Arts and Digital Media

Olds’s ‘Occupation: Dreamland’ hits theaters

Ian Olds (Stevenson College, Film & Video, 1998) directed and edited the documentary “Occupation: Dreamland.” Currently in theatrical release, the independent film follows a squad of American soldiers into the Iraq city of Falluja during the winter of 2004. During the filming of “Occupation: Dreamland,” Olds and Garrett Scott, the film’s producer and director, lived with the Army’s 82nd Airborne division. The DVD will be available in mid-March.
According to Olds, the film is on the short list for an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary. Filmmakers Olds and Scott also were recently nominated for the Truer than Fiction Independent Spirit Award for emerging documentary directors.
Olds also edited and co-wrote “Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story,” which premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired for broadcast by The Sundance Channel in 2004 and ARTE-France in 2005. “Two Men,” a short narrative film directed by Olds, premiered at the 2005 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. He received his MFA from Columbia University’s film division in 2005. 
For more information, visit www.occupationdreamland.com.

Mockoski assists with production of ‘Apocalypse Now’ DVD set

American Zeotrope archivist James Mockoski (Porter College, Film & Video, 1998) is assisting with the production of a two-disc DVD set for “Apocalypse Now,” which will combine the 2001 version, “Apocalypse Now Redux,” the original 1979 version as well as never-before-seen footage from the Zeotrope vault.
Mockoski joined American Zeotrope in 2002 to manage and preserve a continually growing collection of films that date back nearly 40 years. Prior to joining Zeotrope, he earned a master’s degree in Film Studies and Film Archiving from The University of East Anglia. He worked at the UCLA Film and Television Archive from 2000 to 2002.
Recent additions to the Zeotrope archive include Roman Coppola’s “CQ,” and Sophia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation.”
Francis Ford Coppola founded Zeotrope in 1969 as a way to create films outside the Hollywood system. “Youth without Youth,” Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in eight years, is scheduled for release in 2006.

Atria Books to publish Grande’s first novel

“Across a Hundred Mountains,” the first novel of Reyna Grande (Kresge College, Creative Writing and Film & Digital Media, 1999), will be published by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, in June 2006. Told in a non-linear narrative, the story is the tale of two women whose journeys and lives become intertwined after they join forces in a Tijuana city jail. A Spanish version of the novel will be released in 2007.
Grande began the first version of the novel as part of a senior project at UCSC. However, she says the story changed completely between early drafts and the final version.
Born in Guerrero, Mexico, in 1975, Grande entered the United States illegally in 1985. In 2003, she was a fellow in the Emerging Voices Rosenthal Fellowship program.

Archer’s first feature film gets Sundance premiere

“Wild Tigers I Have Known,” the first feature film by Cam Archer (Merrill College, Film & Digital Media), will premiere at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, which will be held from January 19 to 29 in Park City, Utah. The coming-of-age film follows Logan, a 14-year-old junior high student struggling to find his place in a world where he often feels like an outsider. “Wild Tigers I Have Known” was one of 12 projects selected for the Sundance Institute’s January Screenwriter’s Lab in 2005. The film was shot in Santa Cruz in August 2005 by Aaron Platt (Crown College, Film & Digital Media, 1993).  Gus Van Sant is an executive producer.
This will be Archer’s third consecutive year on the screen at Sundance. His debut, the short film “Bobbycrush,” in 2004 was followed by the screening of another short, “American Fame: Part 2: Forgetting Jonathan Brandis,” in 2005. 
For more information, visit www.camarcher.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

History of Art & Visual Culture

Warren’s on-line diary documents major restoration

Kate Warren (Cowell College, Art History, 1993), the National Trust Collections Manager at Kingston Lacy in the United Kingdom, is overseeing a large restoration project that includes the conservation of Guido Reni’s “The Separation of Night and Day.” The large fresco, which was painted on the ceiling of a Bolognese palazzo around 1600, was purchased in 1841. The painting was removed from the palazzo ceiling, attached to a canvas support, and transported to Kingston Lacy where it initially hung in the dining room before being moved to the library ceiling. The painting, which was removed from the library ceiling in 1982 due to its poor condition, is being restored and will be reinstalled in January. Warren’s on-line diary of the restoration project can be accessed here.