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Exclusive: In a competitive situation, Paramount+ has won rights to and will be developing Yellow Bird, a one-hour drama series based on Sierra Crane Murdoch’s Pulitzer Prize finalist Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country. The project hails from Reservation Dogs co-creator Sterlin Harjo and writer-director Erica Tremblay, Beau Willimon and Jordan Tappis’ Westward Productions and Michael London’s Groundswell Productions (Snowfall).

Harjo and Tremblay will co-create and executive produce the potential series with Willimon and Tappis of Westward Productions and London and Shannon Gaulding of Groundswell. Murdoch and the book’s subject, Lissa Yellowbird, will also be executive producers of the show, which is being produced in partnership with Paramount Television Studios.

Yellow Bird the series is described as a true crime show, a family drama and an immersive look at modern Native American life. Newly released from jail, Lissa Yellowbird...

Ivan Sen.

Aftrs' Black Talk program will run two free talks at this year's Sydney Film Festival.

On June 12 at Sydney Town Hall, Aftrs in conjunction with Vivid Ideas is presenting A Double Bill: Indigeneity and Australian Screen Storytelling.

In the first session, producers David Jowsey (Satellite Boy, Mystery Road, Goldstone) and Ned Lander (Dangerous Remedy, The Wrong Side of the Road, Blood Brothers) will be joined by Screen Australia Development Executive Louise Gough..

Kyas Sherriff, the head of Aftrs' Indigenous Unit, will moderate.

On the second panel, Margaret Pomeranz will appear in conversation with Goldstone's Ivan Sen, Alice Springs short filmmaker Dylan River and Native American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo (Four Sheets to the Wind, Barking Water, Mekko).

River's documentary Buckskin won the 2013 Dendy Foxtel Award and his short Nulla Nulla premiered at last year's Berlinale..

.This compelling double bill will further the conversation on Australian practice around collaboration...

As always, if you peer beyond the immediately buzzy movies and starry attractions of any film festival slate, you're bound to find some fascinating films, and "This May Be The Last Time" is just such an example. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, the documentary has quietly played the circuit in the months since, but now it's getting ready for home viewing release, promising an intriguing story that touches on American history and music. Directed by Sterlin Harjo ("Four Sheets to the Wind," "Barking Water"), the film tells the filmmaker's own story of the disappearance of his grandfather in 1962 Oklahoma, with the investigation leading him to explore the history of the songs the Seminole people sang at the time. The songs go back hundreds of years, uniting Native American communities during times of worship, joy, tragedy, and hope. And as you'll see in this exclusive trailer, these...

Though Sterlin Harjo is a familiar name in Park City – having premiered his narrative features Four Sheets to the Wind and Barking Water at Sundance in 2007 and 2008, and his short Goodnight, Irene in 2005 – this year’s visit marks the director’s documentary feature debut. This May Be the Last Time traces the events behind the never fully explained disappearance of the filmmaker’s grandfather in 1962, alongside the history of the Muscogee (Creek) hymns the Seminole community sang as it set out to find him. Filmmaker spoke with the Sundance vet about his very personal take on ethnomusicology […]...

Though Sterlin Harjo is a familiar name in Park City – having premiered his narrative features Four Sheets to the Wind and Barking Water at Sundance in 2007 and 2008, and his short Goodnight, Irene in 2005 – this year’s visit marks the director’s documentary feature debut. This May Be the Last Time traces the events behind the never fully explained disappearance of the filmmaker’s grandfather in 1962, alongside the history of the Muscogee (Creek) hymns the Seminole community sang as it set out to find him. Filmmaker spoke with the Sundance vet about his very personal take on ethnomusicology […]...

Three Sundance films will make their digital premieres today through the Sundance Institute Artist Services access to distribution program, which allows Sundance Institute artists to self-distribute their work digitally. The month of November, being 'Native American Heritage Month,' will feature films that pay tribute to the Native American culture exclusively.   Sundance Institute's Executive Director, Keri Putnam, said, "The films premiering today offer a sampling of work supported by our Native American and Indigenous Program and the Sundance Film Festival, and reflect the diversity of Native stories told through the medium of film." Putnam also maintains that, in following the original vision of Sundance's President and Founder, Robert Redford, supporting Native American artists is a priority for the Institute. Below are synopses (courtesy of Sundance) of the three films:   Barking Water (Director and screenwriter: Sterlin...

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Modern Times"

Directed by Charlie Chaplin

Released by Criterion Collection

Granted, Warner Brothers released an extensive two-disc collection of arguably Charlie Chaplin's finest film back in 2003, but Criterion Collection is bringing the silent comedian to Blu-ray for the first time with a newly remastered edition of the Depression-era classic with an array of special features including the Dardenne brothers' 2003 tribute to the film, the 1916 two-reeler "The Rink," the Alistair Cooke home movie with Chaplin and Pauline Goddard, "All at Sea," two deleted sequences from the film, a new featurette on the film's special effects with Ben Burtt and Craig Barron and much more.

"Avatar: Extended Collector's Edition"

Directed by James Cameron

Released by Fox Home Entertainment

After a bare bones edition was released in April, James Cameron's box office world-beater receives a three-disc set with all the bells and...

One look at the filmmaker names below, and it appears as if the Sundance alumni have come out in droves. We find a known variety of filmmakers such as Spike Jonze (Being John Malcovich), Ira Sachs (Married Life), Nicholas Jasenovec (Paper Hearts), James Franco and the Zellner bros. who have dabbled this year in the short form while working in between their feature film projects. - I'd be willing to bet that its the commonly available digital filmmaking and editing technologies that is the core reason for the record breaking amount of short films submitted (6,092) to Sundance this year. Personally, you'll only hear me complain that watching movies is a tough job come day 8 of a major film festival, but imagine being one the programmers having to plow threw hundreds of pieces of crap in order to find something worth watching over a second time. One look at the filmmaker names below,...

First the features, which were unveiled last week; and now the shorts.

I haven’t looked through the list yet, but I will eventually. Feel free to flag any for me if you’re aware.

For now, here’s the full press release I received:

2010 Sundance Film Festival Announces Short Film Program

from Sundance Film Festival | Press Releases

Park City, Ut- Sundance Institute announced today the program of short films selected to screen at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. This year the Festival’s Short Film Program comprises 70 short films from U.S. and international filmmakers selected from 6,092 submissions up 8% over 2009. The 2010 Sundance Film Festival runs January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The complete list of films is available at www.sundance.org/festival.

As previously announced, the Festival will break tradition by foregoing the conventions of one opening night film and instead focus on...

The 66th edition of the Venice Film Festival lineup includes the main festival plus the sidebar which will be playing films like Yannick Dahan's gangster zombie flick The Horde.

In competition we have the long awaited scifi awesomeness from Jaco Van Dormael, Mr. Nobody and Shinya Tsukamoto's trfiecta Tetsuo the Bulletman.

Out of competition has [Rec] 2 and the Midnight section has Nicolas Refn's long awaited Valhalla Rising which was actually made before Bronson.

Man I wish I could go! Anyone want to cover the fest for us? Use the contact link at the bottom of the page. We'd be happy to do cross-posted reviews.

Full list after the break.

66Th Annual Venice Film Festival Lineup

Competition

"36 vues du Pic Saint Loup," Jacques Rivette (France)

"Accident," Cheang Pou-Soi (China-Hong Kong)

"Baaria," Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy) – Opening Film

"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," Werner Herzog (U.S.)

"Between Two Worlds,...

• Right before the big announcement of films competing for the Golden Lion, the Venice Film Festival announced the Venice Days sidebar selections which is flooded with mostly Euro titles from Spain, Italy and France. The section, the equivalent to Cannes Director's Fortnight, will feature eleven films including nine world premieres and the international preem for Sterlin Harjo’s Barking Water (who we interviewed for his Sundance premiere). Among the list of films that we should look out for in the long term which includes the added six world premieres in the Special Events category, we have Sherry Horman's directorial debut Desert Flower which is not necessarily a rags to riches narrative, but more of a look "where I came from" drama, there is a prison pic from Spanish helmer Daniel Monzon (Celda 211) and legend Claude Miller co-directs with his son Nathan Miller on Je Suis Heureux Che Ma Mere Soit Vivante,

...

Rome -- Venice Days, the Venice Film festival's well-regarded sidebar focusing on new directors, will have a European focus in its 6th edition, the first since the return of Venice Days founder Giorgio Gosetti.

The lineup, which so far features a total of 15 world premieres, will include "Desert Flower," based on a book by the same name by Somali model Waris Dirie and directed by Germany's Sherry Horman, "Honeymoons" from Goran Paskaljevic, billed as the first-ever co-production between Albania and Serbia, and the class struggle drama "The Last Days of Emma Blank" from Van Warmerdam,

The only U.S. film in the lineup is "Barking Water," a Native American travel story from Sterlin Harjo.

The sidebar, which is modeled on Cannes' Directors' Fortnight, will again be run by Gosetti, who returned to Venice Days after leaving to held found the Rome International Film Festival in 2006.

Venice Days will take place Sept.

• Sticking to their usual habit of importing the Sundance film festival to the east coast side, the New Directors/New Films 2009 edition will be bookmarked by opening film selection Amreeka from first time filmmaker Cherien Dabis and ending it off with the impressive sophomore feature from Lee Daniels. Along with Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire (I'd be curious to see what distribution company "label" is shown before the film), the event will showcase many New York based filmmakers and some excellent quality affair in Sophie Barthes Cold Souls, So Yong Kim's 2nd film Treeless Mountain and a doc film that has surprisingly been unbought in Ondi Timone's We Live in Public. The 39th edition which runs March 25th to April 5th grabbed films dating back to Tiff and Venice of last year. Here is the list of selected titles. $9.99, dir. Tatia Rosenthal (Israel/Australia) Amreeka, dir.

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• [Ioncinema.com is proud to feature a select group of new and veteran voices as the ones that are showcased and nurtured at the 25th edition of the Sundance Film Festival. This is part of collection of emailer interviews conducted prior to the festival - I would like to thank the filmmakers for their time and the hardworking publicists for making this possible.] Sterlin Harjo Eric Lavallee: Can you discuss the genesis of Barking Water – how did the initial idea come about or how did this become a story you wanted to tell? Sterlin Harjo: The film is about an older couple that have been in a 40 year off and on relationship. The woman, Irene (Played by Casey Camp-Horinek) comes back to Frankie (Richard Ray Whitman) one last time, as Frankie lies on his deathbed, to break him from the hospital and get him home before he dies. I had had this idea for a while to make a film about a person that doesn't want to die in the hospital. Almost as if this place that is supposed to help you really makes things worse. Then my Grandmother got real sick and I rode with her in the ambulance to the hospital... we all thought she was going to die.

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First off, the best news, as I predicted (in private) Duncan Jones' Moon will be premiering, yay! The comedy Adventureland starring the talented Bill Hader is playing. The sweet kid soldier film Johnny Mad Dog is playing in the spectrum section, and the Jesco White story White Lightnin' which we reported on earlier is in the Park City at Midnight section.

But where the hell is Stingray Sam?

Full list after the break.

Premieres

* "Adventureland," directed and written by Greg Mottola, stars Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds and Bill Hader in the story of a college grad who gets a job at an amusement park. A Miramax release.

* "Brooklyn’s Finest," directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Michael C. Martin, a drama about three Brooklyn cops who come together at the same deadly location. With Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle and Ellen Barkin.

* "Earth Days," directed by Robert Stone,...

Premieres

To showcase the diversity of contemporary independent cinema, this section offers the latest work from American and international directors and world premieres of highly anticipated films.

Adventureland / U.S. (Director-screenwriter: Greg Mottola)

In 1987, a recent college graduate takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park and discovers the job is perfect preparation for the real world. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader. World premiere

Brooklyn's Finest / U.S. (Director: Antoine Fuqua; screenwriter: Michael C. Martin)

After enduring vastly different career paths, three unconnected Brooklyn cops wind up at the same deadly location. Cast: Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle, Ellen Barkin. World premiere

Earth Days / U.S. (Director: Robert Stone)

The history of our environmental undoing through the eyes of nine Americans whose work and actions launched the modern environmental movement. World premiere, closing-night film

Endgame / U.K. (Director: Pete Travis; screenwriter: Paula Milne)

A...

• Because the Dramatic Main Competition category can only hold so many titles, the Spectrum becomes a second option for Sundance staff to include so more dramatic fair. 12 of the 16 selected are world premieres (I caught Johnny Mad Dog at Cannes and missed out on Lymelife at Tiff) from returnee directors such as Sterlin Harjo, Jeff Lipsky and Bobcat Goldthwait. Dramatic films screening in Spectrum are: Against the Current / USA (Director and Screenwriter: Peter Callahan)—Facing the anniversary of his pregnant wife's tragic death, thirty-five-year old Paul Thompson enlists the help of two friends to help him swim the length of the Hudson River. Cast: Joseph Fiennes, Justin Kirk, Elizabeth Reaser, Mary Tyler Moore, Michelle Trachtenberg. World Premiere The Anarchist's Wife (La Mujer del Anarquista) / Germany/Spain (Directors: Marie Noelle and Peter Sehr; Screenwriters: Marie Noelle and Ray Loriga)—During the Spanish Civil War an idealistic young lawyer combating Franco's

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