Nevada City Film Festival Hosts Producers Retreat, Visiting Filmmakers and Workshops

The Nevada City Film Festival (NCFF) does much more than bring films to our community for viewing pleasure. In addition to bringing top independent international films and filmmakers to Nevada County, the festival also works to support the creative process and health of the individuals who entertain, inspire and thrill us with their stories. Don’t miss out on these unique opportunities to rub elbows and network with visiting filmmakers this weekend during the 23^rd annual Nevada City Film Festival.

Filmmaker Residency Program & Producers Retreat

Five years ago, the festival co-created the “NCFF Filmmaker Residency Program & Producers Retreat” with well-known producer Karin Chien to bring established producers to engage in cross-cultural exchange, with a special focus on engaging Native American and Asian American communities with historic ties to Nevada City. The program is the only artist residency in the US to focus on creative producers in film.

Each year the festival invites established independent producers for a creative retreat centered around sustainability, creative regeneration, and community engagement. The goal is to provide nourishment and inspiration to independent producers amidst our beautiful city, to further enrich the area’s world-class creative community with the active presence of these media makers. While attending the retreat they are able to participate in local excursions and tour our town’s own unique history. Producers are also invited to attend screenings and guest presentations during the festival, along with group dinners to meet local filmmakers and media professionals.

Residency Director, Karin Chien is an independent producer and distributor committed to bold voices and innovative forms that help build radical practices of ethical filmmaking. Chien’s achievements include a recipient of the inaugural Cinereach Producing Award and the Piaget Independent Spirit Producers Award. She is a four-time nominee of the Independent Spirit Awards. Karin has produced 10 features starring women and people of color, including CIRCUMSTANCE (Sundance 2011 Audience Award), THE EXPLODING GIRL (Berlinale 2009) and THE MOTEL (Sundance 2005). Chien is the founder and president of dGenerate Films, the leading distributor of independent, contemporary Chinese cinema. She is the creator of the CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) Fellowship, a mentoring initiative for mid-career Asian-American talent in film. And in 2022, Chien was asked to give the Sundance Film Festival Producer’s Keynote Speech.

This year’s residency attendees include:

Amy Hobby an Academy Award-nominated, and Emmy Award-winning producer. Most recently she produced NAM JUNE PAIK: MOON IS THE OLDEST TV, which world premiered in competition at Sundance 2023 and is being released by Greenwich Entertainment. Hobby has several notable films on Netflix, and HBO. Her film Shepard and Dark was shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Notable actors in her films include Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader, Ethan Hawke, Bill Murray, Johnny Depp, among many others. Her films have played and/or won awards at festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, Cannes, Berlin, Hot Docs, to name a few. Amy is a former Executive Director of the TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE (2016-2020) and a current co-founder of DISTRIBUTION ADVOCATES.

Mariko Munro, a filmmaker and art advisor working in both worlds for over a decade. Notable works include MILKSHAKE, (Sundance Film Festival NEXT 2013), FALSE TRUE LOVE (included as Emily Sundblad’s participation in the 2014 Whitney Biennial), JACK (Short, BAM Cinema Festival 2016). Munro has been a regular contributor to Sesame Street since 2014, earning her an Emmy Nomination for her music video “The Amazing Song – Sesame and Autism”. Since 2020 Munro has been working in the Premium Documentary space for Story Syndicate on projects for HBO, Netflix, FX, and Apple TV+, while also independently producing “Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV”, which premiered in Documentary Competition at Sundance Film Festival 2023 and was opening night film of Doc Fortnite at the Museum of Modern Art 2023.

Munro is currently in production on an untitled Documentary Feature she developed and will produce with Monkeypaw Productions.

Mishka Brown, an independent film producer whose work spans documentaries and narrative features and short form pieces. Recent projects include “Unfinished Business” a documentary about the first 25 years of the WNBA that premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2022 and “She Paradise” a coming of age film shot in Trinidad which premiered at AFI Film Festival in 2021 and is distributed by Goldwyn Films. As a member of the Black filmmaking collective recent work includes Killing in Thy Name with Rage Against the Machine, Centropy by Deana Lawson for the Guggenheim, and Out/Side of Time, a film by Jenn Nkiru exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Mishka is currently working on a number of projects including a documentary for Apple TV. Previously Mishka was an Executive Producer at Washington Square Films.

Visiting Filmmakers

NCFF will welcome over 40 filmmakers to this year’s film festival. Filmmakers will participate in the Opening Night Happy Hour at the National Exchange Hotel – Friday, June 23, 4:30-6:30pm, Q&A’s following film screenings and a handful of free workshops presented at NCFF’s headquarters located at 110 Union Street, in Nevada City. These are great opportunities for film lovers, budding filmmakers and media makers to learn and network with their community.

Workshops

Screamwriting

Saturday, June 24, Noon

NCFF HQ, 110 Union Street, Nevada City

Free, Limited to 30, sign up at www.nevadacityfilmfestival.com

Horror has long been an outlet for social commentary and is now the genre for the fastest greenlit projects in Hollywood. Join Kimberly Parker Zox, the Horror Program Director of Blumhouse & K Period Media’s Screamwriting Fellowship, for a discussion on how horror films are impacting the marketplace and giving underrepresented voices a platform.

Kimberly Parker Zox is the Horror Program Director of Blumhouse & K Period Media’s Screamwriting Fellowship, a new initiative formally advised by Sundance Institute. Prior to her work in the horror space, Zox produced IFC’s CATCH THE FAIR ONE, (Audience Award, Tribeca 2021), executive produced by Darren Aronofsky and Protozoa. She was an Executive Producer on A24’s THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO (Best Director, Sundance 2019), executive produced by Brad Pitt and Plan B. Her prior producing work includes “I Am My Own Mother,” one of two American shorts in Cannes Cinéfondation 2018; dramatic feature KATIE SAYS GOODBYE (TIFF 2016), starring Olivia Cooke and Christopher Abbott; and an interactive, gaze-controlled virtual reality film, “Broken Night,” starring Emily Mortimer (Tribeca, Cannes Next 2017).

Whose Life Is It Anyway? Ethical Responsibility in Documentary Filmmaking

Saturday, June 24, 3:30pm

NCFF HQ, 110 Union Street, Nevada City

Free, Limited to 30, sign up at www.nevadacityfilmfestival.com

Generally, discussions of ethics in documentary filmmaking have been narrowly focused on the invasion of privacy or, sometimes, exploitation. Asking the question, “Whose life is this anyway?” tries to broaden the discussion of relationships among filmmakers, the people about whom they make films and others involved in the collaboration. We need to consider a number of relationships and to recognize that ethics deals with making choices among acceptable alternatives. What these decisions are can often hinge on one’s morality.

Join producer Jameka Autry for a round table discussion on the ethics and responsibilities in documentary filmmaking with representatives from Peace is Loud, an organization that collaborates with women-identified and gender expansive changemakers to advance transformative peace and social justice through storytelling, along with the filmmakers of Subject, a documentary screening at NCFF (Saturday, June 24, 1pm at the Nevada Theatre) which explores the life-altering experience of sharing one’s life on screen through the participants of five acclaimed documentaries. As tens of millions of people consume documentaries in an unprecedented “golden era,” the film urges audiences to consider the impact on documentary participants – the good, the bad, and the complicated. Plus special guests. Whether you’re a filmmaker, distributor, funder, viewer or any other part of the documentary creation and consumption pipeline, this discussion will offer new perspectives on how we can share others’ experiences through this storytelling medium with greater care.

Episodic Filmmaking

Sunday, June 25, 10am

NCFF HQ, 110 Union Street, Nevada City

Free, Limited to 30, sign up at www.nevadacityfilmfestival.com

Hello World invites the viewer to come on a journey. It’s a journey that stretches across the globe to find the inventors, scientists and technologists shaping our future. Each episode explores a different country and uncovers the ways in which the local culture and surroundings have influenced their approach to technology. Join journalist and best-selling author Ashlee Vance on a quest to find the freshest, weirdest tech creations and the beautiful freaks behind them. Filmmaker and NCFF co-founder David Nicholson will present a talk on the ups and downs of creating this hit series for Bloomberg on Hulu.

Demystifying SAG-AFTRA

Sunday, June 25, 12:30pm

NCFF HQ, 110 Union Street, Nevada City

Free, Limited to 30, sign up at www.nevadacityfilmfestival.com

Please join a discussion about the vibrancy of the filmmaking community in Northern California and the means by which the SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreements allow access to professional talent for productions of every budget, while providing performers a stable livelihood working in the SF Bay Area.

Panelists including local SAG-AFTRA member, Rocky Capella and SF-NC Local Board President, Kathryn Howell, along with SAG-AFTRA Franchised Talent Agent, Calum Grant and SF-NC Local Executive Director, Sean F. Taylor. Together they will provide step-by-step guidance for signing a project to a SAG-AFTRA contract as well as advice for prospective members on the process and benefits of joining the union of professional recorded and on-screen performers.