing countless questions but not enough answers. The director has said he enjoys a good mystery, but once solved, those mysteries become disappointments. So he decided to leave the film open-ended. The decision didn’t seem to work in his favor at first, as critics panned the movie for being unintelligible and only visually cultivated. But some say that Lost Highway led to his triumphant return to glory with 2001’s Mulholland Drive.

Collaborations: It is somehow fitting that Lost Highway marked the last time actor Jack Nance played on-screen. Previously, Nance had worked with Lynch on Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and the television series “Twin Peaks.”

February 21st, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Sidney Poitier

On a business trip to Miami on this day in 1927, two Bahamian tomato farmers welcomed their son into the world—the now famous Sidney Poitier. He left his home at the age of 15, served in the American military and later, in the American Negro Theater, worked as Harry Belafonte’s understudy. The actor’s feature film debut came in the 1950 film No Way Out. By 1958, Poitier became the first black thespian to receive an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Defiant Ones. He would make history once again in 1964 for being the first black actor to ever take home an acting trophy from the Academy. His turn as Walter Lee Younger in the Broadway debut and subsequent film version of “A Raisin in the Sun” garnered rave reviews and ushered along his notoriety. His list of accomplishments is formidable, including the 1969 formation of the First Artists production company with Paul Newman and Barbra Streisand, among others; in 1974 he became a Knight Commander of the British Empire.

Quotable: Sidney Poitier made headlines with the groundbreaking racial and political roles he took. In 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Poitier’s out-of-place Dr. John Wade Prentice famously shone light on the racial positioning of the period when he said, “You think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man.”

February 19th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Pollock

Ed Harris’ directorial debut, Pollock, was released (albeit limitedly) in the U.S. on this day in 2001. The film starred the actor as abstract painter Jackson Pollock, the first American artist to become a household name. It was a longtime dream for Harris to put this movie together after reading the artist’s biography more than 10 years earlier. The labor of love earned him an Academy Award nomination for his lead role and Marcia Gay Harden the trophy for Best Supporting Actress. Harden played Pollock’s wife, Less Krasner, an artist in her own right, who helped push the renowned artist to fame. The movie was filmed in New York City and at the renovated Pollock/Krasner home in Easthampton, Long Island.

Film Star Factoid: To become the characters they were playing, Ed Harris and Marcia Gay Harden both spent time creating their own art--attempting to get inside the heads of the celebrated artists. Harris even went so far as to build his own studio where he could work in larger scale, much like Pollock himself had done.

February 15th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Iris

The critically acclaimed movie Iris was put into limited U.S. release on this day in 2002. The movie, written and directed by Richard Eyre, was adapted from the John Bayley book of the same name. It starred British actresses Kate Winslet and Dame Judi Dench, both playing the role of British novelist Iris Murdoch, who died in 1999 after a long bout with Alzheimer’s. Eyre uses the movie to juxtapose the stages of Murdoch’s life—from headstrong and quick-witted, to the wilting flower dependent upon her husband (played in the two eras by Hugh Bonneville and Jim Broadbent).

Film Star Factoid: Jim Broadbent took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar that year, but Kate Winslet also brought home an honor that night from the Kodak Theatre: For the second time in her career, Winslet received an acting nod for playing the younger version of an on-screen character. What is most notable, however, is that her costars—Gloria Stuart in Titanic and Dame Judi Dench in Iris—were also nominated for their older portrayals of the same character.

February 14th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Freddie Highmore

Young English thespian Freddie Highmore was born on this day in 1992. With both parents part of the moviemaking industry (his father is an actor and his mother is a respected talent agent), Highmore soon found himself acting alongside some of Hollywood’s elite. His past projects have linked him to French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, Kenneth Branagh, Ridley Scott and Albert Finney. It was under Marc Forster’s guidance, however, that Highmore saw his star rise to international fame playing Peter Llewelyn Davies in Finding Neverland (2004). Coping with a dead father and ill mother (played by Kate Winslet), Peter befriends childlike J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp) to escape his difficult childhood. Highmore’s portrayal of the character won him a SAG nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He’ll next be seen alongside Robin Williams in August Rush.

Connections: Freddie Highmore found himself a dedicated mentor in his Finding Neverland co-star Johnny Depp. It is rumored that Depp told director Tim Burton that only Highmore could fill the shoes of Charlie Bucket in his remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Interestingly, while Burton had never before worked with the little thespian, his current paramour, Helena Bonham Carter, had had the pleasure of acting as his mother in 1999’s Women Talking Dirty.

February 13th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Hurricane Streets

The Sundance hit Hurricane Streets was released in the U.S. on this day in 1998. The movie, about a young teen trying to pull his life together under a barrage of peer pressure, was written and directed by freshman moviemaker Morgan J. Freeman. It starred Brendan Sexton III (Empire Records, Boys Don’t Cry) as Marcus, the teen who dreams of moving his troubled mother (Edie Falco) to the untroubled landscape of New Mexico. Hurricane Streets is notable for being the first feature to win three awards when it screened at Sundance in 1997, including Best Director, Best Cinematography and the Audience Award for best Dramatic Film.

Factoid: Morgan J. Freeman knows when to hold on to a good thing. Before working with Sexton on Hurricane Streets, the two partnered for the writer-director’s 1996 short film, Boom. They originally met when Freeman worked as a second assistant director to Todd Solondz on Welcome to the Dollhouse, and found themselves together again for Just Like Heaven, which premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.

February 12th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Jean Renoir

Renowned French moviemaker Jean Renoir died of a heart attack on this day in 1979. Born September 5, 1894 to impressionist painter Auguste Renoir, Jean saw his early career built on the shoulders of his father—funding his first film from the sale of his deceased father’s paintings and using his father’s former model as a lead actress in many of his early works. It was during WWII that the younger Renoir, recuperating from his tour of duty, discovered his love of the medium he would later famously revolutionize.

Renoir’s love of his country and his politically-charged ideals would later become evident in films such as A Day in the Country, The Lower Depths, The Human Beast and, perhaps most famously, Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game. Although he received very little public or critical approval while he was alive, Renoir has become one of the most accomplished moviemakers in history—making strides in his home country and abroad. In 1975, he received his only career Oscar: An honorary lifetime achievement award.

Factoid: In 1931 Jean Renoir made his first sound film, On Purge Bebe, which went on to become a huge success. Later that year, riding the wave of his earlier talkie, Renoir released the full-length feature The Bitch. The film established his technique of using only the naturally synched-sound made during production instead of later creating noise as filler.

February 11th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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