Southwest Missouri was represented by Professor Mark Biggs, Missouri State University in his role as Chairman of the Missouri Film Commission and Bill Lennon, a citizen member of the Commission. In addition, Steve Olson, President of MFAS and MOMMA board member as well as MFAS members Jack and Edie Robinette participated in the days events.

Update from MOMMA:

21 Legislators will be in St. Louis to visit the set of Up in the Air. Our thanks to Cheryl Dozier for making these arrangements.

Jason Grill’s bill will be heard by the Ways and Means committee on April 9. Geno Hart, from Hart Entertainment, who is currently working on Up in the Air, will be with us again on the 9th to testify. Those of you who participated in Legislative Day are aware that Mr. Hart came to Jefferson City, courtesy of Paramount, and visited with Legislators. We continue to be impressed by the level of support we have received from Paramount and, in particular, from Michael Beugg, the film’s producer.

We do not need industry members to converge on Jefferson City for this hearing. We will, however, be contacting you to rally troops in your area if it appears that we will need additional support.

Gayle Gallagher (Pirate Pictures) is orchestrating a letter writing campaign in St. Louis. The letters will go to the ways and means committee. If you would like to do the same in your area, please contact Gayle and she will send you the information you need to get that done. Send the request to Gayle@piratePictures.net

MOMMA is on the MOVE!!

April 1st – “North by Northwest”
April 29th – “Psycho”
May 6th – “The Birds”

Tuesday evenings, the films begin at 7:00 pm and are free and open to the public.
Plaster Theatre in the Plaster Student Union on the Missouri State University campus.

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The filmmaker as “author,” or dominant creative force behind a movie, was first described in a famous 1954 magazine article by François Truffaut, who drew a distinction between directors like Jean Renoir and Alfred Hitchcock, who sought to “bring something genuinely personal” to their films, and the hack-for-hire directors who had predominated under the Hollywood studio system.

Since then, every decade has had its dominant European filmmakers — from Truffaut himself, Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman and Milos Forman in the 1960s and ’70s to Krzysztof Kieslowski, Pedro Almodóvar, Lars Von Trier, Ken Loach and Emir Kusturica in the ’80s and ’90s. These directors were known for highbrow, meticulously made, and sometimes difficult- to-watch movies that made personal, political or artistic statements.

But many critics now say European cinema is in a kind of identity crisis as it attempts to compete against mega-budget Hollywood movies — not to mention the steady supply of art-house or “indie” films from across the Atlantic — while remaining faithful to its tradition of low-budget (and often government-subsidized) auteurship. Some even argue that the age of the visionary, all-powerful writer/director — personified by the likes of Bergman and Truffaut — is over. “The concept of the ‘film d’auteur’ is nearly dead,” says Dominique Jahn, a movie producer and director of the Brussels film festival, an annual event that emphasizes small, art-house productions. “In Europe, directors are becoming less important and producers more so; while in America, star actors are the bosses.”

Don’t tell that to 24-year-old Swiss director and actor Barthélemy Grossmann, who recently won strong reviews for his debut feature, a thriller called “13m2.”

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