SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Are you Russian, Romanian, Bulgarian or Ukrainian? Do you live in Sheepshead Bay or Brighton Beach and have long dreamed of being in a movie? Well, thanks to filmmaker David Gutnik, you can have your chance today to be an extra in his film “Original Love,” a story about a gangster’s son who is involved in a deep family crisis.

Gutnik, a Southern Brooklyn local who ran a successful Kick Starter campaign to get his movie funded, put out a call for extras and background actors on Craigslist. Here are the relevant details for those who want to participate.

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Eliza Hittman, Bottom Center, via Facebook

Eliza Hittman, a 33-year-old filmmaker and former Edward R. Murrow Graduate, is submitting her first feature-length film, It Felt Like Love, to the Sundance Film Festival. Her film, which is a coming-of-age story about a 14-year-old girl from Gravesend, also features a slew of current Murrow students and recent graduates, according to a story in the New York Daily News.

The film has a really cool premise, especially for all us Southern Brooklynites. It focuses on the impressionable and inexperienced Lila (Gina Piersanti) and her crush on an older, tattooed Rockaways boy named Sammy, played by Ronen Rubinstein. The film follows Lila’s awkward and dangerous obsession with Sammy, as well as her desire to experience sexuality no matter what the consequences.

Hittman, a native of Flatbush, went back to her stomping grounds at Murrow to find feature players and extras.

“I wanted to pass along an opportunity for students to try something that I was interested in when I was 17 or 18,” Hittman told the Daily News. “I hope this motivates them and instills in them what’s possible in this world.”

Locals in the film include 18-year-old Andrew McCord of Sheepshead Bay and 19-year-old Jesse Cordasco of Mill Basin.

“I feel pretty lucky. If [Hittman] had never reached out to the school, none of this would have happened,” McCord said to the Daily News.

I personally can’t wait to see this film, not just because I think its going to be good, but because its exciting to see all your favorite local spots emblazoned on the silver screen. It’s fun to be that annoying guy that leaps up and shouts, “I GOT PIZZA THERE! IT WASN’T THAT GREAT!”

Best of luck to the cast and crew at Sundance. Here’s hoping It Felt Like Love becomes a big, beautiful hit.

Filmmaker Max Bayarsky just uploaded this beautiful short film of Coney Island dubbed “Coney.”

According to Max, the film was shot on a Canon EOS Rebel T3i with the Tamron 17-50mm (non-VC) lens and the Nikon 105mm SLR manual focus lens. All I know is that it looks great and is deftly edited.

The appropriately old-timey song used is ”Home” by Henry Hall & The Gleneagles Hotel Band.

Cool stuff, Max. Keep ‘em coming!

Source: Greg McMullin/Flickr

On My Block Films launched the “Neighborhood Film Challenge” last week, a New York City film festival that invites residents of all five boroughs to construct a one- to five-minute short narrative or documentary film on their block, with a cast and crew of your real life neighbors.

Aspiring filmmakers and those with hidden filmmaking talent who are interested in participating can do so now. This may be your chance to make it big (or at least meet some neighbors)!

From August 1 through October 31, On My Block invites all New York City filmmakers to shoot and upload their videos onto the On My Block channel on Vimeo. During this time, the public may vote for any specific film by liking it on the site. The 30 films with the most likes will move on to be judged on November 6, and the 15 top-scoring films will be broadcasted in a film festival on November 17. Winners of the Best Narrative Film, Best Documentary Film, Best In Show will receive special awards.

So gather your neighbors together, come up with a quirky or original idea, and shoot a short film. Show a sense of community pride and creativity!

The “Neighborhood Film Challenge” gives neighbors the chance to collaborate and connect through the art of film creation. On My Block said they aspire to receive at least 50 films (10 in each borough) and unite 1000 New Yorkers, creating a sense of unity amongst the community.

Participants must sign up on the On My Block site and submit the required information BEFORE films are uploaded. Surf the site for more information regarding submission requirements as well as tips for writing and producing.

For additional inquiries, or to become a sponsor of On My Block, please contact Mary Crosse at mary@onmyblockfilms.com.

And remember, if you make a film, let us know so we can encourage fellow readers to vote for you!

Hey, look, it's all three Olsen sisters! (P.S. - We're horrible people.)

A few weeks ago we reported on the filming of the 2013 movie “Very Good Girls,” which will be shot in Brighton Beach over the next few weeks.

Producers for the film recently announced that stars Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen will not be going naked for the movies’ beach scene and will be holding a casting call for body doubles on Monday, July 16 in Brooklyn. The body doubles will be given clothing to cover their fronts, but will be seen “bare back all the way down, top and bottom” while on Brighton Beach.

According to producers, “submits must have great bodies and not be too sun tanned.”

So if you’ve got a stick-figure body and the skin tone of a vampire, this may be your ticket to the big time!

Elizabeth Olsen (Source: ElizabethOlsen.com)

Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning will be walking around the streets of Brighton Beach as Hollywood comes to Brooklyn with the filming of “Very Good Girls,” a movie all about two high school graduates, their summer, and the loss of their virginity.

Grab your binoculars and seek out those blonde heads! You may just see them if they don’t turn sideways!

The film, which started filming last week, is directed and written by Naomi Foner, according to IMDb.

The title “Very Good Girls,” seems to speak for itself. The movie involves two 18-year-old girls, played by Fanning and Olsen, who make a pact to lose their virginity during the summer after they graduate from high school. Yet both girls begin to fall in love with the same man, a street artist, and for the first time, their friendship is in jeopardy.

“This is a very real story of two best friends, about a real and very raw relationship, and the healthy way that young women interact with each other,” Olsen told the L.A. Times. Olsen said that this movie is more realistic than others involving teenage girls.

The film will be released in 2013. The precise date is still unknown.

The movie will be filmed in Brighton Beach over the next few weeks, so look out and see if you spot them filming!

Click to enlarge

The Turkish Cultural Center of Brooklyn will present a free screening of the film “Rumi: The Dance of Love,” January 21, 7:30 p.m. at TCCB headquarters, 245 Avenue U in Gravesend.

Here is a synopsis of the film, from an email we received:

The documentary centers on Rumi, the great philosopher and poet revered and loved by the masses all over the world for his ideas on universal peace, humanism, brotherhood and love transcending the centuries. Narrating the universal thought of Mevlana, whose ideas reach us from the 13th century embracing humanity with their themes of love and humanism, with a poetic and dramatic style, the documentary explains Rumi and the light of his oeuvre with the help of the ideas of love, samah and ney. “Rumi: The Dance of Love” presents the light of love of Rumi spreading from Anatolia with animated scenes, visual animations and a poetic, narrative style.

Here’s the trailer:

According to a rep from TCCB, “Rumi’s life and transformation provide true testimony and proof that people of all religions and backgrounds can live together in peace and harmony.”

To RSVP, click here. For more, call (347)-903-8875, email info@tccbrooklyn.org, or visit TCCB’s website, www.tccbrooklyn.org.

Charles Denson and Keith Suber at 2011 Coney Island Film Festival. Photo © Norman Blake

Keith Suber is the type of guy who can give you hope for a better world. An original Rollin’ 60’s Crip gang member, who led a perilous life of crime most of us cannot begin to imagine, Suber stars in “The Last Immortal,” a Charles Denson documentary, which originally premiered at the Coney Island Film Festival and was awarded Best Documentary Feature.

There will be a free screening of the award-winning film, presented by the Coney Island History Project, November 5, 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium at Liberation High School, 2865 West 19th Street at Mermaid Avenue.

Suber is a forty-five year old reformed Coney Island gang leader. After having been shot four times and paying a 10-year debt to society in a federal penitentiary, the 45-year-old Suber has turned his life around by founding an organization in Coney whose mission it is to put an end to deadly gun violence in his community.

According to the release:

Keith’s brothers “Blue” and the “Colonel” ran one of the 1970’s Coney gangs that the movie “The Warriors” was based on. This film, shot on the streets of Coney Island, shows the reality of gang violence, its influence on the Coney Island community, and Suber’s efforts at saving lives through youth mentorship, job training, and intervention.

After the 90-minute film, a question and answer session with Denson and Suber will follow. For more, go here, or to www.coneyislandhistory.org.

Sheepshead Bay is on Blu-ray now. Well, sort of.

Ben Hur, a film based on the book Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, is out on Blu-ray. When the film was initially released, it garnered praise from movie critics and won a total of 11 Oscars, including the Best Picture award at the 1959 Academy Awards.

But did you know the iconic Charlton Heston version was a remake? At least two film editions and a play preceded it. And parts of the 1907 version were filmed in Manhattan Beach and Sheepshead Bay – where local firefighters acted as the riders in the famed chariot race.

Directed by Sidney Olcott, a Canadian filmmaker, Frank Oakes Rose and others, it was only 15 minutes long due to it being produced without the permission of the author, Lew Wallace. He sued the film company for copyright infringement, setting the precedent that all movie studios are to get permission for adaptations of published work.

So take 15 minutes and watch the entire video, a bit of film history – and Sheepshead history.

Do you know of any other movies filmed in the Sheepshead Bay area? Let us know in the comments!

Last year's Coney Island Film Festival. Source: Norman Blake / Coney Island Film Festival

Sorry for the short notice on this one — the 11th Annual Coney Island Film Festival is happening today and through the weekend, September 23-25 at the Sideshows By The Seashore, Coney Island Museum and New York Aquarium in Coney Island.

You can purchase tickets at the Coney Island USA Gift Shop, 1208 Surf Avenue, September 23 from 6:00 to 11:00 p.m., September 24 from 12:00 to 11:00 p.m. and September 25 from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. It should be noted when you purchase your tickets that Programs 1, 2, 14 and the Sunday Screening Pass have sold out. All other programs and parties have tickets available.

For a comprehensive schedule of programming, including dates, times and event descriptions, go to the Coney Island Film Festival’s website.