The week in quotes from Hollywood in the Hub

"I had a ball with Jennifer. She's very elegant, yet sort of a classic woman, actress. She does her own thing, and she also doesn't bring a lot of hoity-toity false drama to the process."

--Matthew McConaughey, star of the made-in-Boston "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" hitting theaters on Friday, May 1, says his on-screen romantic interest Jennifer Garner is "keen and coy."

"I think Boston, especially the way it's been portrayed in movies recently as a burly city, a city of Irish mobsters in Dorchester -- there's a whole other side to it, a much quieter, more romantic side."

--Harvard grad and filmmaker Damien Chazelle believes his film, "Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench," will show Tribeca Film Festival guests another side of Boston.

"Boston's where I got started as a comedian, but the Coolidge is where I first got exposed to art movies."

--Bob "Bobcat" Goldthwait, in town to promote his film "World's Greatest Dad" at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, says his early days in Boston fueled his indie-flick sensibility.

"I feel like a Hollywood star."

--Mary Jo Chaisson, one of the stars of the film "Shooting Beauty," gushes to a reporter outside of the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square waiting for the big premiere of the documentary at the Independent Film Festival of Boston.

“We have more local filmmakers in the festival than we’ve ever had, [because] many local films were better than films we saw from around the world.”

--Adam Roffman, program director of the IFFBoston, tells the Bay State Banner that local films and filmmakers put in a strong showing at this year's Independent Film Festival of Boston.

'Shooting Beauty' shines at IFFBoston premiere

Mary Jo Chaisson (pictured above), one of the stars of the film "Shooting Beauty," was waiting outside of the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square greeting her friends from Watertown's United Cerebral Palsy Day Experience Program as they arrived for the big premiere of the documentary at the Independent Film Festival of Boston on Sunday, Aug. 26.

"I feel like a Hollywood star," Chaisson gushes to a reporter with a video camera.

Cheryl Magnusson, another photographer from the "Shooting Beauty" film, arrived via a MBTA shuttle and the two were genuinely happy to see each other. The sheer joy Chaisson expressed when Magnusson arrived to the red-carpet event moved me to tears. It was friendship and love in its purest form. The unplanned encounter was enough to inspire me to wait in line, which stretched completely behind the theater, to the see the film.

I was not disappointed. "Shooting Beauty" was an unexpected gem of IFFBoston.

"Within 15 minutes of watching this film, we knew it would screen at the festival," says Adam Roffman, the executive director of IFFBoston. "This film speaks for itself."

"Shooting Beauty," which began filming 10 years ago, tells what happened when professional fashion photographer Courtney Bent gave cameras to people with cerebral palsy. Bent, armed with good intentions, had no clue what to expect. The result is a film that gives voice to those without a voice. It touches on universal themes--like friendship, unrequited love, isolation, fear and even death--but doesn't shove it down our throats.

"Shooting Beauty," a collaboration by Bent and now husband George Kachadorian, is an inspiring film about the human condition and the need for artistic expression.

Tony Knight, who has gone on to be an accomplished photographer, says in the film that his disability "is not who I am." After the IFFBoston screening, he shared the stage with Bent and Kachadorian and you could see how proud he was to finally be able to express his artistic sensibility to the masses.

"I'm going to ride this wave until it crashes," he says, after a lifetime of "being pointed at, whispered about, and according to him, misunderstood." His peers from the Watertown center were sitting in front of him, beaming with joy.

True beauty? They were all sitting in the front row of the Somerville Theatre tonight.

Click here for the lowdown on "Shooting Beauty."

--Photo courtesy Courtney Bent

Chris Cooper, Phone Car, Imagine at IFFBoston

Boston's Independent Film Festival was a madhouse Saturday, April 25 in front of the Somerville Theatre. Actor Chris Cooper, narrator of the Luis Tiant documentary "The Lost Son of Havana," took a breather outside of the packed theater with his wife Marianne Leone during the screening.

The actor, who recently snagged a role in the Ben Affleck downsizing drama "The Company Men," signed autographs and was genuinely a nice guy. As previously reported in Loaded Gun, The Farrelly brothers and Tiant were also at the premiere of "The Lost Son of Havana." Also, IFFBoston organizers announced yesterday that a second screening has been added 5 p.m. Sunday, April 26 in response to the max-capacity crowds tonight.

While Cooper was generating some IFFBoston buzz on the sidewalk, The Phone Car parked near the Davis Square T station was getting all of the action down the street. Created by business owner Howard Davis as a way to promote his telephone company, he parked the car outside of the Somerville Theatre to help promote the flick "Auto-Morphosis" which screened at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25.

Folks were plopping their kids on the car and trying to take photos. One couple, who somehow fit their entire family and friends on top of the mobile, got into a verbal confrontation with the Phone Car guy. "You should have put signs up," yelled an angry mother after Davis admonished them to get off his car. "You have a tourist attraction and you expect people not to sit on it?"

Davis' response, "Would you sit on someone's Corvette?" The family still seemed ticked off.

Meanwhile inside the theater, I snagged a copy of the special edition of Imagine magazine's New England location, production & resource guide. Publisher Carol Patton asked for permission to use some of my photos here from the "See Kate Run" shoot a few weeks back. I was surprised to see that three of my photos landed on the cover of the regional trade publication. How exciting!

Click here for the lowdown on Imagine.

--Phone Car photo by Sam Baltrusis

Random Shot :: IFFBoston at Somerville Theatre

After putting some time in at the office in the Leather District, I headed to the Somerville Theatre with a friend at around 6 p.m. to catch Amy Grill's "Speaking in Code." Man, the line to get into the IFFBoston literally wrapped around the theater. Now in its seventh year, IFFBoston is quickly becoming one of the premiere places to catch indie films.

It's exciting to watch a festival grow into a bona fide film-industry event. Davis Square was buzzing with excitement. Many of tonight's screenings were sold out before 7 p.m.

My friend and I ended up heading to Orleans Restaurant where I had a long chat with San Francisco-based filmmaker Peter Esmonde, a talented director set to unveil his documentary called "Trimpin: The Sound of Invention" at Boston's Independent Film Festival also at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square. Esmonde is slotted to participate in a Q&A after the screening of "Trimpin" on Sunday, April 26.

"Trimpin" follows the award-winning innovator through his fascinating collaboration with the Kronos Quartet; his installation of a 60-foot tornado of 700+ electric guitars; a 25-year, multi-museum retrospective of his work; and through a variety of odd kinetic experiments and amusing interdisciplinary performances.

Click here for the special edition of Loaded Gun Insider highlighting a few of the noteworthy flicks and filmmakers hitting the festival. Also, click here to buy tickets to the 8 p.m. Sunday, April 26 screening of "Trimpin."

--Photos by Sam Baltrusis

INTERVIEW: Director Amy Grill's 'Speaking in Code'

In 2005 filmmaker Amy Grill, currently a producer-in-residence at Emerson College, began filming a behind-the-scenes account of a handful of characters within the electronic music scene. The result is “Speaking in Code,” an intimate and sometimes heartbreaking look into a world where people get lost in music.

Filmed in 11 cities in five countries, the 34-year-old Grill weaves together the story of eight individuals including two bad-boy producers, two DJs, a journalist and her then husband David Day, a Boston-based promoter and current arts and entertainment editor for The Weekly Dig.

Slotted to premiere at Boston’s Independent Film Festival at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 23 at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, “Speaking in Code” is making its world debut at IFFBoston. Grill, who says she lives somewhere between Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco, chats to Loaded Gun Boston about her fears (running out of money), her greatest achievement (finishing “Speaking in Code”) and the ultimate guilty pleasure (spa time).

Click here for the complete interview and here for tickets to the 7 p.m. Thursday, April 23 premiere of "Speaking in Code."

Also, we're launching a special IFF Boston edition of Loaded Gun Insider on Wednesday, April 22 spotlighting a few of the noteworthy flicks and filmmakers hitting the festival. Simply register for Loaded Gun’s new bi-weekly newsletter here.

INTERVIEW: Paul Solet's 'Grace' comes home

After opening at Sundance, where two members of the audience passed out from the intensity of the film, “Grace” by 29-year-old Cambridge native Paul Solet is finally coming home to the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square on Saturday, April 25 for the Independent Film Festival of Boston.

“Grace” is about a woman who is eight months pregnant and is determined to have a natural birth, and she loses her child in an accident. Madeline Matheson insists on carrying the baby to term anyway, and when she delivers the newborn it’s miraculously reconstituted … but not without sinister consequences.

“This film is near and dear to my heart, and bringing it home to Boston is something I’ve dreamt about for a long time,” Solet spills to Loaded Gun Boston. “I want to make myself available to give back to the community in any way I can.”

Armed with a horror flick that’s freaking out filmgoers across the country, the Los Angeles-based Emerson grad weighs in to Loaded Gun Boston about his last vice (Coffee Oreo ice cream), his greatest failure (Kristen from Kansas) and his secret desire to be a dog trainer.

Click here for the complete interview and here for tickets.

Also, we're launching a special IFF Boston edition of Loaded Gun Insider on Wednesday, April 22 spotlighting a few of the noteworthy flicks and filmmakers hitting the festival. Simply register for Loaded Gun’s new bi-weekly newsletter here.

The week in quotes from Hollywood in the Hub

“This was the fastest, hardest shoot I’ve had. Primarily because there are so many grand scenes and we had a small amount of time. We worked long, long hours.”

--Amy Smart, star of the made-in-Boston TV pilot "See Kate Run," says she didn't get to see much of the Hub during her hectic, four-week shooting schedule.

"Part of the erosion of newspapers is about new media, but part of it is newspapers' own fault. I think the public has felt let down by The New York Times and others for not asking the tough questions, whether about the Iraq war or the subprime issue. The job of the fourth estate is to stand outside the vested interests and say, 'Wait a minute, this isn't viable.' "

--Cambridge homeboy Ben Affleck, in town filming the downsizing drama "The Company Men," weighs in on the fate of the Boston Globe to the hometown paper's Names column.

"To me, Cape Cod is the main character in the movie. Having authentic backgrounds keeps alive the “suspension of disbelief” and enhances the characters in the film."

--Director Daniel Adams discusses why he opted to film "The Golden Boys," his adaption of Joseph Crosby Lincoln’s 1904 novel, "Cap’n Eri" in Cape Cod.

"Cambridge is a pretty good, safe place. It’s hard to come up with something that is scary in Cambridge."

--Paul Solet, a Cambridge native and Emerson grad, says he's psyched to unveil the horror flick "Grace" to his hometown crowd at the IFFBoston screening at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square on Saturday, April 25 at 11:59 p.m.

“I think it will be great fun to have a Marblehead property in the background for a good movie. I think we’ve got some good actors, and hopefully they can learn something about Marblehead.”

--Eugene Record, a neighbor of a private residence on Crowninshield Road, says he's looking forward to "The Company Men" crews filming on Monday, April 20 next to his home in Marblehead. Production is also planned for Tuesday, May 26.

INTERVIEW: Brendan Toller on the 'Record!'

Brendan Toller, a 22-year-old Western Massachusetts-based guerilla filmmaker, unveils his first feature documentary “I Need That Record! The Death (Or Possible Survival) of The Independent Record Store” at Boston’s Independent Film Festival 7 p.m. Saturday, April 25 at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square.

The film examines why over 3,000 independent record stores have closed across the United States in the past decade and features Bostonians Noam Chomsky and Newbury Comics CEO Mike Dreese along with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Ian MacKaye of Dischord Records Fugazi/Minor Threat, punk author Legs McNeil and rock photographer Bob Gruen.

Armed with full-length feature he wrote and produced, the young filmmaker weighs in to Loaded Gun Boston about his greatest fear (bureaucracy), his idol (Michael Moore) and his secret desire to be a better whistler.

Click here for the complete interview. Click here for tickets.

--Photo courtesy Brendan Toller

Farrelly brothers unveil Red Sox doc at IFFBoston

Hollywood heavyweights and die-hard Red Sox fans Bobby and Peter Farrelly, currently working on a modern adaptation of the classic Three Stooges comedy act starring Sean Penn, will unveil their first documentary project “The Lost Son of Havana” at Boston’s Independent Film Festival 8 p.m. Saturday, April 25 at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square.

A deeply personal film about future Hall of Fame pitcher Luis Tiant’s journey back to his native homeland of Cuba for the first time in 46 years, “The Lost Son of Havana” was written and directed by Jonathan Hock, whose previous documentaries include “The Streak,” “Michael Jordan To The Max,” and the award-winning “Through the Fire.”

The documentary follows Tiant, now aged 67, as he confronts his guilt for leaving his impoverished homeland to pursue his dreams of baseball, juxtaposed with old friends and teammates’ reminiscences about his incredible career. Face to face with his own mortality, Tiant comes to terms with how the Cuban-American conflict has shaped his identity and his career.

Tiant will attend the premiere screening on Saturday, April 25 along with Bobby and Peter Farrelly, Chris Cooper, Director Jonathan Hock and many other actors and former and current Red Sox players.

Click here for more information on Boston's Independent Film Festival slotted for Wednesday, April 22 until Tuesday, April 28. Click here for tickets.

INTERVIEW: 'LUCKEY' filmmaker Laura Longsworth

Slotted to premiere at Boston’s Independent Film Festival 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, April 26 at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, Arlington-based filmmaker Laura Longsworth says crafting her documentary film “LUCKEY” was a labor of love.

“The lives of every single member of Tom's family were deeply altered by his paralysis, on an emotional and practical level,“ she tells Loaded Gun Boston. “The year or more after his accident was just so hard in terms of reconciling emotionally with the reality of his paralysis and figuring out his care.”

In the documentary, Luckey is coping with recent and dramatic changes in his life. Overnight, he went from able-bodied to a wheelchair. The sculptor and architect was designing a three-story-tall climbable sculpture, the masterpiece of his career building interactive art, when he fell through a window at the Boston Children’s Museum and became completely paralyzed.

“I've come to think that while the details are probably never the same twice, there is probably a universality to their experience,” Longsworth continues. “By that I mean that anyone who has had a family member who is very ill or is injured can probably identify with one aspect or another of the film.”

In a candid interview with Loaded Gun Boston, Longsworth chats about her protagonist’s emotionally raw journey after the accident, offers advice to young, up-and-coming filmmakers and gives perspective from a documentary filmmaker's point of view regarding the booming film scene in Boston.

Click here for the complete interview with Longsworth. Click here for tickets.

--Photo from Laura Longsworth's "Luckey"

'Children of Invention' premieres at IFFBoston

"Children of Invention," a feature film written and directed by Randolph native Tze Chun, will have its New England premiere at the Independent Film Festival of Boston, where it has been selected to screen in the narrative competition. The film, which is set and was shot in and around Boston, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Award at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

In "Children of Invention," two young children living outside Boston are left to fend for themselves when their hardworking mother (played by Cindy Cheung from "Lady in the Water") gets embroiled in a pyramid scheme and disappears.

The film is also loosely based on Chun’s own childhood in Boston’s suburbs. “When I was little, my sister and I followed my mother to countless pyramid seminars," says Chun. "The film is a personal story about the world I grew up in – a subculture of immigrant and working class Americans trying to get-rich-quick in order to get themselves out of a financial hole. I didn't foresee the current financial crisis. But with the economy the way it is now, it seems like everyone's living through some version of what the family in the film goes through.”

"Children of Invention" will debut 7:15 p.m. Thursday, April 23 at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square. The film is also slotted for 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 24.

Click here for more information on Boston's Independent Film Festival slotted for Wednesday, April 22 until Tuesday, April 28. Click here for tickets.

--Photo by Chris Teague