Sundance Institute announced today the expansion of its Creative Producing Initiative designed to nurture emerging independent producers in both narrative and documentary fields. For 2009-2010, the Initiative will include the re-conceived Creative Producing Summit (formerly the Independent Producers Conference), the Creative Producing Lab supporting six Fellows from the Feature Film Program and, new for this year, four from the Documentary Film Program,  as well as Sundance Industry Meetings to connect filmmakers with industry members at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

At the center of this playfully perverse video opera are AIDS activists Tim McCaskell, the Canadian founder of AIDS Action Now!, and Zackie Achmat, whose drug strike in South Africa made  international headlines. Documentary footage of their political  battles is intercut with a fictional plot about Gertrude Stein and  Virgil Thomson, who, having finished their play Four Saints in Three Acts, have created a sequel portraying the activists as modern-day saints. Dark humor abounds in this surreal production as St. Peregine, the patron saint of amputees and leather, and St. Martin,  embodied by an albino squirrel, jam on toy instruments, and the  courageous leads rebel, refusing to be martyrs for the AIDS cause.

July 6, 2009–The 2009 Venice Film Festival will honor Italian famous director Mario Monicelli with a special screening of “La Grande Guerra” (“The Great War”), his acclaimed tragicomic pacifist picture, which won the 1959 Golden Lion.

June 24, 2009—MoMA presents a six-film showcase of recent titles from the independent distribution company Strand Releasing in the exhibitionCarte Blanche: Marcus Hu and Jon Gerrans,screening from July 1 through 6, 2009, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. Twenty years ago, the American independent film movement took root in America—propelled by a confluence of art-house and sexual-identity films (particularly the New Queer Cinema)—and its profound influence upon the industry continues to this day. Chief among the movement’s visionary figures are Marcus Hu and Jon Gerrans, who together founded Strand Releasing in 1989, and have since maintained a dedication to risk-taking directors who privilege innovation and authenticity over commerciality.

June 22, 2009 – Outfest, the Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing, showcasing and protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media, will present its 13th Annual Achievement Award to screenwriter and director Don Roos.