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Exclusive: Convergence Entertainment will produce and fully finance Wall of White, a narrative adaptation of the documentary by Jared Drake and Steven Sig. They will produce with Randall Emmett and Martin Scorsese, latter of whom sparked to the documentary based on the bestselling book by Jennifer Woodlief. Mark Gogolewski will be exec producer. They are out to directors and eyeing a late 2025 start date.

Wall of White tells the tale of the tragic and heroic events of March 31, 1982, when an avalanche buried the Alpine Meadows ski resort in California; it trapped eight people and killed seven of them. The drama will be told from the vantage of lone survivor Anna Conrad, and the heroic first responders who risked their lives in a grueling search and rescue effort and a race against time. The disaster reshaped avalanche forecasting, response protocols and safety measures at ski resorts worldwide.

“Jared and Steven crafted an extraordinary documentary,...

90 inches of snow accumulated in four days before the 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche, leading to the resort's classification as a high-risk area for avalanches. The avalanche caused millions of dollars in damage, burying buildings, chairlift terminals, and a parking lot under 10 to 20 feet of snow and resulting in seven deaths. Rescue efforts prompted the discovery of survivors, including one woman who was buried for five days before being found by a search dog.

Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche is a riveting yet heartbreaking documentary that is based on true events. It was created by filmmakers Jared Drake and Steven Siig, who are local to the area and wanted to make something that would tell the story of their community while raising important avalanche awareness. In order to accomplish their mission of avalanche education, the duo partnered with the American Avalanche Association, which is a nonprofit dedicated to avalanche research, outreach, and education.

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment announced today the acquisition of North American distribution rights to Katie Burrell’s feature debut Weak Layers.

The film is directed and co-written by Burrell (who also stars), and Andrew Ladd, also stars Chelsea Conwright and Jadyn Wong. Weak Layers will arrive in theaters in top 50 markets and in select mountain towns on January 5, and on VOD on February 6, 2024.

The three women star as evicted roommates who enter a ski-movie contest to resolve their living situation. Set in Lake Tahoe, these three passionate and lovably rowdy local women go on a quest to win a world-famous 72-hour short ski film competition. A progressive throwback to the cult classics, the film dissects modern, male-driven ski culture while championing the tight-knit local communities found in ski towns throughout the world.

“I love anything that upends a trope and this movie is full of the kind of teasing satire that satisfies the rebel in me.

Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche is a powerful documentary that sheds new light on the film's titular tragedy. Directed by Jared Drake and Steven Siig, the documentary features the stories of a number of people involved with the event including first responders and avalanche forecasters. Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche also features discussions with Anna Allen, a victim of the avalanche who survived being buried for five days before she was rescued.

As of this writing, Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche sits at 100 on Rotten Tomatoes in critic and audience ratings alike. The documentary was also well-received at a number of film festivals, winning a jury award at the Austin Film Festival, the grand prize at Vimff, and the audience choice award at Mountainfilm 2021. Though the film succeeds on the strength of its story, the openness of its subjects, and the strong direction of Jared Drake and Steven Siig, it...

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to the edge-of-your-seat documentary thriller Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche, a “gripping account of the deadliest avalanche in U.S. ski resort history.”

Greenwich plans to release the documentary — winner of the Audience Award at Telluride’s Moutainfilm festival – in theaters in New York, San Francisco and Northern California on September 23, expanding to additional markets thereafter. A 45-day exclusive theatrical window will be followed by a release on Tvod/Est (transactional video on demand/electronic sell-through) and DVD on November 8.

Jared Drake and Steven Siig directed the film, which takes viewers back to the catastrophic events of March and April 1982 near Lake Tahoe, California. A massive storm had dumped huge quantities of snow onto the area beginning in late March. Then, on the afternoon of March 31, tragedy struck.

“[W]ithout warning, millions of pounds of snow would hurtle down the side...

The new family comedy series from BermanBraun, ‘Greetings from Home,’ will have its U.S. premiere tonight on AOL On Relationships and AOL On Parenting. AOL and Vuguru, an independent studio founded by Michael Eisner that develops and finances award winning scripted digital and international platforms, confirmed the news. The 12-epiosde series was written by Bill Rosenthal, Bill Masters and Michael Davidoff, and was directed by Jared Drake. ‘Greetings From Home’ follows career soldier Pete Griffin, played by Dash Mihok, who loses a leg in combat oversees. He’s sent home to work a desk job at the army base near his family’s home. Meanwhile his wife, Patty, an Army nurse, is [ Read More ]

The post Comedy Series Greetings From Home Receives U.S. Premiere Date From AOL appeared first on Shockya.com.

Michael Eisner’s Vuguru and BermanBraun are partnering on the comedy web series Greetings From Home that launches on AOL on October 1. The 12-episode series is a humorous look at a military dad who’s raising two unruly teens while mom is deployed overseas. It was directed by Jared Drake and written by Bill Rosenthal, Bill Masters, and Michael Davidoff. BermanBraun’s Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun executive produced. Here’s the exclusive trailer:...

The 48th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival is another exciting celebration of underground film past and present, featuring two retrospectives of two master filmmakers and dozens of short films and features from some of the most gifted talents working today.

For the retrospectives, first, Kenneth Anger will be in attendance at the festival for two programs of his classic work, including Fireworks and Scorpio Rising. Plus, for the first Anger screening, the filmmaker will be joined on-stage by film critic Dennis Lim for a discussion of his work and career. The second retrospective is of the work of the late Chick Strand, who sadly passed away in 2009. Strand’s Angel Blue Sweet Wings (1966) will actually open the entire festival, then there will be two retrospective screenings of her work, the first of which will be presented by film scholar Irina Leimbacher.

The rest of the Aaff lineup reads like a...

Diversity seems to be the key this year at the SXSW festival, which takes place in Austin, TX from March 12-20, as they’ve now announced the full lineup of Panels and short films that will be at this years event. As with the feature films schedule, this list of panels and shorts should provide an almost endless supply of diverse and interesting programming for attendees.

Following sre some highlights of panels we think are worth checking out. For a full list and descriptions, head over to the SXSW official site. Also, be sure to check back here at The Flickast as we’ll be at SXSW this year to bring you all the details on these great events and much more.

A Conversation with Michel Gondry

The stratospheric rise of Academy Award-winning visionary Michel Gondry is one of the great success stories of modern film. Working with fellow travelers like Spike Jonze,...

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival (March 12 - March 16, 2010) has announced the short film program and the list of panel participants. Michel Gondry, David Gordon Green, Jody Hill, Danny McBride, Ruben Fleischer, Matt Reeves, Eli Roth, Quentin Tarantino, and Ti West are among the people scheduled to participate. The full list can be viewed at the provided link. As to the shorts program, the list is featured at the bottom of this post. The lineup is extensive, and full of unique films waiting to be discovered.

Comprehensive Short Films Lineup

Narrative Shorts

A selection of original, well-crafted films that take advantage of the short form and exemplify distinctive and genuine storytelling. The winner of our Grand Jury Award in this category is eligible for a 2011 Academy Award nomination for Best Narrative Short.

Anatinus

Director: David Wanger

A glimpse of the dawn of a strange new era.

Bedford Park Boulevard...

Todd: “My doctor says I have to pull the trigger on my gun once an hour or I’ll explode.”

Zach Galifianakis is a man of multiple talents. Comedian, pianist/musician (sort of) and or course, he’s an actor. Anyone who’s seen The Hangover knows that he’s a very funny guy, and his comedy routine, while dry and off-beat, is very good as well. But, I’m not sure everyone knows what kind of an actor he really is, at least not yet. Visioneers will give you a wonderful sneak peak into the thespian talents of Zach Galifianakis.

Visioneers is the feature film debut for director Jared Drake, working from a script by his brother Brandon Drake. The very first thing that came to mind for me early on while watching this movie was a fear that it was going to be Terry Gilliam’s Brazil all over again.

The world of Jared Drake’s feature debut, Visioneers, sits somewhere between the ugly futures of Brazil and Idiocracy, leaning less fantastical than the former and less goofy than the latter, while putting across a message they share: Things are getting bleaker and stupider, and something should probably be done about it. The film, which played festivals last year but failed to secure wider theatrical distribution, stars Zach Galifianakis—a newly minted star, thanks to The Hangover—as a cog working at the world’s largest company, the Jeffers Corporation. In an immediate cue about Visioneers’ tone, the Jeffers logo ...

Visioneers Directed by: Jared Drake Written by: Brandon Drake Starring: Zach Galifianakis, Judy Greer, Fay Masterson, James LeGros My first introduction to Zach Galifianakis was through his association with Tim and Eric of the Adult Swim show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. His bizarre and deadpan sense of humour along with his trademark unkempt beard gave him instant appeal and a strong cult following, but it was not yet clear if the mainstream was quite ready for him. Now, with the upcoming Todd Phillips movie The Hangover about to usher him into major multiplexes, it seems that Galifianakis has officially made it as a comedy star, whether audiences are ready or not. Up to this point, the majority of his acting experience has been on the small screen, but aside from a few minor roles in What Happens in Vegas and Into The Wild, he also headlined an...

I freely confess to being a little slow sometimes, in whatever sense you may choose to take that. In this case, I’m a wee bit behind taking a look at Visioneers, the debut feature from brotherly writer-director duo Brandon and Jared Drake, a film that my Toronto After Dark programming cohort Peter Kuplowsky has been talking up with me for literally months now. Honest, I’ve meant to look it up every single time he’s talked about it but every single time something has driven it from my brain before I’ve actually followed through. That is until today, when Peter sent me an email with the official website so it would be right in front of my face while I was already on the computer. Peter’s smarter than me.

But I digress ... the film. It’s a near-future office comedy about a mid level exec -...

Year: 2008

Release date: Unknown

Director: Jared Drake

Writers: Jared Drake & Brandon Drake

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Review by: cyberhal

Rating: 7.6 out of 10

Visioneers is the impressive feature debut of brothers Jared and Brandon Drake. A story driven exploration of an already here Corporate Dystopia, and what it takes to survive as a human being. The flick came in at under $1m and the Bros Drake adapt to circumstance by making great use of simple and retro technology. Clever dialogue had me laughing my ass off, especially in the first half, and made me think of a light hearted version of Hal Hartley in movies like the Unbelievable Truth. I love absurdist humor and word games. I thought the story lost a bit of its power when it got into the love and pole vaulting can conquer all, but I know others will disagree with me on that. Check out the official site website,...