WRITING AND PRODUCING THE INDEPENDENT FILM
with Artist-in-Residence Jim Stark, writer and producer
April 17-May 1
Includes a Master Class, an artist-in-residence screening with Q&A, and the 30th annual New School Invitational Film Show (the best student films of the past year)
Presented by the Department of Media Studies and Film
Peter Haratonik, Chair
Vladan Nikolic, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Co-Producer
Dawnja Burris, Associate Chair, Co-Producer
A bequest from the late Dorothy Hirshon, a trustee of The New School for 61 years, established this annual event with the mission of promoting excellence and education in the filmmaking arts. The theme of this seventh Hirshon Film Festival is writing and producing the independent film.
2009 Artist-in-Residence: Jim Stark
The New School is pleased and honored to welcome Jim Stark as the Hirshon Film Festival artist-in-residence. Jim's first
involvement with film was in the early 1980s when he helped Jim Jarmusch finance, produce, and
sell his low-budget independent hit Stranger
than Paradise (winner of the Camera D’Or in Cannes and the U.S. National
Society of Film Critics award for Best Picture). Jim worked
on three more feature films for Jarmusch, Down by Law (co-producer), Mystery
Train (producer), and Night on Earth (executive producer), as well as producing two short Coffee and Cigarettes films.
Jim’s other producing credits
include such critically acclaimed films as Alex Rockwell’s In the Soup (Grand Prize,
Sundance Film Festival), Gregg Araki’s The
Living End, Christopher Munch’s Color
of a Brisk and Leaping Day (Best Cinematography Prize,
Sundance Film Festival), Adrienne Shelly’s I’ll
Take You There (Best Director, U.S. Comedy Arts Festival), Sergei Bodrov’s The Quickie (Best Actor, Moscow Film
Festival), Kevin Asher Green’s Homework (Best Picture, Slamdance Film Festival), and New School faculty member Vladan Nikolic’s thriller Love. In 2008, he co-produced Country Wedding, the first film directed
by renowned editor Valdis Oskarsdottir, which premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival.
Jim co-wrote and produced Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's Cold Fever (which won top prizes at the Edinburgh and Troia Film Festivals) and Factotum, which he adapted, as co-screenwriter with director Bent Hamer, from the Charles Bukowski novel (international premiere, Directors Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival).
He has acted in a number of films, including Claire Denis’ Keep it for Yourself, Sara Driver’s Sleepwalk, and Robert Frank’s C’est Vrai, and he frequently writes and lectures on film production, finance and sales. He is also the author of the ACLU guide "The Rights of Crime Victims" and reviews films for Gastronomica, the journal of food and culture published by University of California at Berkeley.
Schedule of Private Events
Friday, April 17
Jim Stark Master Class
7:00-9:00 p.m., Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th St., 2nd floor
New School students and faculty are invited to participate in a lecture
and conversation with Jim Stark, producer of Down By Law (1986); Mystery Train (1989); Night on Earth (1991); In the Soup (1992); Cold
Fever (1994); I'll Take You There (1999); Coffee and Cigarettes (2003);
and Factotum (2005, starring Matt Dillon as Charles Bukowski).
Admission is free but advance reservations are required: RSVP by Monday, April 6 to media@newschool.edu.
Schedule of Public Events
Friday, April 24
Artist-in-Residence Screening: Factotum
7:00-9:00 p.m., Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th St., 2nd floor. A reception follows.
Producer Jim Stark introduces his 2005 film Factotum. Q&A follows the screening.
This edgy drama is based on Charles Bukowski's semi-autobiographical novel about a rebel writer with absolutely no desire to live a conventional life. A rootless jack-of-all-trades, Henry Chinaski (Matt Dillon) works in factories and warehouses in Los Angeles and gets by just fine as long as he's able to indulge in his four loves—women, drinking, gambling, and writing, not necessarily in that order. Lili Taylor, Marisa Tomei, and Fisher Stevens co-star.
Admission free; no tickets or reservations; seating is first-come first-served.
Friday, May 1
The 30th Annual New School Invitational Film Show
7:00-9:00 p.m., Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th St. Reception follows.
The annual Invitational Film Show, a presentation of the year’s outstanding New School student films, concludes the Dorothy H. Hirshon Film Festival. The best films made by New School students during the past year have been selected in a juried competition by a panel of distinguished filmmakers and film industry professionals: exceptional narratives, documentaries, and experimental shorts, all produced in the department of Media Studies and Film.