Tim Sukits

Category: Movies

  • Slash and learn: The story of locally produced horror flick Mangrove Slasher II’s murder, and how the film is now rising from the grave

    Published September 15, 2010 Mangrove Slasher II Casting Call 2-5 p.m. Sat., Sept. 25, The Venue, 500 Central Ave., Sarasota, 539-0010 or mangroveslasher2.com, free. Back in late April when CL broke the story about Mangrove Slasher II, an independent horror movie being filmed around the Suncoast, the two young filmmakers involved had been working on the project for nearly seven months, and planned to wrap up shooting in May with a tentative mid-June release date. Little did co-directors Sean Haitz and Chris Potter know, that date would soon become far more tentative than they had expected. Potter, who Haitz brought on as co-director after meeting him toward the start of production, was arrested on May 13. According to various news reports Manatee High School, where Potter had worked as a television production instructor for four years, informed him that they would not be renewing his contract, and he later told a fellow teacher that he was going to bring a gun to an upcoming faculty event. This prompted the Bradenton Police Department to confront Potter in the school’s parking lot, where they found Roxycodone pills in his possession. According to the BPD, an investigation revealed Potter had been pawning equipment from the school’s audio and visual department since January to pay for his prescription drug addiction. (more…)

  • Absolutely fabulous: The 12th Annual LGBT Film Fest covers the full spectrum of gay life

    Published August 18, 2010 The 12th Annual LGBT Film Festival runs 2-10 p.m. Sat., Aug. 21 and Sun., Aug. 22, Burns Court Cinemas, 506 Burns Court, Sarasota, 955-3456 or filmsociety.org, individual tickets $9 non-members, $6 members; Festival Passes $45 non-members, $30 members; visit website for full film schedule and more information. The movies being featured at The Fabulous LGBT Film Festival represent a showcase of the LGBT community’s accomplishments throughout history, as well as the struggles they still endure. All of the films highlight different aspects of the gay rights movement, making the festival a well-rounded portrait of what has now become the civil rights movement of our time. Issues surrounding cultural discrimination will be brought to light in two documentaries that show the battle lines through the eyes of those in the fight. 8: The Mormon Proposition pulls back the curtain on the secretive, decades-long campaign against gay rights that has existed within the Mormon religion. Centered around Utah and California, the film shows the Morman church’s direct involvement in the promotion and passage of California’s Proposition 8, the highest-funded social ballot issue in U.S. history, and how they have continued to wage spiritual warfare against marriage equality fought with money and lies. On These Shoulders We Stand focuses on some of the O.G.s of the Los Angeles LGBT community and chronicles gay life in L.A. from the ’50s to the ’90s, showing the city’s major role in gay history. (more…)

  • Once upon a time: Anthony Paull and Something Spilled Productions represent SRQ at this year’s LGBT Film Festival.

    Published August 18, 2010 This weekend Burns Court Cinemas invites Sarasota to celebrate diversity with The Fabulous LGBT Film Festival, a two-day event featuring six feature-length films, four opening with a short by local filmmaker and writer Anthony Paull. The Once and Future Me is Paull’s directing debut and the second short he’s written and filmed in Sarasota through Something Spilled Productions, which Paull started with locals Steve Lesser and Heather Manley. The company was named after an incident that happened while Manley and Paull were covering the Sundance Film Festival. Paull had spilled some wine during an after party at a swanky house and had told the maid, “Something spilled over there.” The first film to emerge from Something Spilled was a short called The Green, Green Heart, which screened at the Delray Beach Film Festival. A promising outcome for such a low budget project, the trio decided to up the ante and hired a professional cinematographer and assistant director for The Once and Future Me. “It looks hot,” says Paull, “I mean, compared to our first film? Our first film was like a porno.” (more…)

  • War is hell: Award-winning documentary Restrepo sends viewers on a deployment to the deadliest place in Afghanistan

    Published August 4, 2010 The treacherous terrain of the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan is regarded throughout the U.S. military as one of the most dangerous posts an American soldier can be assigned. Long-time war journalists Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Jungermake their directing debuts with a documentary that follows Second Platoon, Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, as they struggle through a one-year deployment in this hostile land. Restrepo, which took the Grand Jury Prize at this year’sSundance Film Festival, focuses on a remote 15-man outpost that the platoon named in honor of their medic, PFC Juan “Doc” Restrepo, who was killed in action. From 150 hours of footage shot over ten months — combat, boredom, humor, terror, labor and death — comes 94 minutes of life at war. CL’s Tim Sukits conducted phone interviews with the two co-directors of the documentary, which opens at Burns Court Cinema this Fri., Aug. 6. How did this whole project get underway? Hetherington: “Well, Sebastian had the idea to follow a platoon of soldiers. He was interested in the G.I.s in [Second Platoon, Battle Company] and so he met that platoon in Kabul and they were going to Korengal. He talked to me about it and we teamed up and went up there, so it was pretty organic. We initially went together then we started to tag team it, so each of us had different times.” (more…)
  • Diamond in the rough: The producers of Beautiful Noise are making Suncoast film production a top priority

    Diamond in the rough: The producers of Beautiful Noise are making Suncoast film production a top priority

    Published July 21, 2010 Visit beautifulnoisethemovie.com for more more information. When Steve Tatone hit his 50th birthday after a successful 30-year career as a concert promoter, he decided to take his life in a different direction. He had always had an itch to make movies, but had never taken the time. “I knew that at that age the only way I could break into the industry was through writing,” he says. “So I took a year and literally broke away from my fairly lucrative promotion business.” That one year turned into five and Tatone will soon see his second script, a true story of rise, fall and redemption based on a Boston Bruins hockey star from the ’70s named Derek Sanderson, released as a $25 million Hollywood production. Not bad for a first attempt at screenwriting. But it’s Tatone’s current production, a contemporary musical called Beautiful Noise, that is lining up to be highly beneficial for Sarasota. That’s the result of another decision: “I was walking the beach and it just came to me — ‘Why not make it yourself?’ So, I decided then and there we’re going to start our company and I don’t care if I have to shoot it with my little Panasonic or if I can find people to help me make it into a bigger thing, I’m going to make this movie and all the movies I write here.” (more…)

  • The horror film, the horror film: On the set of the eminently quotable Mangrove Slasher II

    Published April 28, 2010

    “DID YOU KNOW IT WAS ILLEGAL TO CUT DOWN THESE MANGROVES?”: The Mangrove Slasher II trailer

    After ducking out of an Emerson Point Preserve beach party, a young couple leans against a tree to make out. But as things get hot and heavy, a dark figure lurks in the muddy mangrove brush behind them. A sinister-looking man with filthy bloodstained overhauls emerges from the muck and slowly approaches the two unsuspecting teens. The metallic sching sound of two machete blades sliding across each other splits the air, followed by a shrill scream and a splatter of blood on the tree bark. The male victim thuds to the ground, holding his slit neck; the female gags as the killer grabs her throat. “Cut!” yells Sean Haitz, turning to his partner Chris Potter to review the footage. “That was perfect.” (more…)