Seeing, believing, talking with Jonze and Cholodenko
Too often we think of art in terms of passive presentation. We look at paintings. We watch plays. We listen to music.
Sure, I appreciate the front-end of artistic performance — whatever the format — but I like delving deeper, seeing behind the scenes, thinking about process and creation.
What’s even better? Hearing it from the horse’s (or, you know, artist’s) mouth.
Actually, in this case, I mean director.
Thanks to The Lockwood Thompson Dialogues, a Cleveland Public Library-Cleveland Public Art partnership program, you can catch two inimitable voices at the library tomorrow, May 26.
Lisa Cholodenko, director and co-writer of The Kids are All Right (the Oscar-nominated film with Annette Bening and Julianne Moore), and Spike Jonze, the multi-hyphenate filmmaking machine behind the likes of Where the Wild Things Are, Being John Malkovich and countless music videos, including that praiseworthy Fatboy Slim ditty we still can’t get out of our heads, join producer Ted Hope to talk about making films in this brave new world.
Spike Jonze has been pulled in as a last-minute replacement for David O. Russell (Three Kings), and what a replacement, indeed.
Thursday’s conversation starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Cleveland Public Library’s Stokes Auditorium and is free and open to the public. Hope will talk with Cholodenko and Jonze about creating films, producing and distributing them in a changed marketplace that’s constantly redefining itself with new technologies and visual expectations. They’ll also contrast the personal narratives in independent films with storytelling found in major-studio productions. (Get event info.)
Cleveland’s no stranger to the film industry — A Christmas Story aside, a growing number of productions has sought out Northeast Ohio as a filming locale in recent years, our Greater Cleveland Film Foundation is movin’ on up, and countless filmmakers, actors and other artists have CLE roots — and here’s hoping the film industry won’t be a stranger in Cleveland.
Events like The Lockwood Thompson Dialogues are not only fab opportunities for Northeast Ohioans to see, listen to and meet filmmaking all-stars, but to bring these all-stars to Cleveland. Because, as you know, despite all our flack, seeing Cleveland is believing.