HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR WINTER, 2009 ISSUE

VISIT OUR SPECIAL SUNDANCE 2009 SECTION DAILY THROUGHOUT THE FEST

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR FALL ISSUE

JOANA VICENTE NAMED INTERIM IFP HEAD
As the search for a new IFP executive director continues, indie film producer Joana Vicente (who with her husband Jason Kliot have made independent movies with their labels, Open City Films, Blow Up Pictures and HDNet Films) has been named the interim head of the non-profit organization according to a release sent out today. Vicente, who is a member of the committee looking for a new head of the IFP, will join IFP next week to work on the transition with Michelle Byrd, who has lead the organization for the last 12 years and announced her departure back in June. The IFP is the publisher of Filmmaker Magazine.

GIVING AWAY NORTH BY NORTHWEST
Ask me my favorite Hitchcock film and I'll shoot you back the obvious answer: Vertigo, the director's cinematic and fetishistic embodiment of romantic obsession. Ask me the film I'd be most likely to pop into my DVD player and re-watch for fun and I've another obvious answer: North by Northwest, his smart and stylish paranoid thriller, which he made the following year. And while Vertigo inspired a whole rash of erotic thrillers in the '90s — Basic Instinct and all its imitators — North by Northwest's sly take on the American security stake feels perfectly of the moment. The good folks at Warner Bros. Home Video have offered three copies of the new North by Northwest 50th Anniversary S

4 SHORTS ARE FOURPLAY
Filmmaker Kyle Henry was one of our "25 New Faces" in 2006 on the basis of his excellent debut feature, Room, and now he's blogging about his fascinating follow-up, Fourplay. Executive produced by Jim McKay and Michael Stipe, and produced by Jason Wehling, Fourplay is a series of short films highlighting sexual transgressions, and, as the blog makes clear, the final product may be compiled into a feature, released as a series of shorts, or may be part of some other, more fluid kind of format. From the description of the film on the blog: Four transgressions, four transmissions, four true tales of sexual intimacy: in AUSTIN, a young heterosexual couple debate independence vs conceiving an

COLUMBIA ANNOUNCES NEW FOCUS IN CREATIVE PRODUCING
A few weeks ago I attended a reception at Ira Deutchman's house in which Columbia University's new Focus in Creative Producing was announced, and I've been remiss in posting here about what is a really promising and, in these times, necessary course of study up on Morningside Heights. From the press release: Building upon a strong record of faculty and alumni recognition at the Oscars, Sundance and other film festivals, Columbia University School of the Arts is expanding its master of fine arts film program. Film: Creative Producing, a newly introduced course of study, will train the next generation of filmmakers in the modern complexities of professional movie production. Applications

DOUG RUSHKOFF ON PEER TO PEER VALUE CREATION AND CURRENCY
I came across this short video of Doug Rushkoff speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo, and in it he echoes some of the things he spoke about at the DIY Days in Philadelphia, which I attended back in June. In that keynote as well Rushkoff hopskotched through the creation of central currency, detailing the role of governments in controlling the our ability to exchange value. It's a lot to cover in 12.5 minutes, and while I'm no expert in economic history, there's plenty to quibble with in his broad shorthand. Like, as a colleague pointed out after his Philadelphia lecture, didn't the creation of currency also have something to do with the fact that people didn't want to carry around big bushels of gra