WE Picks Docus Out of Orchard
The Hollywood Reporter, February 10, 2005
By Kimberly Speight

WE: Women's Entertainment is going deep into the worlds of love and beauty pageants with two new documentary specials from Orchard Films.

"Love Files," premiering Sunday on the cable network, takes a look at the nature of love and how it shapes our lives. It includes interviews with relationship experts along with verite footage of couples."Chasing the Crown," set to debut April 11, goes behind the scenes of American beauty pageants, examining both the humor and drama of what goes on at the local level of competition. It's hosted by actress and former Miss America Kate Shindle.

" 'Love Files' is a fun, lighthearted show that's so appropriate for WE because relationship (shows) are a big part of what we do at WE — it's a natural part of life for women," WE general manager Kim Martin said. " 'Chasing the Crown' looks at real women in all shapes, sizes and colors … who are typical of the WE woman — confident, smart and proud of their accomplishments."

Over the past few years, Orchard Films, a New York-based production company founded by Lisa Ades and Lesli Klainberg that focuses on nonfiction programming, has formed a relationship with WE and its sister cable networks IFC and AMC under the Rainbow Media Holdings banner.

Credits include the docus "In the Company of Women," which premiered at Sundance last year and aired on IFC; "Who Is Alan Smithee?" which premiered on AMC in 2002; and "Indie Sex: Taboos," which debuted on IFC in 2001.

"Lesli and Lisa are collaborative, flexible and versatile," said IFC vp original programming Alison Bourke, adding that IFC is in development on a couple of Orchard projects without providing details.Added AMC vp documentary programming Jessica Shreeve: "Women who have a successful production company that are able to go between passion projects and works for hire at multiple networks are pretty unusual in the cable world in terms of documentary."

While many of Orchard's docus have focused on women-themed subjects, Ades and Klainberg said they don't set out to appeal just to women.

"As women filmmakers, we're conscious of subjects that resonate with women," Klainberg said. "But we're naturally drawn to issues that aren't explored much, and those are often stories relating to women."Moreover, Ades said, a project like "Love Files" appeals to both sexes."Both men and women want to watch television that's about relationships — it's a universal topic," she said.

Back to Top

Nancy Savoca's movies pick up where Martin Scorsese's and Francis Ford Coppola's films leave off, according to film historian Emanuel Levy. They portray immigrant life on a grand scale, while Savoca whose 1989 debut "True Love" about a skittish young Italian-American couple getting married made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival offers "a view from the kitchen," Levy says in IFC's "In the Company of Women." Savoca is one of several directors profiled in the cable network's new 90-minute documentary airing 8 p.m. EST Thursday. It's part history lesson, part movie montage and part dialogue about women's roles in front of and behind the camera, told from the perspective of women in the business including Jodie Foster and Susan Sarandon. "It's a very rare holiday still for men to be given the opportunity to go into a woman's psyche and see the world and the existential experience of life through her eyes," actress Tilda Swinton says during the documentary.
Directors Gini Reticker and Lesli Klainberg focus specifically on independent films, but didn't make a documentary that bashes Hollywood even though few female directors get to make mainstream, big-budget films. "We focused on independent films essentially by default. In doing our research, it's where most women's careers were fostered and developed. Also, it's where women were greeted on an open playing field," Klainberg said. Klainberg and Reticker's film takes a comprehensive and interesting look at women in the film business, though sometimes the documentary seems to be taking on too much and the directors would be better served by a narrower focus. If they came to any conclusions, Reticker said, "It's that we want more. More, more, more from women."

Klainberg and Reticker begin with the 1970s, when the women's movement coincided with a film boom, and more women attended film school. Those graduates burst onto the scene in the 1980s with character-driven stories and an alternative viewpoint. "With the advent of `Jaws' and `Star Wars' Hollywood was moving toward these big blockbuster films, and there was suddenly this space in the independent film world to create these stories," Reticker said. They point to Susan Seidelman's "Desperately Seeking Susan." The 1985 film starred Madonna in all her 1980s black-lace glory, and showed that a story centered on two female protagonists could appeal to the masses. It's one of the most successful independent films to date, grossing $27.4 million. Several "indie queens" are featured, including Lili Taylor, Parker Posey and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Sexuality is easily the most discussed topic in the documentary. The film "Go Fish" featuring lesbian couples in everyday life complete with graphic sex scenes is juxtaposed with Gyllenhaal's performance as the submissive half of an S&M relationship in "Secretary." Using sexuality as a tool is tricky and confusing for women, and the documentary captures that. Rosie Perez offers an anecdote about how refreshing it was to work with a female director because there was no sexual tension. The idea of beauty, intrinsically tied to sexuality, is also discussed, peppered with scenes from Nicole Holofcener's 2001 film "Lovely and Amazing," and Savoca's 1991 film "Dogfight." Directors and actresses speak candidly about body image, nude scenes, age and the tendency to glorify sex scenes.

Copyright 2004, AP News All Rights Reserved

Back to Top

The Hollywood Reporter, March 4, 2004
By Marilyn Moss
"Who is Alan Smithee?"

Alan Smithee is all of these things: the ultimate fiction, an industry scapegoat, a mere convenience. Smithee, the man who never was, is the subject of this informative docu from Orchard Films for Wellspring Media. Smithee, as all insiders know, is the equivalent of a front; he is the name used in a film's credits when the director no longer wants his or her name associated with a project. He exists in name only and is a great cover, a good way into a lengthy discussion of all the fighting that can occur among producers and directors and very often actors when reputations are on the line. This docu covers in good detail the ins and outs of Hollywood tugs of war that, even with television entertainment magazines, the public doesn't often see.

Smithee was born on the set of 1948's "Death of a Gunfighter" after star Richard Widmark complained about the way director Robert Totten was handling the production. When Totten was replaced by Donald Siegel, Siegel thought he hadn't been on the set long enough (nine days) to get a director's credit. So the name Alan Smithee came into being. Since that time, his name has appeared on numerous films, most of which haven't made it into the public lexicon. For example, who remembers such titles as the airline version of "Meet Joe Black" (1998) or 1993's "Solar Crisis"? How about the severely cut version of 1992's "Scent of a Woman"? There is also 1990's "The Shrimp on the Barbie," which might fare better in public memory, though it's doubtful.

What this docu really wants to do is focus on some infamous (and some not) bouts behind the scenes of some better-known films -- just in case we've forgotten. Much time (some of which might have been edited) is devoted to director Tony Kaye's clash with star Edward Norton and New Line Cinema on and off the set of 1998's "American History X." Kaye tried, though the Directors Guild of America decided it was too late by that time, to get an Alan Smithee credit.

There are interviews with such directors as Martha Coolidge, Arthur Hiller and John Singleton, along with a good view of just how studios, directors, producers and actors (Norton and Tom Cruise, for example) clash and battle it out behind the scenes.
Smithee's name was abolished following the controversy over "Burn Hollywood Burn," a satire written in 1997 by Joe Eszterhas on the misadventures of Smithee himself. Arthur Hiller directed, but the studio recut his film. The rest, as this very entertaining docu recounts, is history.

Back to Top