Perfecting a pitch to woo filmmakers
In an evening sponsored by the Massachusetts Production Coalition, 250 of the area's top film directors, writers, production staff, and festival organizers met earlier this month to get an update on the efforts to sell the state as a place to make movies.
Richard Krezwick, who took over as managing director of the Massachusetts Sports & Entertainment Commission in July, said he's been charged with developing a business plan for the state's film promotion. That role was folded into the MSEC after a stand-alone film office was shut down in 2002. Efforts since then have floated among an informal group of players.
"We have to business-ize operations," said Krezwick, who formerly was president and CEO of the TD Banknorth Garden -- he helped bring the Democratic National Convention to Boston in 2004 -- and executive vice-president of the Boston Bruins. "I thought it made all the sense in the world to put the two offices together."
The plan is for the MSEC to present itself to the film world under the name "the Massachusetts Film Commission," even though operations will come out of the same office. A search is underway for an executive director to be the state's official film contact. The job description is posted at a new Web address, mafilm.org.
Krezwick said there are plans to turn the now-anemic site into a full-fledged online resource, and that a three-day-a-week person is collecting material. "We have it in the budget to be the best," he said.
The audience also got an update on the state's film credit and sales tax exemption and how to take advantage of it.
"There's been a significant impact already," said Chris O'Donnell, business manager for Local 481 Studio Mechanics, which represents film techs in New England. He said that in the months since the tax incentives were passed, production in the state has gone up sharply, with union membership increasing 30 percent.
Jeanine Wheaton of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue said that "while the law is complicated, the process isn't." She said the state has issued two credits so far.
Other panelists talked about the opportunities to sell those transferable tax credits -- for anywhere from 55 cents to 88 cents on the dollar -- to other companies. "It's like the old West ," said Christine Peluso of Tax Credits, LLC, in New Jersey.
CONVERSATIONS WITH: Sheila Jasanoff, a professor of science and technology at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, will be guest speaker at tomorrow's 7 p.m. screening of Jean-Luc Godard's sci-fi meets private-eye "Alphaville." That's at the Coolidge Corner Theatre (617-734-2500 and coolidge.org ).
Saul Levine, whose experimental 8mm works have been included in a Museum of Modern Art show and at last month's New York Film Festival, will be at the Harvard Film Archive on Tuesday at 7 p.m. (617-495-4700 and hcl.harvard.edu/hfa ).
Directors David Weisman and John Palmer bring their 1972 "Ciao! Manhattan" to the Museum of Fine Arts on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. The film stars Edie Sedgwick playing, essentially, herself, although the directors will be able to better explain where fiction ended and real life began. Weisman and writer Melissa Painter will be signing their book "Edie: Girl on Fire" before the screening (617-267-9300 and mfa.org/film).
Jacqueline Goss, whose videos explore "the rules, histories, and tools of language and mapmaking systems," will talk about her work on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Included are her 14-minute "There There Square," which the Village Voice named one of the Top 10 best avant-garde works of 2002, and the new "Stranger Comes to Town," which says it repurposes an animation from the Department of Homeland Security. The evening is presented by the Balagan Experimental Film & Video Series and takes place at the Coolidge (coolidge.org/balagan/current.html) .
And on Friday, there are two events to choose from: At 7 p.m., John and Janet Pierson, now movers and shakers in the Austin, Texas, indie film scene, will screen "Reel Paradise," about their year living on a Fiji island running a free movie theater for locals. John Pierson helped Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Richard Linklater, and Kevin Smith when they started out, and is author of "Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema." They'll be at the BU College of Communication, 640 Comm. Ave, Room B-05.
At 10 p.m. over at the Brattle Theatre, director Eric Werthman presents his "Going Under," about the emotional draw that develops between a man and a woman who meet for regular S&M sessions. The film stars Roger Rees and was named the Best of the Fest at last year's Northampton Independent Film Festival. It plays Friday through Sunday, and Werthman, a practicing psychotherapist, will be at all three screenings (617-876-6837 and brattlefilm.org) .
RESOURCE FOR FILMMAKERS: The Sharon-based Center for Independent Documentary hosts a workshop on Wednesday called "Making Mini Movies," on the strategies and technical challenges of producing small format video for distribution through cell phones, iPods, and websites . The event is free but RSVP is required: E-mail susi@documentaries.org.
TV ENCORE FROM LATINO FEST: The two-month-old Latino public television series VOCES will be broadcasting some of the films seen recently at the Boston Latino International Film Festival, including this week's "Recalling Orange County," Mylène Moreno's documentary about growing up as the daughter of immigrants in California's Orange County. It airs on WGBH next Sunday at noon (wgbh.org and voces.tv) .
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: "In Search of Mozart," a documentary made for the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, gets its Boston premiere on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the West Newton Cinema. The Newton Symphony Orchestra is sponsoring the event and will be presenting live music in the lobby before the show (617-965-2555 and newtonsymphony.org).) .
The 13th Boston Festival of Films and Music from Iran continues at the Museum of Fine Arts. Among this week's offerings is Ali Rafiee's 2005 "When Fish Fall in Love," which highlights the preparation of Persian food alongside its love story. That's Friday at 7 p.m.
Next weekend, the films of contemporary German director Hans-Christian Schmid will be at the Harvard Film Archive starting Saturday and running through the following Tuesday. "Distant Lights" from 2003 weaves together five contemporary stories about characters living near the German and Polish border, and "Requiem" is about a woman trying to break free from a religious family that believes her epilepsy is a form of possession.
And at the MFA, "Pucker Up: The Fine Art of Whistling" plays Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at noon, and next Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Kate Davis -- who grew up in Belmont and went to Harvard -- and David Heilbroner's 2005 celebration starts at the International Whistling Competition and includes clips of Elvis Presley and Monty Python. Whistling champs Steve Herbst and Geert Chatrou will be at all three shows.
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 
