Maryland Works in Progress presents two promising and distinctly different filmmakers -Kurt Kolaja of Chestertown and Matthew Porterfield of Baltimore - as they share clips from their latest works, take questions and discuss the inspirations, challenges and remaining steps in the long and arduous process of completing a film. CFF Artistic Director and filmmaker Doug Sadler will host this rare glimpse inside the filmmaking process.
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BAND TOGETHER by Kurt Kolaja • Documentary
Synopsis:Kurt Kolaja's Band Together is a movie that proves community involvement is indeed alive and vibrant in America. March along as we spend a year with The Kent County Community Marching Band; from practice to parade you will be there. Meet the Clerk of Court Drum Major, the truck driving trombone player, and the trumpet playing mayor. See what uniform and wooden rifle mean to a man with autism or feel what it's like to march shoulder to shoulder with your son. When Democrats, Republicans, and Independents play it together 'God Bless America' is sweet music.
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Kurt Kolaja has over thirty years experience in film and television. While on assignment he has been tear gassed in Washington, DC, pelted with fried chicken at a NASCAR race, and attacked by hookers in Paris. He was ringside for a Lenox Lewis knockout, assured Dan Quayle that he looked perfectly fine standing in the pouring rain, and trembled while pinning a microphone on Sophia Loren's chest. Kurt's film Charlie Obert's Barn screened at the Chesapeake Film Festival last year. He hopes to return with Band Together next season, if they will have him.
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PUTTY HILL by Matt Porterfield • Narrative
A hybrid fiction/doc feature following an ensemble cast of characters in the days leading up to their friend's funeral. Putty Hill was conceived in the wake of Porterfield's efforts to launch his second feature Metal Gods, which, though not forgotten, has been put aside until more funding can be found. Putty Hill involves a lot of the same cast and some similar themes, but at heart it's a much freer and more improvisational film. Matt wrote it in four weeks and they shot it in 12 days (with one week of pre-production).
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Matt Porterfield was born in northeast Baltimore. He teaches screenwriting and production in the Film & Media Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University. His first feature film, Hamilton, was released in 2006. Called a "minor miracle" by the New Yorker, it continues to tour festivals, museums, and art house theatres around the world (the Viennale, Centre Pompidou, Anthology Film Archives) and appeared on many year-end best lists at the time of its release, including John Water's 2006 Top Ten in Artforum International. A recipient of a media grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, Matt is in development on his second feature, Metal Gods. Selected for participation in IFP's Emerging Narrative Program, the screenplay won the Panasonic Digital Filmmaking Grant Grand Prize during the 30th Annual Independent Film Week. Locally, Matt's photography has appeared at the Current Gallery, Gallery 229, and in the Fall 2008 issue of Locus Magazine. Putty Hill, scheduled for release in 2010, is an intimate look at a family in the days following the death of their eldest son.
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