Five years ago, Rob Nixon, an Artistic Associate at PushPush and a writer for Turner Broadcasting (as well as a ground-breaking playwright in his own right), got together a small group of local, independent filmmakers and created Dailies Filmmakers as an alternative to standard notions of filmmaking and its process. The purpose was to make use of theater and film's resources. Workshops to develop new skills, peer sharing, and other resources, longer and more structured rehearsal periods for film, and the incorporation of film and video in our live stage shows.

We also had a goal of taking the often amateur and so-called independent script writer and providing them with support in order to increase the quality of the screenplays available.

To date, Dailies has produced over 170 short films and been an integral part of the creation of three internationally distributed feature films.

We've gone from a small handful of white, male filmmakers to a diverse and ever growing group, ranging from industry professionals to emerging artists. Dailiesatlanta.org provides an active list serve for film opportunities in our community.

Currently there are two projects for newcomers and long time Dailies filmmakers to roll up their sleeves and actually create: The BioPic project on Mondays and the Thru Project on Wednesdays. These, along with our monthly gathering, Dailies First Sunday, provide an excellent compliment to our menu of film screenings each month.

The First Tuesday and the Third Sunday of each month is a new Documentary Film presented by Georgia for Democracy. Subjects range from the environment and health issues to race and the government and always have a talk-back following, a kind of interactive town-hall meeting for members of our community.

On the Second and Fourth Sunday of each month, we screen a narrative film for entertainment, enlightenment, and to bring film artists and audiences together to discuss how the film was put together. This film structure screening is extremely important for the growth and development of our filmmakers and audiences.

Currently, we are partnering with several international film collectives and schools to bring Atlanta independent films from around the world. How do we compare? What issues do we have in common? How can we relate to each others audiences and increase our impact on each other? We believe that being open to the bigger picture in film is the only way to accurately judge our own growth.

This month Dailies, in cooperation with Berlin's Film Academy (the DFFB), presents The Portal Film Fest II, featuring new international short films from 11 new filmmakers.

PushPush Home · Page 1 · Page 2 · Page 3 · Page 4 · Page 5 · Page 6