“Severe Clear”, the uncompromsing new documentary film from Sirk Producions, had it’s inception in 2004 when a young Marine, newly returned from combat, walked into NYU’s Tisch School of Film one fateful day.
Heavy with a bag of DV tapes under his arm, the young Lieutenant had but one simple goal in mind: He was looking for a film student, someone to condense “all the cool parts” from his raw war footage shot on the battlefield in Iraq.
Flash forward 5 years later, to a superbly crafted by film by Director/ Editor/ Producer Kristian Fraga, “Severe Clear” is an unflinching, brutal portrait of one man’s front-line experience of war.
Accompany First Lieutenant Mike Scotti and his men of the 1st Battalion 4th Marines on the grueling, 300 mile march towards Bagdad, 2003, to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The film takes no sides politically, but be forewarned: much of it’s footage may be too graphic for some viewers. It’s makers pulled no punches at any step of the filmmaking process in bringing Mike’s story to the screen. Read the rest of this entry »
Jury and Audience Awards, both sculpted by Mik Augustin. Photo by Christine Michelini
On Sunday night the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded its Best Picture Oscar to The Hurt Locker – a film about the Iraq War – and made Kathryn Bigelow, that film’s director, the first female recipient of its Best Director honor.
Shortly before the Oscar ceremonies began, Salem Film Fest announced its 2010 Jury and Audience winners, and they proved somewhat prophetic. The Audience Award balloting ended in a dead heat between two documentaries by female directors and its Jury Prize went to Severe Clear – a first hand account of the Invasion of Iraq. Read the rest of this entry »
With over three dozen documentaries being shown throughout the week, I assumed that the overly excited crowd would have a lot to say…I was right. Most responses came from JUNIOR which screened on Thursday night and proved to be a crowd favorite. The audience was intrigued by the festival and gave us their insight on independent filmmaking and their views on specific films including Jury award winner SEVERE CLEAR. Take a look at a short video I made with my interviews with the crowd!
Severe Clear producer Kristian Fraga and First Lieutenant Mike Scotti. Photo by Dinah Cardin
Severe Clear is the winner of the 2010 Salem Film Festival Jury Prize. The film will soon be shown in New York and L.A. and Salem is proud to have had these guys here first.
Severe Clear features the video shot by First Lieutenant Mike Scotti, capturing the chaos and complexity of war during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Read a previous post to learn more about the Salem screening and the audience reaction.
Severe Clear Opening:
March 12th: NYC, Angelika Theater & San Diego, Gaslamp Stadium
March 19th: LA, Laemmle Music Hall
The Audience Award winner will be announced at Sunday night’s Oscar Party.
This op-ed ran in the Salem News on March 5, 2010.
The Salem Film Fest, which wrapped yesterday, has in a mere three years become one of the city’s favorite late-winter diversions.
Each year, it seems, more and more want to get into the act as sponsors, presenters, performers, hosts or cineasts. Over the past week, almost three dozen documentary films were screened, most of them at CinemaSalem, whose owner, Paul Van Ness, founded the event in 2008. Read the rest of this entry »
Following the final film screenings tonight, we’ll gather in the CinemaSalem Cafe for a Wrap Party, sponsored by Art Throb.
This is where we’ll hear the Jury Prize winner chosen by our esteemed panel of judges.
The audience award, it has just been announced, will be tallied following tonight’s screenings and announced during the Sunday night Oscar Party.
It’s been a fantastic week of films, looong Q and A discussions of an hour or more, panel discussions, parties, concerts, events, after-film drinks and on and on. The Salem Film Festival is now undoubtedly one of the most exciting things to happen in Salem. Planning will begin next week for SFF 2011.
Look for information on the award winners and in the future, for intimate taped interviews with filmmakers to be posted at salemfilmfest.com.
To find out more about Art Throb, watch this great short film by filmmaker and Salem Film Fest co-founder Joe Cultrera.
It is easy to understand why a film like MINE would gain such high resonance. A film depicting the emotional bond between humans and their pets is a genuine look at the aftermath of tragedy.
The film, which screens at 7:30 tonight, will have the audience examining their relationship with their furry loved ones. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s fitting that on the same day the Salem Film Festival is screening two films on aggressive fishing practices, The Boston Globe has run two op-ed pieces on the subject.
There were moments when the entire audience cringed in unison during the Saturday night premiere of SEVERE CLEAR. The movie documents the U.S. military’s 2003 siege of Baghdad strictly using film shot by Marine Corps 1st Lt. Mike Scotti and some of his fellow Marines on the ground and in the thick of battle. Shots were fired, blood was spilled and reality was on stark display. Read the rest of this entry »
At least one art car rolled into Salem this morning in honor of this afternoon’s screening of AUTOMORPHOSIS. Howard Davis drove his bright red telephone up from the South Shore and strolled into Caffe Graziani to have breakfast with his buddy, the filmmaker Harrod Blank, who features the phone car in his film. Read the rest of this entry »
