The Mill Valley Film Festival is a hometown celebration of sorts. Matt Leutwyler (Director), Kathleen Quinlan (“Ma”), Kristi Denton Cohen (Producer), Tom Cohen, (Co-screenwriter), John Jay Osborn, Jr. (Co-screenwriter), Robert Dalva (Editing Consultant), all hail from Marin County where the festival is based. ( Kristi also met Tom while she was volunteering at this festival.)
Come join us on October 9 at 8:15 pm at the Sequoia Theater in Mill Valley or on October 14 at 9:00 pm at the Rafael Theater in San Rafael. Tickets for members go on sale September 19th at 2 pm. Tickets for the general public go on sale September 22 at 9 a.m. www.mvff.com
Based on the acclaimed novel, “The River Why”, starring Zach Gilford, Amber Heard, Kathleen Quinlan, Dallas Robert, William Devane and William Hurt is playing this Friday 8/27/10 at the Tribeca Cinema at 7:30 pm as part of acefest.
June 23 was an amazing night! Many thanks to our sponsors : Patagonia, Leland Fly Fishing Outfitters and The Orchard Hotel. They made it possible to have all of the proceeds of the event go directly to Friends of the River and California Trout.
And many thanks to Lucasfilm and ILM for letting us use their gorgeous and technically perfect theater. The film looked and sounded incredible. Cathy and Kenn were great to work with.
The evening started at the Presidio Social Club. Great hors d’oeurves and wine.
Then it was over to the theater. Many more thanks to the TRW cast and crew who joined us: the beautiful, talented and wonderful Kathleen Quinlan (“Ma”) – who turned into quite a fisher person herself. Our great director/editor Matt Leutwyler. Our scriptwriters Tom Cohen (full disclosure – he’s my much loved husband, too) and John Jay Osborn, Jr. Our co-producer and fish biologist, Josh Murphy (who took care of all living, dead and puppet fish), and three of our Executive Producers: Shari Quinney, David Quinney and Jun Tan.
And a most special thanks to the fabulous women who put the whole evening together: Harriet Moss, on the board of FOR, Shannon Moon, Outreach Manager at Cal Trout and Ann Krcik – event producer extraordinaire.
We hope to have more partnerships with river and fishconservation groups in the future. Stay tuned.
Check out this video (featuring Zach Gilford, Kathleen Quinlan, director Matthew Leutwyler,and Screenwriter Tom Cohen) from the Red Carpet Premiere of The River Why at the Dallas International Film Festival.
Note: the cast and crew appear about 5 minutes in.
Kathleen Quilan on set with WIlliam Hurt in "The River Why".
Kathleen Quinlan plays Zach Gilford’s mother in The River Why. Ms. Quinlan made her film debut in George Lucas’ 1973 nostalgic look at the early sixties, American Graffiti. She has appeared in over 50 films, but is best known for her roles as Deborah in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, and for her Golden Globe and Oscar nominated role as Marilyn Lovell in 1995′s Apollo 13.
April 5, 2010–The Easter Bunny delivered some “egg-cellent” news yesterday! Our first write up by the Ashland Mail Tribune.
Journalist Bill Varble wrote:
It’s heartening to see the overall quality of the work being done by independent filmmakers around the world. That quality will be on display in our little corner of the world, as the annual Ashland Independent Film Festival gets under way Thursday.
The big little indie fest this year again boasts some extraordinary films among its 81 entries. And almost everything is at least worth seeing. Contrast this with a typical week’s crop of Hollywood commercial fare, which often leaves you scratching for a movie worth seeing.
Here are some thumbnail reflections…
“The River Why,” feature, 101 minutes
Producer Kristi Denton Cohen waited 20 years to make a beautiful film based on David James Duncan’s iconic coming-of-age fishing novel set in Oregon, and the wait was worth it. Gus Orviston, 20, leaves his fishing, bickering parents’ home to live in a cabin on the river and order his life so that he can fish 141/2 hours a day.
Gotta be bliss, right? Wrong. He’s soon frustrated and lost. But the right guides turn up at just the right moments as Gus moves toward awareness.
This is lovely, understated filmmaking. Director Matthew Leutwyler wisely lets his camera and his actors, including the eye-popping Wilson River near Portland, (this is one of those stories in which the environment is a character) tell the story. When it looks this easy, you know it was hard work indeed.
Although the cinematography is stunning, the producer says it’s still a work in progress, and she allowed it to be shown as a thank-you to Oregon. The final version will reportedly be yet more beautiful.
To read the rest of Varble’s reviews, please click here.
Also appearing at the Ashland Independent Film Festival is “Greenlit”, the behind-the-scenes documentary of The River Why‘s attempt to “green” the film production. The 12:00 noon April 10th showing of “Greenlit” will be followed by a panel discussion including “Greenlit” director Bailey and “River Why” green consultant Lauren Selman. Bill Vabler suggests “The ideal would be to see ‘[The] River Why,’ then see ‘Greenlit,’ then stay for the discussion.” We agree, Bill!
You can catch The River Why at 12:00noon on April 9th and 6:00pm April 10th. Get your tickets here.
The Ashland Independent Film Festival runs Thursday, April 8, through Monday, April 12, at the Varsity Theatre and other Ashland locations with 81 films, plus parties, awards and special events. Most showings are $10. See www.ashlandfilm.org for more information.
UPDATE: While you’re at the AIFF, here are a few other events you may enjoy:
“Reel Women” Panel with Producer Kristi Denton Cohen: 10:30am, April 10, 2010.
“It Ain’t Easy Being Green” Panel, following the screening of “Greenlit“, which documents The River Why’s attempt to “green” its film production: Screening starts at 12:00noon,April 10, 2010
This just in:The River Why will screen on April 23, 2010 at the Athens International Film and Video Festival. The screening is currently scheduled for 5:00pm. More information, including how to purchase tickets, coming soon.
Not in Ohio? No problem. You can catch The River Why‘s
I saw a vast array of April Fool’s jokes played out on Facebook and Twitter yesterday–married friends changing their status to “single”, then being caught by their wives; HootSuite announcing that is was going to start beta testing a 3D version–but one of my favorites was a blog post by Tom Chandler on The Trout Underground: Fly Fishing’s Independent Voice. Chandler seemed to take a page out of The Onion on April 1, 2010 when he wrote “Underground Breaking News: Even Trout Think Fly Fishing’s Whole ‘How To’ Genre Way, Way Overdone“.
The seemingly endless desire on the part of fly fishermen for detailed “how-to” fly fishing articles has riled the world’s trout, whose contempt for anglers has reached a boiling point.
“You’d think that sooner or later they’d get it, and just get their *sses out the door and go fly fishing,” said one Rainbow Trout, who refused to identify his location out of fear that “every noob with a bobbicator would show up and start setting the hook at the end of each drift – just like they’d read”…
Chandler goes on to “interview” more trout, but a Westslope Cutthroat trout sums it up best when he said, “Do you sad, pathetic losers really need an article outlining strategies for untangling your leader?… I’m surprised Dr. Seuss isn’t fly fishing’s leading writer,” before getting distracted by something shiny and swimming off.
The Newport Beach Film Festival announced our screening time for The River Why. So far we have one screening scheduled for Friday, April 23 at 6:00pm. For more information, including how to purchase tickets, please visit their web site.
That’s three film festivals and counting! Please leave comments for where you’d like to see The River Why next and we’ll do our best to add it to our festival submissions list. Thanks!
