Beat cancer with the ugly sweater stick

Are you seeing more Ugly Christmas Sweaters than usual this holiday season? 

Hopefully it's due to this ingenious anti-cancer fundraiser.

I wouldn't say fugging for charity is painless, but it's surely a fun way to get people's attention and dineros. You can get pledges for as many days as you dare, throw an ugly sweater party, or just make it rain cash while maintaining your sartorial style. Choose! Cake or death!

Who knows what good your fundraising could do...you might save a superhero's life.

IAN MCKELLAN HAS PROSTRATE CANCER :(

MEANWHILE....

Are you in The Tribe? Just a quarter awesome like me? If you're feeling like a Lonely Jew on Christmas waiting for Mr. Hankey's questionable love...No problem!

YOU can proudly purchase a Hideous Hanukkah Sweater to become a cancer superhero!

This week I've felt pissed off at our USA jingoistic corporations. During my midnight trips to avoid the zombie holiday hordes, I've noticed stores' (Target, Rite Aid, CVS, Big Lots) paltry four-foot section of Chanukah goods are: 

1. lame 

2. still full price, while all the Christmas Crap is already 20%-50% off weeks in advance. 

Even at the Rite Aid smack dab on Beverly Hills' Bedford Drive. 

Circumcised Dickheads! 

Makes me feel like staging my own Yoko Ono Protest Scream:

   

Need to feel better about cancer or other injustices in your life? 

Here is Pajiba's arbitrary list of The 13 Most Satisfying Revenge Movies.

Haywire!

Are you going to wear a fugly to f*ck cancer? Will you stream a revenge movie tonight? Let us know below!

Do you love movies?

Then this post is for you.

Hollywood Reporter's Uncensored Directors Interview. These are the guys they're banking on to be Academy Award nominees. Yes, just guys.  :(

If you know me well in real life, you might be getting one of these in the coming weeks: Popcorn Christmas Ornaments

Watch This Movie: LISA

I'm an acclaimed feature writer/director in Hollywood who has studied over 6,000 films. Since 2007, millions of Netflix members have ranked me as a Top 10 reviewer. Here is a movie I think is worth your time and money, and will enrich your life.

- Elisabeth Fies

LISA

(1990) 95 minutes

Genres: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Drama, Coming of Age, Gender Issues, Romance

Feels: Scary, Real, Disturbing, Melodramatic, Involving

Written and Directed by: Gary Sherman

Starring: Staci Keenan, Cherl Ladd, D.W. Moffett, Jeffrey Tambor 

LOGLINE: A precocious, boy-crazy fourteen-year-old who isn't allowed to have her first date channels her energy into stalking a handsome ladykiller her mom's age. But instead of finding love with Mr. Wrong, she unwittingly makes her mother the serial killer's next target. 

REVIEW: 4.5 out of 5 stars. Watch it now!

Absolutely adored it. A beautiful little time capsule that embodies the soul and angst of every teen girl blossoming in the late 80's. Don't understand your hormonal daughter? Watch this movie. This is the best kind of thriller: one where the filmmaker took the time to make you care what happens to the leads so you want them to be okay...but then makes dang sure every horrible thing that could happen to your beloved characters DOES. 

The suspense scenes are handled perfectly, as are the mother/daughter bonding and bickering blocks. Staci Keenan is once again an absolute powerhouse (Why oh why did she disappear into the ghetto of "faith based" films?). Cheryl Ladd is lovely, and very effective. I had empathy for both characters and felt like I knew them. Director Gary Sherman brilliantly uses every chink in their Gilmore Girls-esque relationship against them as their house of cards collapses. Terrifying results ensue.

See the movie now on Netflix Instant

Because it's not on DVD and I don't want this gem to disappear: psssst search YouTube *wink wink. But I think you're horrible if you watch a movie this way, and owe the cast and crew a good review on IMDb and a note to MGM to release LISA. I even made it way easy for you by providing the linky-links.

Watch This Movie: PEACOCK

I'm an acclaimed feature writer/director in Hollywood who has studied over 6,000 films. Since 2007, millions of Netflix members have ranked me as a Top 10 reviewer. Here is a movie I think is worth your time and money, and will enrich your life.
- Elisabeth Fies

PEACOCK
(2010) 90 minutes.
Genres: Mystery, Drama, Gay & Lesbian, Gender Issues, Period Piece, Psychological Thriller
Feels: Creepy, Cerebral, Hitchcockian, Satisfying, Empowering
Directed by: Michael Lander
Written by: Michael Lander, Ryan O Roy
Starring: Cillian Murphay, Ellen Page, Susan Sarandon, Bill Pullman

LOGLINE: In a small 1950s town, a train crash thrusts a recluse into scrutiny that dangerously unravels the false persona he has protected all his life.

REVIEW: 4 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended, and something I would watch again.

Gorgeous! A fresh take that does justice both to Hitchcock and disassociative identity disorder. A lot of love went into this film, from the tight screenplay to the lovely cast and period touches. Cillian is again superb, and the other characters surround him in a warm web of intimacy John/Emma are not built to handle. They really care about "him", and we really care about all of them...which makes the suspense build to an unbearable level. Is John/Emma a killer? Will the abused become an abuser? Can someone this outside of society survive it? A delicate, mindful, and disturbing film.

See the TRAILER
See the movie at Netflix
See the movie at Amazon

Tivo Alert!

In case you didn't know, my sister Brenda Fies and I run a monthly Los Angeles film festival called BleedFest that proves that there are hundreds of women making cool, badass genre films that you don't want to miss!

BleedFest Film Festival Partnership alum Drew Daywalt's first episode of DEATH VALLEY airs tonight on MTV at 10:30pm (and an episode written by our friend David Weinstein is coming very soon.)

VIP guest and wonderful supporter Kevin Tenney's feature A FRIENDSHIP TO DIE FOR (retitled from the original TICK TOCK) airs on LMN (Lifetime Movie Network) Tuesday at 7pm and 11 pm, so no excuses! Check it out!

In six degrees of separation, it happens to star talented Megan Ward, the co-star of our March feature winner WAKING DREAMS by the wonderful Deepika Daggubati!

WORLD PREMIER at BleedfFest! Do you like...dragons????

Who says women don't make cool movies?

The Fies Sisters are thrilled to bring you the World Premier of the fantasy-adventure feature DAWN OF THE DRAGONSLAYER at our female genre festival BleedFest! Be there- the director Ann Black and many of her team will be!

Sunday September 25th! 1-5pm; full schedule lineup of awesome genre shorts by women coming very sooon!

Black Swan

I absolutely adored this movie. I felt enthralled, even breathless in some scenes.

Director Darren Aronofsky brilliantly blends several genres to keep the audience as on their toes as the athletes we are observing. The surprise of not knowing which genre will be drawn from next, as well as the wonderful details of everyday ballet life add up to an unbearable tension. It is a huge achievement that in cinematic world where audiences are conditioned to see bigger and bigger torture scenes, Aronofsky can make an entire theatre audibly gasp and hide their eyes at real-life dancer wounds like a split toenail and a long hangnail.

Why these scares work is because of the wonderful sound design, creative and flawless CGI, and expert stalking camera work that thrusts us into the lead character's pointe shoes. Aronofsky forces empathy with techniques I haven't seen since Silence of the Lambs made us see through Clarice's eyes. The scene on the subway where the dirty old man comes on to Portman's character is reason enough for every man who wants to understand a woman to see this film.

Portman gives the best performance of her career, and lives up to the promise we all saw in LEON. Her baggage of growing up onscreen to be a competent, passionless performer is integrated seamlessly into this role and the theme of the movie: the masochism of being a female performer in a misogyinistic world.

The result is a sublime, frightening fairy tale that accurately captures the dog eat dog ballet world, what it's like to be a modern female artist constrained within misogynistic institutions like the acting and ballet world, and the transcendent freedom that artists feel only onstage as they lose themselves in the shamanism of channeling The Role of Their Lifetime.

Why we pay to watch them jump into the abyss for our voyeuristic pleasure is a whole other movie.

Give it a chance, go along for the ride, and AVOID THE TRAILER.

Catherine Hardwicke's next genre film

Little Red Riding Hood. March 2011. Looks like another genre bender with a potentially empowering female lead. Fingers crossed.

October Herror Fest: Directress #11

It's October, which of course means there are no women who make horror films. So here's a feature by another director who doesn't exist:

Hope Perello

Hope began her brief career as a producer of 80s horror films CATACOMBS and PUPPETMASTER: THE LEGACY and as the assistant director on NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: PART 4. In 1991 she directed the straight to DVD sequel HOWLING 6, and infused it with gothic style and a feminist sensibility. Good luck finding any info on Hope on the web...and it's almost as tough to find her horror movie HOWLING 6, which by many accounts is the best sequel in the series.

Though she appears to have disappeared more thoroughly than any other invisible directress featured in Herror Fest, I can attest Hope did once exist: I auditioned for her in the 90s.



Wikipedia entry
Joe Bob Brigg's review of HOWLING 6

Rental Suggestions: Howling 6

October Herror Fest: Directress #10

It's October, which of course means there are no women who make horror films. So here's a feature by another director who doesn't exist:

Doris Wishman

Exploitation director/producer/writer/actress Doris Wishman had a prolific career from the 60s to the 80s directing thirty feature films, often under male aliases. Her career began in nudies with titles like KEYHOLES ARE FOR PEEPING, and ended with the horror film A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER in 1983 after much of the movie's footage had been destroyed. Her Ed Woodian style included non-synch dialogue, crazy jazz music, and odd-looking bad actors.

Whether or not her work was feminist, there's no doubt Doris's occupation as a B Movie directress was. She managed to create some offbeat, creative genre work from a woman's point of view (penis transplant, anyone?). At ninety years old she staged a comeback with the comedy DILDO HEAVEN, released the year of her death.

"After I die I will be making movies in hell!" - Doris Wishman

Rental Suggestions: A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER
Article: Interesting Motherfuckers

October Herror Fest: Directress #9

It's October, which of course means there are no women who make horror films. So here's a feature by another director who doesn't exist:

Maya Deren

No one has had a more profound effect on filmmaking and filmmakers with a smaller body of work than this Mother of the Avant Garde. Sometimes credited with revolutionizing Mise en Scene, at the least everyone agrees that the legendary rabble rousing intellectual/artist/actress/theorist/voodoo priestess is still worthy of dissection and study in film school for her crucial work on Symbolist film poetry, self expression and her invention of "Creative Geography".

Professional deconstructionist guru Robert McKee has the most right-on evaluation I've ever read of the meaning of MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON. In his famous GENRE MASTERPIECE class, he breaks it down shot by shot to prove his thesis that Maya Deren was expressing every woman's fear that a female artist who marries will los her identity and bring death to her creativity...Ironically, she shot the film with her first husband Alexander Hammid in 1943 and didn't officially finish it until a decade later with her third husband (a much younger composer named Teiji Ito who added the striking and haunting score).





MESHES is a gorgeously lyrical and primal fear-stoking short film that bats away the male gaze, and has influenced everyone from Jaques Torneau to David Lynch to, well...me. Watching MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON in film school at 18 was life-changing. When we went to shoot Jenny's nightmare sequences in THE COMMUNE I pulled stills from MESHES.

Further suggestions:
Read: ESSENTIAL DEREN: COLLECTED WRITINGS ON FILM
Maya Deren, Pioneer of the American Avant Garde Movement
Watch: AT LAND Shot in 1944, AL is another dream-like classic about the fight to keep one's personal identity. Unmissable for the crazy-ass goggles and big foot scene. Just watch it.
Rent: DIVINE HORSEMEN: THE LIVING GODS OF HAITI
Documentary IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN

And if you live in NYC you JUST missed the sixth month MOMA exhibit on Deren. Argh!

October Herror Fest: Directress #8

It's October, which of course means there are no women who make horror films. So here's a feature by another director who doesn't exist:

Marion Kerr

Already a working actress/producer/writer, Marion Kerr added feature film director to her resume this year with her debut film GOLDEN EARRINGS. The intimate thriller made its world premier at my alma mater DANCES WITH FILM FESTIVAL (don't they have good taste?) and played last weekend at my friend and sometimes producing partner Jed Hammel's brand new festival FILMSHIFT in Boston.

GOLDEN EARRINGS also played Big Bear Lake International Festival, and won Best Horror Feature at IndieFest!

Where it DIDN'T play was at Shriekfest, Screamfest, Fantasticfest, Toronto After Dark, and all the other genre festivals that continue to assert there aren't great horror movies by female writers/directors.

But their loss is our gain. You can watch GOLDEN EARRINGS right now on my distributor's site INDIEFLIX.com for $4.95. Or you can buy the DVD through their site for $14.99...it comes with lots of goodies!





And my good friend and indie film supporter Nic Baisley at FILM SNOBBERY has a great video interview with Marion here.

October Herror Fest: Directress #7

It's October, which of course means there are no women who make horror films. So here's a feature by another director who doesn't exist:

Aya Tanimura

You supporters are really digging the directors who have work available to see online, so here is Aya's 2010 short U-2074. Shot for $1500 in four days, U-2074 is a creepy installment for our October Herror Fest month. The dialogue was all a requirement of the Philip;s Parallel Line contest, but look at those Canon 5D visuals and the wonderful tension Aya creates! Her photography background is evident.

Aya's resume includes directing a documentary feature for Bill and Melinda Gates and being a top 5 contender in a different contest (Peter Jackson's YOUR BIG BREAK; follow the link to see that short). I'm sure we'll be hearing more from Aya soon...and hopefully in our favorite genre.

Also of note is U-2074 female Director of Photography Polly Morgan. Hollywood hires even less woman cinematographers than it does directors (I believe the percentage is around 3%)...so check out her beautiful portfolio here.

A big shout out to first-time horror screenwriter Julia Camara, whom I met five years ago in UCLA screenwriting. Julia wrote and directed the award winning short comedy NEVER ODD OR EVEN.

She also wrote a sci-fi feature film AREA Q which stars Isaiah Washington. I discovered U-2074 yesterday at LADY FILMMAKERS film festival because Julia's SCREAM MACHINE was there (A short her husband Tim Aldridge directed from her script). A Tabloid Witch award-winning short, SCREAM MACHINE is just beginning its festival run and is not available online yet.

You can read Julia Camara's fictional story JAIL BIRD online at Freight Train Magazine.

Great Articles over at Film School Rejects

Looks like these are over a year old, but still relevant and terrific. Always happy to see a site normally centered on men discuss these topics:

10 Films You Didn't Know Were Directed By Women

Turned On, Tuned In Femme Filmmakers includes links to other articles including Salon.com on the stats of film schools graduating as many women as men nowadays, yet studios only employing them for 4% of their movies a year. There is also a great list of 124 movies directed by women.

And this wonderful comment on a catty Forbes piece evaluating actressess' ROI that brilliantly includes a close up of each lady's chest along with her deterimined economic worth. Actresses Worth Their Weight in Cash.

Kudos to journalists Bethany Perryman and Cole Abaius for the articles, and FILM SCHOOL REJECTS for publishing them.

October Herror Fest: Directress #6

It's October, which of course means there are no women who make horror films. So here's a feature by another director who doesn't exist:

Elizabeth Schieffer

Schieffer has pulled off a coup that is all too rare for female directors of any genre...she has won a studio-sponsored short film contest. Universal Studios (who should know a thing or two about horror) has awarded her short JASPER its top honors for Halloween Horror Night. And the prize package also gets her short seen on the not overly friendly to female filmmakers SyFy.com and Chiller TV. Three birds with one ricocheting stone!

Actually, don't get too excited about ladies taking over Hollywood just yet...the Hollywood judges picked the top ten and then online voters picked Elizabeth as the deserving winner (Viva the democratization of filmmaking and filmmgoing!).

Unlike all the seasons of PROJECT GREENLIGHT and those other horrible industry contests that were milquetoast showcases for interchangeable frat boys, we get to enjoy Ms. Schieffer's challenging and inspiring short online right now...and we better get to cheer her on to at least a few Hollywood meetings. Perhaps if the suits actually watch Beth's smart, funny, stereotype-bending work they'll know not to judge a dame by her gender.

The Dallas Observer's coverage of the win.
The official press release from Universal.

And for your viewing enjoyment, below is the entire three minute award-winning short JASPER...directed, produced, and special fx-ed by Elizabeth Schieffer:

October Herror Fest Directress #5

It's October, which of course means there are no women who make horror films. So here's a feature by another director who doesn't exist:

Barbara Stepansky

A student Emmy winner for her brilliant short thesis film THE TROJAN COW, Stepansky is a writer/director/producer with a film masters from both AFI and USC. She cut her teeth on Christopher Nolan's no budget first feature FOLLOWING, and has come to the horror world via her skill at building suspense scenes. Barbara's seven figure feature directorial debut HURT is a for hire project that drips with atmosphere and pathos, and makes her one of a handful of women currently hired to helm horror projects over the million dollar mark.

While waiting for funding for her next for hire feature HYSTERIA, Stepansky made the no budget ghost story FUGUE, an intimate interstices of drama/thriller/horror mores that was so personal it was shot in her own home. FUGUE is currently on the festival circuit; you can check for upcoming screenings here. And expect one of them to be soon at my very own BLEEDFEST in Los Angeles, where I'll also be showcasing her amazingly taut retro thriller ROAD RAGE (Full disclosure: I'm a producer on RR...I can't help it if I have mothereffing talented friends).

"I have a hard time categorizing women in horror vs women in the film industry because I don’t really see that women directors in general get the proper recognition. The numbers of theatrically released films made by women hasn’t really risen throughout the years, and there’s only a handful of female directors tackling action or horror movies on a larger scale. Even though women have started to run studios and huge productions, this didn’t necessarily translate into hiring more women directors. I find the numbers out there quite discouraging but that definitely won’t keep me from continuing making movies." -Barbara Stepansky

Here is a recent interview with Barbara conducted by stalwart indie supporters Rogue Magazine.
Heidi Martinuzzi's FanGirltastic site has a new review of Fugue.

Rental Suggestion: HURT

October Herror Fest: Directress #4

It's October, which of course means there are no women who make horror films. So here's a feature by another director who doesn't exist:

Stephanie Rothman

Considered the first lady of Exploitation Flicks of the 60s and 70s, Rothman was a writer/producer and director on classic B movie features like TERMINAL ISLAND, BEYOND ATLANTIS, THE VELVET VAMPIRE, and BLOOD BATH. A retrospective of her work in Vienna in 2005 credits her as “one of the most headstrong and interesting women of American cinema of the 1960s and 70s.”

Stephanie Rothman was the first female to be given a Directors Guild of America fellowship, and credits boss Roger Corman as the only mentor she ever had. She is also a feminist an academic, and a thoughtful public speaker.

"I was never happy making exploitation films. I did it because it was the only way I could work. With all the options that exist today, if I were beginning my career as a filmmaker, I would not choose to make exploitation films."

Here is a fascinating Interview With Stepahanie conducted by legendary media theorist Henry Jenkins.

Rental Suggestion: THE VELVET VAMPIRE

October Herror Fest: Directress #3

It's October, which of course means there are no women who make horror films. So here's a feature by another director who doesn't exist:

Jackie Kong

Writer/director/producer of 80s exploitation/horror features THE BEING, NIGHT PATROL, and BLOOD DINER.

"I try never to insult my audience. That's my number one goal. I try to treat my audience as though they're very smart and will know my next move unless I'm clever enough to surprise them."- Jackie Kong

Rental Suggestion: BLOOD DINER

Here is a clip from BLOOD DINER:


Thank you to Hart Fisher, the mastermind behind TV show AMERICAN HORRORS for the suggestion of Jackie Kong! Readers, keep those suggestions coming to me...

Our screenings this Fall/Winter

UPCOMING SCREENINGS OF "THE COMMUNE"

Bram Stoker Film Festival (Whitby, England)
October 14th-17th http://www.bramstokerfilmfestival.com/

Dark Imaginings (San Diego, CA)
November 6th http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=152092514816271&ref=mf

Valley Film Festival (Sherman Oaks, CA)
November 12th http://www.valleyfilmfest.com

SCREENINGS OF "DISTRAUGHT" and "CONSUMED"

Dark Imaginings (San Diego, CA)
November 6th http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=152092514816271&ref=mf

24 Hour Horror Festival (Rochester, NY)
October 30th https://www.thelittle.org/filmfest.php

All Things Horror (Boston, MA)
December TBA

SCREENINGS OF "SCREAM QUEEN"
Carnival of Darkness (Los Angeles)
October 28th http://carnivalofdarkness.net/

24 Hour Horror Festival (Rochester, NY)
October 30th https://www.thelittle.org/filmfest.php

Texas Blood Bath Film Festival (Dallas, Texas)
November 13th, 14th http://www.texasbloodbath.com/

All Things Horror (Boston, MA)
December TBA

My IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2383130/

My latest movie reviews

My newest movie reviews are up on Netflix (where I'm still reviewer #6 out of millions!). DEADLINE, SIMON SAYS, ADVENTURELAND, METHOD, HAUNTING IN CONNETICUT. You don't have to be a member to check out my thoughts.